Thiofride

Thiofrid (also Theofried ) (lat. Thiofridus Epternacensis ) († 1110 ) was abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Echternach from 1081 to 1110 . He has also made a name for himself as an author.

Thiofride

Life

There is little reliable information about Theofried's life. It is possible that he originally came from Swabia. He probably belonged to the monastery at a young age and may have come to Echternach as an oblate when he was a child . According to some information, he is said to have lived there when Saint Willibrord was translated in 1031. However, this information is sometimes questioned, since he would have written his main works at the old age of more than 80 years. Just as unclear as his age is whether he received his education only in Echternach or also in Liège or Paris.

According to the abbot catalog of the monastery, written in the 12th century, Abbot Reginbert appointed him his successor shortly before his death. Two years later, in 1083, he traveled to Rome, where King Henry IV gave him the abbey. The catalog goes on to say that he led the abbey for twenty-eight years and was extremely capable and a true Israelite ( ut versus Israhelita ), following in all the footsteps of his predecessor.

In fact, he managed the monastery successfully and was able to regain several estates that had been estranged in the 9th and 10th centuries. To this end, he traveled to Liège around 1101 to ask Henry IV for the restitution of monastery goods. He also tried to reassert the rights of the monastery, for example against the governors. In one of his writings he mentions that he had prevented a civil war in Middelburg on the island of Walcheren through mediation.

Archbishop Bruno von Trier honored him when he was present at his funeral in the monastery.

plant

He was of importance as an author beyond the monastery. On behalf of the abbot Nizo (Nithard) von Mettlach , he wrote the Vita St. Liutwini between 1072 and 1078 . The client dedicated the work to Archbishop Udo von Trier . Until the 18th century it was wrongly ascribed to the client himself. Between 1098 or 1102 to 1104/05 he wrote his main work Flores epytaphii sanctorum . He dedicated this treatise on relics to Archbishop Bruno von Trier. It was a novelty, as there had been no scholarly treatise on the nature of relics. In addition to Thiofried, Abbot Guibert von Nogent also made such an attempt at this time. The work was a kind of reliquary typology.

Around 1105 he wrote the Vita S. Willibrordi. It was a new version of the Vita that Alkuin had written. Thiofried has expanded this text considerably, and has also tried to improve it stylistically. It is an opus geminum made up of a prose and a verse.

He also received a letter to Henry IV from 1101 and some smaller pieces. In some cases it is not entirely clear whether Thiofried or one of his confreres is the author.

literature

• Thiofridus Epternacensis. Opera selecta (introduction by Michele Camillo Ferrari ). Munich, 1997 digitized
• Michele Camillo Ferrari: gold and ashes. Relic and reliquaries as media in Thiofrid from Echternach's Flores epytaphii sanctorum. In: Reliquaries in the Middle Ages. Berlin, 2005 pp. 61–74
• Willibrord lamps: Thiofrid from Echternach. A philological and historical investigation. Breslau, 1920 digitized
• Franz Xaver Kraus :  Theofried . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 716 f.

Web links

• Thiofridus Epternacensis in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"