Meinhard von Segeberg

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Meinhard von Segeberg (* around 1130 to 1140; † August 14 or October 11-12, 1196 ) was the first bishop of Livonia in Uexküll . At the end of the 14th century his remains were buried in the Marian Cathedral of Riga.

Prehistory of the mission in Livonia

Archbishop Adalbert von Bremen- Hamburg had appointed Hiltin, the abbot of the Thuringian monastery Goseck , as sermon bishop for Livonia based in Birka , Sweden, due to his missionary successes in Sweden . This first mission attempt for Livonia lasted only from 1062 to 1064. Continuing this mission was impossible because of the difficulties with the turning points on the southern Baltic coast.

Meinhard's mission

Meinhard was brought up to be canon in the Augustinian monastery in Segeberg under the impression of the Holstein missionary work of Vizelin and his successor, Bishop Gerold . In 1184 he left the Segeberg monastery to evangelize the Baltic Finnish Livs . Meinhard was between 50 and 60 years old when he began his mission. According to the description of Heinrich's Chronicle of Latvia , one can assume that Meinhard basically had a peaceful missionary intention. His missionary methods were shaped more by the word than by violence. Meinhard built a wooden church in Üxküll in the year of his arrival in 1184. With the consent of the Grand Duke of Polotsk , he had the first stone castle of Livonia built in Üxküll upstream of the Daugava by stonemasons and builders from Gotland in 1185 . In the following year he also had a castle built in Holme. The castles served the Livonians as protection from external attacks, but also changed the local ruling structure. Only a fifth of the castle in Üxküll was in Meinhard's possession. In 1186 Meinhard was ordained the first bishop of Livonia by Archbishop Hartwig II of Bremen (1184–1207), was subordinate to the Archdiocese of Bremen and was in his office in 1188 by Pope Clement III. approved. Soon afterwards he began his return journey to Üxküll, this time accompanied by the Cistercian Theodorich von Treyden , with whom the beginning of the sword mission in Livonia is often equated. Shortly before Meinhard's death, the Livs asked for a successor. This was the unsuccessful Cistercian abbot Berthold . After his death in the Battle of the Crusaders on the site of today's Riga, Albert von Buxthoeven took over the diocese in 1199 . It was only Albert von Buxthoeven who succeeded in Christianizing Livonia as a Catholic . In 1993 Meinhard was canonized by Pope John Paul II .

Sources

The sources of Meinhard are poor. Apart from four documents from the Livonian document book, Meinhard's work only mention or touch on the Epistola Sidonis , the Chronica des Alberich von Troisfontaines and the Livonian rhyming chronicle . Only the Chronica Slavorum Arnold von Lübeck and the Chronicon Henrici Livoniae give more precise information about Meinhard's work . Although the Chronica Slavorum is not free from errors in its information on Meinhard and the Livonian landscape, the two chapters of the 7th book that are dedicated to Meinhard seem less conceptualized and more authentic than the descriptions in the Chronicle of Heinrich of Latvia. Heinrich's chronicle, in turn, is particularly reliable in its chronology and in its description of the events and is the main source of Meinhard's work. Since Heinrich was still a child when Meinhard died, he most likely did not know him personally. The Chronicle of Henry of Latvia is considered to be strongly conceptualized, which can a. in describing Meinhard's life path as a path of suffering.

Research Discussion

There are mostly opinions that describe Meinhard as a peaceful missionary. Examples include Norbert Angermann , Ralph Tuchtenhagen , Wolfgang Froese and Haralds Biezais . Criticism of this picture can be found above all in recent research, such as Raoul Zühlke and Anti Selart .

canonization

Meinhard von Segeberg was canonized by Pope John Paul II on September 8, 1993 as "the messenger of faith from Latvia" .

swell

  • Heinrich of Latvia : Chronicon Livoniae. In: Leonid Arbusow and Albert Bauer (eds.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 31: Heinrichs Livländische Chronik (Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae). Hanover 1955, pp. 1–7 (Monumenta Germaniae Historica; digitized version)
  • Albrici monachi Triumfontium Chronicon, ed. von Scheffer-Boichorst, Paul (MGH SS 23), Hannover, 1874, pp. 631-950
  • Arnoldi abbatis Lubescensis Chronica, ed. von Lappenberg, Johannes M. (MGH SS (in Folio)), Hannover, 1869, pp. 100–250
  • Epistola Sedonis, ed. von Schmeidler, Bernhard (MGH SS rer. Germ. [32]), Hannover, 1937, pp. 236–245
  • Livonian rhyming chronicle, ed. von Meyer, Leo, Paderborn, 1876
  • The Lippiflorium. A Westphalian hero poem from the thirteenth century. Latin and German with explanations, edit. von Althof, Herman, Leipzig 1900
  • Liv-, Esth- and Curländisches Urkundenbuch and Regesten, ed. von Bunge, Friedrich Georg u. a., Reveal u. a., 1853/1

literature

annotation

  1. ↑ Meinhard built a wooden church in Üxküll in the year of his arrival in 1184.
  2. ↑ For the entire section on assessing the source situation in Meinhard see: Raoul Zühlke: Bishop Meinhard von Üxküll: A peaceful missionary? Approaches to re-evaluation. A workshop report based on sources. In: Hansische Geschichtsblätter, ed. from the Hanseatic History Association. Volume 127, 2009, pp. 103–110
  3. ^ Saints proclaimed during the Pontificate of John Paul II , Vatican homepage, accessed on July 16, 2012.
predecessor Office successor
--- Bishop of Uexküll
1186–1196 		Berthold
personal data
SURNAME Meinhard von Segeberg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bishop of Livonia
DATE OF BIRTH between 1130 and 1140
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 1196 or October 11, 1196 or October 12, 1196