Poppo from Stablo

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. Poppo of Stablo, 17th century engraving

Poppo von Stablo (* 978 in Deinze ; † January 21, 1048 in Marchiennes ) was an abbot, canonized in 1624 , of a total of 17 abbeys, some of which were directly imperial, and a representative of the Cluniac monastery reform .

Life

Poppo grew up as the only child of a noble family in Flanders . As early as 978, his father Tizekinus had died fighting the King of France. The son initially received the education of a typical nobleman of his time. Poppo went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 1000 and came back to Rome in 1005 .

An awakening experience led him to enter the Saint-Remi monastery in Reims as a Benedictine in 1005 . In 1008 he was appointed to the Saint-Vanne monastery in Verdun by Richard von Saint-Vanne . In 1013 he was promoted to prior of the Abbey of Saint-Vaast in Arras at the instigation of his teacher Richard of St. Vanne . After he got to know Emperor Heinrich II , the latter appointed him abbot in the sister monasteries of Stablo and Malmedy in 1020 . In 1023 he became abbot of the St. Maximin Abbey in Trier.

In order to reform monastic life and return it to its origins, Poppo von Stablo designed his own rule for his monasteries. Therefore, between 1028 and 1037, Emperor Konrad II entrusted him with the supervision of the imperial abbeys of Echternach , Saint-Ghislain , Hersfeld , Weißenburg , Sankt Gallen and Limburg near Bad Dürkheim . At the mediation of Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne , Poppo also founded the Brauweiler Abbey in 1024 . Most recently, he was responsible for 17 important monasteries. In addition to his ecclesiastical offices, he was an advisor to Heinrich II and Konrad II and was also appointed by them as an envoy. Under Henry III. However, he lost lasting influence.

Poppo von Stablo drove forward the reform in the monasteries under his control, often against the resistance of the monks. After the death of Conrad II, the monastery reform was no longer supported by the emperor as a means against the secularization of the convents, which meant that it could not achieve sustainable success in the Holy Roman Empire . Personally, Abbot Poppo was an ascetic and, above all, an excellent organizer.

The Benedictine died on a trip he was making because of his reform efforts. He was buried in the Stablo monastery; On the occasion of the canonization in 1624, the grave was opened and the bones were raised. Today the relics are in a silver shrine in the parish church of Stavelot (Stablo).

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Poppo from Stablo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Poppo van Deinze
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catholic saint and abbot
DATE OF BIRTH 978
PLACE OF BIRTH Deinze
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1048
Place of death Marchiennes