Wolfher

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Wolfher († September 9, 1047 or 1048 ) was abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Münsterschwarzach from 1026 to 1047 or 1048 .

Münsterschwarzach before Wolfher

Before Abbot Wolfher took office, Münsterschwarzach Abbey already had a long history behind it. A women's convent had been located in the buildings on the Main since the 8th century . After the women left the monastery in 877, the buildings were settled by the monks of the Megingaudshausen monastery in the Steigerwald. At the same time, the bishops of the nearby city of Würzburg began to influence the Main Abbey.

After power struggles in the 9th and 10th centuries, which the bishops won, they also appointed the abbots of the monastery. The first, Abbot Alapold , brought the ideas of the Gorz reform with him to Münsterschwarzach at the turn of the 11th century. They should renew monastic life and encourage monks to exercise more monastic discipline. The successors of the Alapold also pursued this goal. Under Wolfher's predecessor Walther I , a new monastery church was inaugurated in 1023.

Life

Nothing is known precisely about the childhood and education as well as the origin of Abbot Wolfher. Due to his long term of office and his intensive efforts to reform monastic life, he was quickly regarded by his confreres as a great abbot. The earliest official act that has been handed down by Wolfher was the trip to the Frankfurt Synod in 1027. Here the abbot secured himself on September 24th further privileges for his monastery.

At the same time, Wolfher expanded the abbey's relationships with other monasteries. In particular, the abbot intensified the exchange with the abbeys of Fulda and Amorbach in what is now Hesse. Wolfher also soon took care of education within the monastery: he had the library enlarged and bought more books; He also encouraged the office to create new valuable manuscripts and promoted their study. The great history of the Church stood out among the books.

Wolfher also expanded the influence of the monastery by reforming the parish structure that had formed around the monastery and building new churches. On September 8, 1034, Bishop Bruno von Würzburg consecrated the so-called Benedict Chapel in Münsterschwarzach. Previously, several relics had been brought into the little church, including the head of St. Felizitas in a golden shrine, which was to give the abbey its name "Felizitasabtei" from now on.

The building of a mission church in Großbirkach in the inhospitable Steigerwald has also been handed down. There is still a memorial epitaph for the abbot here, which is known as the so-called pagan baptism and is the oldest figurative work of art in Franconia . Although some disasters and fires that struck the buildings of the monastery have been handed down in the time of Abbot Wolfher, the convent grew steadily. In 1039 a total of 39 monks are part of the monastery. Abbot Wolfher died on September 9, 1047 or 1048.

literature

  • Johannes Mahr: Münsterschwarzach. 1200 years of a Franconian abbey . Münsterschwarzach 2002.
  • Leo Trunk: The Abbots of Münsterschwarzach. A comparative overview . In: Pirmin Hugger (Ed.): Magna Gratia. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey Church 1938-1988 . Münsterschwarzach 1988.
  • Gabriel Vogt: On the early history of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey . Volkach 1980.
  • Heinrich Wagner: The abbots of Megingaudshausen and Münsterschwarzach in the Middle Ages . In: Pirmin Hugger (Ed.): Magna Gratia. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey Church 1938-1988 . Münsterschwarzach 1988.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ While Heinrich Wagner (p. 101) assumes this period, other sources and representations mention the years 1045 and 1046. Cf.: Leo Trunk: The Abbots of Münsterschwarzach . P. 154 f.
  2. ↑ According to the death of his predecessor Abbot Walther I.
  3. ^ Johannes Mahr: Münsterschwarzach. 1200 years of a Franconian abbey . P. 13.
  4. ^ Johannes Mahr: Münsterschwarzach. 1200 years of a Franconian abbey . P. 13.
  5. ↑ Gabriel Vogt: On the early history of the Münsterschwarzach abbey . P. 16.
predecessor Office successor
Walther I. Abbot of Münsterschwarzach
1026-1047 / 1048 		Egbert
personal data
SURNAME Wolfher
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolf gerus; Wolfherus (Latin); Wolfgang von Münsterschwarzach
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Benedictine abbot
DATE OF BIRTH 10th century
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1047 or September 9, 1048