Samuel of Worms

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Samuel von Worms , also Samuel von Lorsch (* around 785; † February 7, 857 in Lorsch ) was Bishop of Worms , abbot of the imperial monastery Lorsch and founder of the Cyriakus monastery in Worms-Neuhausen .

Live and act

According to the Lorsch annals, Samuel grew up in the convent there from childhood. Later he came to the Fulda Monastery for further training , where he made friends with the later Archbishop of Mainz, Rhabanus Maurus . To complete their studies, both finally stayed at the Saint-Martin de Tours monastery with the famous Alcuin († 804), who was considered the greatest scholar of his time.

Since 837, Samuel has been documented as abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Lorsch. According to Johann Friedrich Schannat , in his "Historia episcopatus Wormatiensis" (1734), from 841 he was also Bishop of Worms. Bishop Samuel acquired the relics of St. Cyriacus , one of the highly venerated 14 helpers , from Rome and brought them to the St. Dionysius Church in Worms-Neuhausen , which soon received the new saint as its patron and was connected to a collegiate foundation in 847 . This made it a center of pilgrimage and the Cyriakus monastery was created .

In the same year the Archbishop of Mainz, Rhabanus Maurus, held a pastoral synod in which Bishop Samuel also took part. That synod passed forward-looking, almost modern-looking decisions, in which Samuel von Worms, as a friend of the initiator Rhabanus Maurus, certainly played a decisive role. For example, it was reminded that every person and sex should be given due honor according to the command of scriptures. Every bishop should have a collection of homilies and it should be clearly translated so that all could understand what is being preached. The king must not allow the poor to be oppressed and the bishops have a duty to care for them. Those who accept gifts in order to bend the law exclude themselves from the kingdom of God. If someone who was executed for an offense has honestly confessed his sins, he should be treated like anyone else, i.e. bring his body to church and celebrate masses for him. In all things, faith remains necessary and decisive, but without works resulting from it, it is dead.

Rhabanus Maurus also dedicated several friendly verses to his childhood friend Samuel, which have been handed down, as well as his 30-volume commentary on the Pauline letters.

Bishop Samuel completely renovated the Worms Cathedral , which could possibly be related to a stronger earthquake that shook Wormsgau in 838.

Death and grave

During a visit to the Lorsch monastery, the bishop suffered a "fatal illness", as it is called in the Lorsch annals , and he died there on February 7, 857 (according to other sources a year later). He was buried in the Lorsch church, near the entrance. Johann Friedrich Schannat passed on to us the text of the epitaph, as well as the later memorial message in the church of the Cyriakus monastery in Worms-Neuhausen, where his remains were transferred by Bishop Eberhard I in 1273. After the destruction of the Cyriakus pen in 1460, when it was rebuilt in 1479, Samuel's lead coffin was found in the rubble and placed there again. In 1793 the French profaned the Cyriakus Church in Neuhausen and used it as a hospital. When they cleared the church, the founder's grave was discovered. They hid the bones and buried them in a box in the church floor. Shortly afterwards, the retreating French set fire to the entire complex, burned it to ruin and completely disappeared. Since then, Bishop Samuel's bones have been lost.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the youth in the Lorsch monastery
  2. ↑ On Bishop Samuel's training in Fulda and Tours
  3. ↑ On the acquisition of the Cyriac relics from Rome
  4. ^ About the Mainz Synod of 847 and its resolutions
  5. ↑ dedicating the comments from Paul Rhrabanus Maurus Samuel of Worms
  6. ↑ Source on the cathedral renovation by Bishop Samuel
  7. ↑ Samuel's tomb in Lorsch
  8. ↑ On the transfer of Bishop Samuel to Worms
  9. ↑ To the transfer of Samuel's remains to Worms-Neuhausen
  10. ^ Carl JH Villinger: Contributions to the history of the St. Cyriakusstiftes zu Neuhausen in Worms (= Der Wormsgau. Supplement. 15, ISSN  0342-426X ). Verlag Stadtbibliothek Worms, Worms 1955, pp. 69–70 and 107.
predecessor Office successor
Fulko Bishop of Worms
841–857 		Gunzo
personal data
SURNAME Samuel of Worms
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Samuel von Lorsch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Worms bishop and abbot of the imperial monastery of Lorsch
DATE OF BIRTH at 785
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 857
Place of death Lorsch