Diego de Acebo

Saint Diego de Acebo , also: Didactus von Azevedo , Diego von Osma , († December 30, 1207 in Osma ) was a Cistercian monk and from 1201 to 1207 Bishop of Osma in Castile (in today's Spain ).

Diego tried to improve pastoral care after taking office as prior and bishop . Together with his subprior Domingo de Guzmán (later Saint Dominic ), he traveled to Denmark ( ad marchias daciae ) in 1203 at the instigation of King Alfonso VIII of Castile , in order to woo a wife for the king's son, Crown Prince Ferdinand . A second trip in this mission was unsuccessful because the bride had passed away.

On these trips, Diego and Dominic were confronted with various rampant heresies , especially with that of the Cathars from the south of France . Due to the great success of this heresy, the two clergy saw a need for action. After a meeting with Pope Innocent III. In Rome in 1206 the Pope asked them to preach against the Cathars together with the papal legate Pierre de Castelnau in Occitania (southern France). The peculiarity of this mission was that the Catholic clergy should not appear in rich regalia , but, like the heretics themselves, in all simplicity and simplicity. In this way they were able to counteract the accusation of ostentatiousness and increase their own credibility towards the common people. Diego worked in this way with Dominic until 1207, supported by the Cistercian order and the Bishop of Toulouse, Folquet de Marseille . In Prouille they founded a convent for Cathar women willing to convert (initially under the rule of the Cistercians). Prouille later remained an important center of Dominic's missionary attempts.

However, due to an instruction from Pope Innocent III. return to Osma , as described by Peter von Vaux-de-Cernay :

Anno Verbi incarnati M ° CC ° VI °, Oxomensis episcopus, Diegus nomine, vir magnus et magnifice extollendus, ad curiam Romanam accessit, summo desiderio desiderans episcopatum suum resignare, quo posset liberius ad paganos causa predicandi Christi evangelium se transferre; sed dominus papa Innocentius noluit acquiescere desiderio viri sancti, immo precepit ei ut ad sedem propriam remearet.

In the year of the Incarnate Word 1206, the bishop of Osma named Diego, a great and praiseworthy man, came to the Roman Curia and expressed his greatest desire to renounce his episcopate so that he could devote himself all the more freely to the cause, the gospel of Christ to preach to the Gentiles; but the Lord Pope Innocent did not want to fulfill the wish of the holy man, but instructed him to remain at his bishopric.

Diego thus returned to the Osma diocese, which was subordinate to him , and died shortly afterwards in 1207. He was then canonized.

The sermon mission against the Cathars was continued by Dominic. The Dominican Order, later named after him, arose from it .

literature

• Petri Vallium Sarnaii monachi Hystoria Albigensis II.20-21, ed. by Pascal GUÉBIN and Ernest LYON, Vol. 1, Paris 1926 (Société d'Histoire de France 412), pp. 21–24,

Web links

• the beginnings of the Dominican Order in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
• Biography of Diego in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
• A short history of the Order of Preachers ( Memento from February 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive )