Johannes Rode (Abbot)

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Johannes Rode (* around 1385 in Trier ; † December 1, 1439 in Montabaur ) was the official of the Trier diocese , prior of the Carthusian monastery of St. Alban in Trier and from 1421 until his death abbot of the Benedictine abbey of St. Matthias in Trier. He was a leading exponent of the Benedictine reform movement of his time.

Life

Rode came from a middle-class family in Trier . The father was a merchant and held the office of church master at St. Gangolf . Later, the parents supported their son in the economic renovation of St. Matthias Abbey.

Johannes Rode studied in Paris and from 1404 in Heidelberg , where he obtained the academic degrees at the artistic , theological and canonical faculties and was rector in 1413 . He received benefices at the cathedral of Metz and at several churches in Trier and the surrounding area. In 1416 Archbishop Werner von Falkenstein made him official for the upper monastery - the southwest half with the episcopal city - of the Archbishopric of Trier . Shortly thereafter, Rode entered the Carthusian monastery of St. Alban in Trier, sold his property in favor of the monastery and in 1417 took the vows of the order . He became prior as early as 1419. His address to the chapter of the order in the Grande Chartreuse on April 21, 1421 on Hld 1,4  EU is recorded .

At this point in time, the new Archbishop Otto von Ziegenhain , a zealous reformer inspired by the Council of Constance , had already obtained the papal dispensation to make the Carthusian Prior Benedictine Abbot. On July 6, 1421, Rode was introduced as abbot of the important monastery with the Matthias grave and from then on played a leading role in the order. On the basis of the reform decisions of Petershausen in 1417, he carried out monastery visions . In St. Matthias he arranged the economic situation, paid off the accumulated debts and renewed spiritual discipline. In this activity, which was not without resistance, he had the support of the archbishop - until he died in October 1430.

The double election and the party dispute over Otto's successor also claimed Rode and hindered the reform work. In this context he was also sent to the Council of Constance, which brought him important contacts and suggestions for the continuation of his actual concern, the monastery reform. He formulated his experiences and goals in several writings, especially in the Consuetudines et observantiae monasteriorum Sancti Mathiae et Sancti Maximini Treverensium . In 1434 he was appointed general visitator of the Benedictine monasteries in the Trier-Cologne church province. In the same year he met the Bursfeld Abbot Johann Dederoth , to whom he gave important impulses for the development of the Bursfeld Congregation and four reform-minded monks as employees.

Rode's visitation authority was extended to the Mainz church province. On June 25, 1436 he gave a speech to the Mainz abbot chapter about “good administration of an abbot” ( De bono regimine abbatis ) , which was soon to be widely known . The following years brought more visitation trips. On Trinity Sunday of 1437 he had his statutes introduced in the Marienberg monastery near Boppard , which was subordinate to the St. Matthias Abbey, as the first German Benedictine monastery. In August 1439 he attended the Reichstag in Mainz, accompanied by Archbishop Jakob von Sierck .

Johannes Rode died of the plague on December 1, 1439 on a trip to Montabaur . He was buried in his Abbey Church of St. Matthias.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Volk: Boppard in the Middle Ages . In: Heinz E. Missling (Ed.): Boppard. History of a city on the Middle Rhine. First volume. From the early days to the end of the electoral rule . Dausner Verlag, Boppard 1997, ISBN 3-930051-04-4 , p. 338-348 .
  2. ↑ Becker: Germania Sacra. P. 620; Haarländer: NDB.  : 3rd of December
personal data
SURNAME Rode, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Abbot of St. Matthias Trier, monastery reformer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1385
PLACE OF BIRTH trier
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1439
Place of death Montabaur