Gerbert Castus

Gerbert Castus monument in front of the parish church of St. Vitus (Visbek) : It depicts the Abbot Gerbert Castus, the priest Folcard and a companion of the two, Count Emmig.

Gerbert (Castus) (* before 784; † after 819 (?)) Was a pupil of Saint Liudger and missionary of the Saxons in Lerigau , Hasegau and Venkigau as well as in northern Dersagau .

biography

Historically secured

Gerbert's appearance in the years 784 and 819 (?) Is attested in writing:

In 784 Liudger, Apostle of the Frisians , threatened by unrest in Friesland in his work as a missionary , went to Rome and Montecassino for two and a half years . He was accompanied on his journey by Gerbert, who was given the nickname "Castus" ("the chaste").

A document from the Werden Abbey shows that Castus was the founder of a Benedictine monastery in Lerigau, the Visbek Abbey .

By deed dated 1 September 819 Emperor to Louis the Pious the mission cell Visbek ( "cellula fiscbechi") of the Castus and under him churches have given complete freedom from all duties and its own jurisdiction. However, this document is now regarded as a total forgery from the late 10th century. In 855, by order of Ludwig the German , the Visbek Abbey became the property of the Corvey Monastery .

assumptions

Gerbert was probably a member of the Westphalian clan , which also included the Saxon leader Widukind . Christianized early on , he probably left his homeland in 782 at the latest due to the resistance of the pagan Saxons to join Liudger. In order to create an economic basis for the Werden monastery, which was founded in 799, Gerbert Castus is said to have donated lands to this monastery from his fund, including in Calveslage .

In the 9th century he returned to his homeland to develop Visbek into an abbey from which the Lerigau was Christianized. According to the prevailing opinion, Gerbert Castus and his companions also Christianized the north of the Dersagau ( Lohne ) as well as the Hasegau ( Löningen ) and parts of the Venkigau ( Freren ).

effect

Abbot Gerbert Castus and his two companions as steles in the middle of the Döller Damm roundabout / bypass road in Visbek

The missionary work of the Lerigau and the adjacent areas by Abbot Gerbert Castus, also known as the Apostle of the Oldenburger Münsterland , continues to this day.

Some streets, schools and other facilities are named after Gerbert Castus, including the Gerbert School in Visbek. In 1984 a bronze sculpture by the Osnabrück cathedral sculptor Willi Witte was erected in front of the parish church of St. Vitus in Visbek. It represents the abbot Gerbert Castus, the priest Folcard (a companion of the missionary and first bishop of Bremen Willehad ) and a companion of the two, the count Emmig. Gerbert Castus and his two companions also adorn the center of the Döller Damm roundabout on the bypass road in Visbek as steles.

In 2009 a children's musical about Gerbert Castus was performed in Visbek .

In the town hall of Großenkneten since 2011, pilgrimage tours “on the paths of Abbot Gerbert Castus” have been organized several times a year as a “journey through time through the Christian heritage”. The Visbek missionary cell (St. Vitus), the former church in Westerstedi ( Westerburg ), the place of pilgrimage Bethen , the Marienkirche in Wardenburg and the only basilica in the Oldenburg region , the Alexander church in Wildeshausen are visited.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints: Article "Folkard"
2. ↑ Landesbibliothek Oldenburg: Bio-Handbuch UZ p. 790 p. (pdf p. 29 p .; 11.0 MB)
3. ↑ Kölzer, Theo: The documents of Ludwig the Pious for Halberstadt (BM2 535) and Visbek (BM2 702) - a serious misunderstanding , in: Archiv für Diplomatik 58 (2012) pp. 103–123 (here: pp. 119–121) .
4. ↑ Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg. Article “Gerbert” (PDF; 7.7 MB) Oldenburg: Isensee, 1992. P. 230ff.
5. ↑ Uwe Büssing: 890 - First documentary mention of Calveslage ( Memento from May 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed from the web archive on October 3, 2017.
6. ↑ Catholic parish of St. Gertrud Lohne: The historical development of the parish of Lohne ( Memento of the original from February 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Michael Bönte: Abbot Gerbert Castus - A missionary from the second row. Church site ((former) online newspaper of the Münster diocese). October 29, 2004 ( Memento of May 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved from the web archive on October 3, 2017.
8. ↑ Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints: Article "Folkard"
9. ↑ Landesbibliothek Oldenburg: Bio-Handbuch UZ p. 790 p. (pdf p. 29 p .; 11.0 MB)
10. ↑ Vicar von Visbek wrote a children's musical. The idea came from McDonald's: Gerbert for children . Church site (online newspaper for the diocese of Münster) . March 27, 2009
11. ↑ Municipality Großenkneten: Castusweg . Retrieved October 3, 2017.

literature

• Carl Ludwig Niemann: The Abbot Castus. The introduction of Christianity in Lerigau . In: Yearbook for the history of the Duchy of Oldenburg . Vol. 4. 1895. pp. 37-43 ( online )
• Bernhard Brockmann: 1175 years Visbek 819 - 1994. Visbek Abbey . Vechta 1994
• Bernhard Brockmann: The Christianization of the Oldenburger Münsterland. Abbot Gerbert-Castus in his day . Vechta 1996 ( ISBN 3-929358-51-4 )