Egino of Verona

Apse of St. Peter and Paul (Reichenau-Niederzell) ; Egino's grave slab in the floor

Egino von Verona (* 8th century; † February 27, 802 on the island of Reichenau ) was bishop of Verona from 780 (?) To 799 .

Life

Egino came from one of the leading Alemannic families. Some indications point to an Ahalolfingian origin. It is possible that he was related to Hildegard , the second wife of Charlemagne . In any case, he was one of Karl's confidants and political supporters. After the Frankish conquest of the Longobard Empire in 774, Egino was installed as the new Carolingian bishop of Verona , probably in 780 . The fact that the Reichenau Benedictine Radolt accompanied him there and that he himself later chose Reichenau as a retreat indicates an early connection, perhaps belonging to the monastery.

Egino's term of office in Verona does not seem to have been free of conflict and his resignation was not just a resignation for reasons of age. The background is likely to have been the incipient conflict between the independent Charles Pippin of Italy and his father. As a result, Egino was deprived of support as a dedicated man of Charles. In 799 he moved into the richly furnished Cella St. Peter and Paul on the western tip of Reichenau, which he founded with the permission of Abbot Waldo , which cannot have happened without years of preparation. Radolt only succeeded him in Verona after a Sedis vacancy of more than two years.

After his death in 802 Egino was buried in the church he had founded. He received the burial place in the choir of today's Romanesque collegiate church in the 12th century.

meaning

Egino's memory lives on primarily through its foundation on the Reichenau. In addition, his name is associated with a group of valuable northern Italian manuscripts, the Egino group , which the bishop took with him when he left Verona for the Reichenau. The most important of these is the Egino homily , a homily with rich book illumination , which Egino apparently put together on the personal commission of Charles. Egino is one of the bearers of the so-called Carolingian Renaissance and is a blessed of the Catholic Church.

literature

• Walter Berschin , Alfons Zettler: Egino von Verona: the founder of Reichenau-Niederzell (799) , Reichenauer Texte und Bilder 8, Stuttgart 1999
• Frank Hoffmann, Wolfgang Erdmann, Alfred Czarnetzki, Rolf Rottländer: The grave of Bishop Egino of Verona in St. Peter and Paul zu Reichenau-Niederzell , in: Helmut Maurer (ed.): The Reichenau Abbey. New contributions to the history and culture of the island monastery , Sigmaringen 1974, pp. 545–575
• Ekkart Sauser:  Egino of Verona. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 18, Bautz, Herzberg 2001, ISBN 3-88309-086-7 , Sp. 373-374.
• Karl Schmid:  Egino. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 338 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Alfons Zettler: The Carolingian bishops of Verona I. Studies on Bishop Egino († 802) , in: Sebastian Brather , Dieter Geuenich , Christoph Huth (eds.): Historia archaeologica. Festschrift for Heiko Steuer on his 70th birthday , Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-022337-8 , pp. 363–388
• Thomas Zotz: Egino, Bishop of Verona . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 3, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-7608-8903-4 , Sp. 1612.

Web links

• Literature on Egino in the OPAC of the Regesta Imperii