Vice-Lady
Vizelin ( Vicelin , Wissel , Witzel , Vicelinus ) (* around 1090 in Hameln ; † December 12, 1154 in Neumünster ) was Bishop of Oldenburg and missionary of the East Holstein Slavs . He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church . The Protestant Church in Germany also commemorates Vizelin as a memorable witness of faith.
Life
After the early death of his parents, Vizelin was brought up first with relatives near Hameln , then at Everstein Castle near Holzminden . After studying for several years in the Paderborn cathedral school , he came to Bremen in 1118 , received a benefice at the cathedral monastery and worked as a scholaster for four years . He later went to Laon in France for extensive studies .
1126 he returned to Germany, but did not go to Bremen, but to Magdeburg, where he Archbishop Norbert of Xanten , the founder of the Premonstratensian , the priest was ordained. Vizelin probably hoped to be sent as a missionary to the Slavs by Archbishop Norbert . Since this wish did not come true, he moved to Bremen, where Archbishop Adalbero sent him as a missionary to the Wagriern in the Alt-Lübeck area , a sub-tribe of the Slavic Abodrites . Vizelin began his work there in 1126/7, but had to end it again at the beginning of 1128 because of the succession battles that broke out after the death of the Abodriten prince Heinrich .
Subsequently, Archbishop Adalbero entrusted him at the request of Overboden Marcrad I with the pastoral care of the Holsten in the Slavic-Saxon border area. According to Helmolds von Bosau's report, its Saxon residents had adopted nothing but the name of the Christian religion. Like the Slavs, they practiced their cult in sacred groves or at springs. Vizelin began his missionary work and gathered like-minded priests around him, with whom he founded the Augustinian Canons of Neumünster . In 1134, Emperor Lothar III. On Vizelin's advice, the Segeberg Fortress was built with another church of the Augustinian Canons, from which Vizelin then preached for three years in the Wagrier area.
By military conquest in 1138 and 1139, the areas of the Abodritic sub-tribes of the Wagrier and Polabians came under Saxon rule. In parts of Wagriens, which Duke Heinrich the Lion gave as a fief to Count Adolf II of Holstein, the new lord began to settle German settlers from Westphalia and the North Sea region from 1143. After the so-called Wendenkreuzzug of 1147, the new Archbishop Hartwig I of Hamburg-Bremen saw the opportunity to restitute the Abodritic dioceses of Oldenburg , Ratzeburg and Mecklenburg , which had perished in the Slav uprising of 1066 .
On September 25, 1149 Vizelin was consecrated together with the Mecklenburg bishop Emmehard by Archbishop Hartwig as bishop of the Wagrier diocese of Oldenburg. However, he got caught in the mill of the conflict between Archbishop Hartwig and Duke Heinrich. It was not until the end of 1150, after the vice-wife in Oldenburg, who had already been badly hit by a stroke , had convinced himself of the desolate situation at his bishopric and in his entire district , that he submitted to the investiture by Heinrich the Lion , against the will of his archbishop, which the duke demanded . Vizelin thus gained the necessary political support for his missionary work. In return, Henry the Lion immediately arranged for adequate material equipment for the diocese. Vizelin received the village of Bosau am Plöner See including an outbuilding as a new mission base, where he immediately began building the Petrikirche . In 1152 Vizelin suffered a second severe stroke while staying in Faldera ( Neumünster ). Vizelin died after two and a half years of severe suffering on December 12, 1154 in Faldera and was buried there.
After his canonization , Vizelin's relics were transferred to the church of the Canons' Monastery, which had meanwhile been moved from Neumünster to Bordesholm . The grave of the saint can no longer be traced , but a memorial plaque from the Baroque period reminds of his grave in the church of Bordesholm .
Adoration
- The feast day of St. Vizelin is December 12th in the Catholic Church and in the Protestant calendar
- In Holstein , churches that owe their origins to Vizelin's missionary work are still called Vicelinkirchen today, and they are often old stone churches . Vizelinkirchen are located in Segeberg , Bornhöved , Pronstorf , Bosau , Neukirchen , Ratekau , Bad Schwartau (Rensefeld) , Süsel , Warder and Bad Oldesloe . To St. Vizelin consecrated churches still exist in Lübeck , Norderstedt , Hamburg-Sasel and Neumünster .
literature
- Carsten Erich Carstens : Vicelin . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 39, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1895, pp. 668-670.
- Ulrich Hoppe: Vicelin. Man of God beyond fame and power. In: Association for Catholic Church History in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein: Contributions and communications. Vol. 6, 1999, pp. 7-126
- Friedhelm Jürgensmeier : Vizelin (Vicelin, Wissel, Witzel, Vicelinus). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 12, Bautz, Herzberg 1997, ISBN 3-88309-068-9 , Sp. 1545-1547.
- Dieter Lent : Vicelin. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 8th to 18th centuries. Appelhans, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , p. 718 f.
Web links
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Ehrenfried |
Bishop of Oldenburg 1149–1154 |
Gerold |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vice-Lady |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Vicelin; Wissel; Witzel; Vicelinus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German bishop and missionary, saint |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1090 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamelin |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 12, 1154 |
| Place of death | Neumunster |