Heribert (Münsterschwarzach)

Heribert († April 14, 1015 ) was the second abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Münsterschwarzach from 1013 to 1015 after the time of the commendate abbot . In the literature he is sometimes equated with the eponymous bishop of Eichstätt , but only a relationship between the two is likely.

Münsterschwarzach before Heribert

Before Heribert took office as abbot in Münsterschwarzach, the Main Abbey already had a long and eventful history behind it. Initially, their buildings served a women's convent as a monastery, which received its members from the East Franconian aristocratic families and was promoted accordingly by them, above all by the Mattons . The women's convent dissolved in 877 and the Mattons' claims to the properties were retained.

In the 10th century a dispute arose between the now powerful bishops of Würzburg and the noble family. In the meantime, a men's monastery had emerged on the Schwarzach. The dispute only ended at the beginning of the 11th century, when Bishop Heinrich von Würzburg appointed Abbot Alapold as “his” abbot in the monastery. He began to repopulate the empty buildings and to promote monastic life under the sign of the Gorz reform.

Life

Little is known about the abbot's origins and youth. Heribert probably studied at the cathedral school in the episcopal city of Würzburg . Here he was discovered by Bishop Heinrich I and appointed to the Main Abbey in Münsterschwarzach. He headed the monastery as the seventh abbot and took over the reform ideas of his predecessor Alapold in his short term of office. At the same time he tried to set his own accents, but failed because of the resistance of the convention.

The only innovation in his term of office was the reform of the liturgy . Heribert introduced the All Saints hymn "Omnes superni ordines" into the monastery chants. There are various possible explanations about his disappearance from the sources: For Gabriel Vogt, Heribert was forced to resign from the divided convent and then headed the diocese of Eichstätt. According to Heinrich Wagner, Heribert died on April 14, 1015, as also mentioned in the Michelsberg monastery book of the dead.

literature

• Johannes Mahr: Münsterschwarzach. 1200 years of a Franconian abbey . Münsterschwarzach 2002.
• Leo Trunk: The Abbots of Münsterschwarzach. A comparative overview . In: Pirmin Hugger (Ed.): Magna Gratia. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey Church 1938-1988 . Münsterschwarzach 1988.
• Gabriel Vogt: On the early history of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey . Volkach 1980.
• Heinrich Wagner: The abbots of Megingaudshausen and Münsterschwarzach in the Middle Ages . In: Pirmin Hugger (Ed.): Magna Gratia. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey Church 1938-1988 . Münsterschwarzach 1988.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ While Heinrich Wagner (p. 99) gives this year, some sources see the year 1016 as the year of death. Compare: Trunk, Leo: The Abbots of Münsterschwarzach . P. 155.
2. ↑ Heinrich Wagner (p. 99) assumes the year 1013 was the abbot's inaugural year. Other sources point to the year 1014.
3. ↑ See: Vogt, Gabriel: On the early history of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey . P. 65.
4. ↑ Mahr, Johannes: Münsterschwarzach. 1200 years of a Franconian abbey . P. 12.
5. ^ Wagner, Heinrich: The abbots of Münsterschwarzach in the Middle Ages . P. 99.

predecessor	Office	successor
Alapold	Abbot of Münsterschwarzach 1013-1015	Walther I.