Theoger of Sankt Georgen

Theoger (* around 1050; † April 29, 1121 in Cluny ; also Dietger ) was prior of the Reichenbach monastery , abbot of the Saint Georgen monastery in the Black Forest , monastery reformer and bishop of Metz .

Live and act

Origin and entry into monastic life

A vita , the Vita Theogeri , which the monk and librarian Wolfger vonprüfunging wrote around the middle of the 12th century under the abbot Erbo I (1121–1162) of the convent, teaches about Theoger's life .

Theoger, born around the middle of the 11th century, came - according to the vita - from a ministerial background. He was probably related to powerful noble families in the Alsatian - Lorraine region, including the Counts of Metz and those of Lützelburg . Theoger is said to have received his spiritual training under the famous Manegold von Lautenbach and in the Worms Cyriakus foundation . He turned to the monasticism of Hirsau and entered the Hirsau monastery under its abbot Wilhelm (1069-1091). This later appointed him prior of the Hirsau Priory Reichenbach (1085-1088). Finally, at Wilhelm's instigation, Theoger was appointed abbot of Sankt Georgen in 1088.

Work in the monastery of Sankt Georgen

Trying to make Hirsau independent, Theoger succeeded during his abbatism (1088–1119) in making the Sankt Georgen monastery in the Black Forest a reform center of Benedictine monasticism in Alsace, southern Germany and Austria . This “Sankt Georgen Reform” was connected with the influence of the Black Forest monastic community on a number of male and female monasteries, which were either newly founded or reformed from Sankt Georgen. Sankt Georgen monks often acted as abbots of the monasteries to be reformed, while the newly founded monasteries were mostly owned as Sankt Georgen priories and were under the pastoral supervision of the spiritual community on the Brigach .

Specifically, there were connections between Saint George and the following monasteries: the Ottobeuren monastery (1102), the St. Marx monastery (circa 1105), the Amtenhausen monastery (before 1107), the Lixheim monastery (1107), the Sankt Ulrich and Afra monastery in Augsburg (1109), the Admont Monastery (1115, Admont Reform) and theChecking Monastery (1121). The importance of Saint George at that time was reflected in the fact that the monastery also received an important papal privilege. The protective privilege of Pope Urban II of March 5, 1095 determined the " Roman freedom " for the monastic community under Abbot Theoger , that is, subordination to the Pope, the free election of abbots and the free election of the monastery bailiff .

As the founding report of the Sankt Georgen monastery also states, the monks from the Black Forest received significant donations of land and rights at the turn of the 11th to the 12th century. These external factors, together with the inner unity of monastic life, which was based on the "Hirsau habits" ( consuetudines ), made the success of the St. Georgen Monastery under Theoger - a success that continued after Theoger's departure and the so-called St. George's Century from the founding of the monastery to Abbot Manegold von Berg (1084 to after 1193/1194).

Episcopal dignity

Theoger was a reform abbot and supporter of the Gregorian church reform . Therefore, the church reform party in Germany, shattered by the investiture controversy, appointed him, who resisted it for a long time, in 1117 as Bishop of Metz and thus as an opponent of the emperor-friendly Bishop Adalbero IV (1090-1117). Supported by his relatives in Metz, also reformers, and confirmed by the Pope, Theoger still did not succeed in gaining a foothold in the Metz diocese (1119). A compromise between Pope Calixt II (1119–1124) and Archbishop Bruno von Trier (1102–1124) in Cluny (late 1119) finally ended with Theoger being able to stay in Cluny. In the second half of 1120 he was able to renounce the episcopal dignity and died on April 29, 1121 in Cluny, where in a certain way the circle from the Cluniac over the Hirsauer to the Sankt Georgen reform closed. The Vita Theogeri venerates Theoger as a saint.

Like Abbot Wilhelm von Hirsau, Theoger also dealt with the artes liberales , the “seven liberal arts”. He was particularly fond of the disciplines of the Quadrivium . A music-theoretical work has also come down to us from Theoger.

literature

• Vita Theogeri abbatis S. Georgii et episcopi Mettensis , edited by Philipp Jaffé, in: Georg Heinrich Pertz u. a. (Ed.): Scriptores (in Folio) 12: Historiae aevi Salici. Hanover 1856, pp. 449–479 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version ).
• Michael Buhlmann: St. Georgen and Southwest Germany up to the Middle Ages (= sources on the medieval history of St. George, part I = Vertex Alemanniae, H.2) , St. Georgen 2002.
• Michael Buhlmann: Foundation and beginnings of the St. Georgen monastery in the Black Forest (= sources on the medieval history of St. George, part II = Vertex Alemanniae, H.3) . St. Georgen 2002.
• Michael Buhlmann: Manegold von Berg - Abbot of St. Georgen, Bishop of Passau (= Vertex Alemanniae, H.4) . St. Georgen 2003.
• Michael Buhlmann: Abbot Theoger von St. Georgen (= sources on the medieval history of St. George, part III = Vertex Alemanniae, volume 7) . St. Georgen 2004.
• Wilhelm Wattenbach :  Dietger . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 163.
• Reinhold Rau:  Dietger (Theodeger). In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 674 ( digitized version ).
• Hans-Josef Wollasch: The beginnings of the St. Georgen Monastery in the Black Forest. To develop the historical character of a monastery within the Hirsau Reform (= research on the history of the Upper Rhine region, Volume 14) , Freiburg i. Br. 1964.

Web links

• Theoger von Sankt Georgen in the Saarland biographies

predecessor	Office	successor
Adalbero IV.	Bishop of Metz 1118–1120	Stephan from Bar