Adalbero I of Metz

Last updated
Adalbero I of Metz
Adalbéron of Bar
Bishop of Metz (929-962)
Abbot of Sint-Truiden (944-962)
ChurchCatholic
See Prince-Bishopric of Metz
Predecessor Benno of Einsiedeln
Successor Dietrich I of Metz
Personal details
Bornnot known
Died26 April 962
Sint-Truiden

Adalbero I of Metz (died (?)26 April 962) was an important member of the clergy during the middle years of the tenth century, serving as Bishop of Metz from 929 till 954.

Contents

He also became Abbot of Sint-Truiden in 944: he presided over a period of overdue rebuilding and expansion of a monastery which had been devastated by Normans during the closing decades of the previous century. [1]

Names

Sources also sometimes identify him as Adalb(e/é)ro(n) of Bar or as Adalb(e/é)ro(n) of The Ardennes.

Life

Provenance

Adalbero came from one of the leading families in the area. He was a son of Wigeric, Count palatine of Lotharingia by the Count's marriage to Cunigunda, ancestors of the powerful Ardennes-Verdun dynasty. [2] Adelbero's older brother was Frederick I, Count of Bar and Duke of Upper Lorraine. [2] [3] Another brother was Sigfried, Count of Ardennes. [4] His mother, Cunigunda, was a granddaughter of Louis II of France, and therefore a descendant of Charlemagne. [5] La Vita Johannis Gorziensis, written in 980, indicates that he was of royal descent through both his paternal and maternal lines, though the text spells out that the connection went back "several" generations.

Bishop

In 929 Adalbero was elected by the clergy and the people to succeed Benneon of Metz  [ fr ] whose own episcopal term had recently ended badly. [2]

As Bishop of Metz, Adalbero's enthusiastic promotion of a revival in monasticism gained him the soubriquet "father of the monks". He encouraged the rebuilding of monastic buildings that had fallen into disrepair during preceding decades and the expansion of monastic properties. Starting in 933/934 he became a driving force behind the revival of Gorze Abbey, appointing the energetic Abbot John to lead the project on site. [1] Gorze then became a famous [2] exemplar for similar monastic recoveries elsewhere in the region during the middle and later years of the tenth century.

In 941 he expelled the canons (monks) from the Abbey of Saint-Arnould in Metz, and replaced them with monks imported from Gorze, who lived according to the Rule of Saint Benedict under their new abbot, Héribert (also recruited from Gorze). [6]

It is recorded that Adalbero later returned to Archbishop Bruno of Cologne, the piece of St Peter's ferula (staff), a treasured relic which had been sent across to Metz at the time of the Hunnish invasions.

It is possible that Adelbero was relieved of his duties as Bishop of Metz by Duke Conrad the Red in 954, leaving him free to concentrate on his duties at Sint-Truiden until his death in 962. On the other hand, Duke Conrad was killed in battle in 955, and there are no indications of any successor bishop having been appointed at Metz till after Adalbero's death.

Abbot

In 944 Adalbero expelled Abbot Reinier from Sint-Truiden Abbey on account of the latter's "poor conduct", and was himself elected Abbot of Sint-Truiden (St. Trond) in Renier's stead. [7] Although he retained his episcopal title till his death, it seems that from the middle 940s he tried to divide his duties equally between the two locations. At Sint-Truiden the Abbey was almost entirely rebuilt, now on a very grand scale. Monasteric lands that had been usurped by local nobility were restored, as was monastic observance. [7]

In 947 he was able to consecrate the new abbey church. [2]

Politics

In the wars that divided Louis IV of France and Otto I of Germany in the 930s, Adalbero took the side of Louis in the contest to determine which of these heirs of Charlemagne should have control over Lorraine. He energetically defended his episcopal city from the German armies. However, when the belligerents concluded their differences in 939 he was obliged to open the gates of Metz to soldiers from the Ottonian side. [2]

In 950 Adalbero intervened as a mediator in the conflict between Louis IV of France and Hugh, Count of Paris. [2]

In 968, several years after Adalbero's death, the emperor mentioned Adalbero in a charter in which he described Adalbero using the adjective "sanctissimus" ("very holy"). [7] The fact that Adalbero's memory was cherished by Emperor Otto adds weight to the suspicion that any removal of his rights and duties as Bishop undertaken by Duke Conrad the Red in 954 (by which date Conrad was in rebellion against Otto) is unlikely to have been permanent.

Death

According to the episcopal records at Metz Adalbero died on 26 April 962. Records at Sint-Truiden give his date of death as 23 February 964. [7] There are also old history books giving the year of his death as 960. [7]

His body was taken to Gorze and then to the Abbey of Saint-Arnould in Metz where it became the object of much veneration.

Related Research Articles

Frederick I was the count of Bar and duke of Upper Lorraine. He was a son of Wigeric, count of Bidgau, also count palatine of Lorraine, and Cunigunda, and thus a sixth-generation descendant of Charlemagne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adalbero of Würzburg</span> Catholic saint, bishop of Würzburg (1010–1090)

Adalbero of Würzburg was Bishop of Würzburg and Count of Lambach-Wels.

Wideric was a Frankish nobleman and the count of the Bidgau and held the rights of a count within the city of Trier. He received also the advocacy of the Abbey of Saint Rumbold at Mechelen from Charles III, King of West Francia. From 915 or 916, he was the count palatine of Lotharingia. He was the founder of the House of Ardennes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gorze Abbey</span>

Gorze Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Gorze in the present arrondissement of Metz, near Metz in Lorraine. It was prominent as the source of a monastic reform movement in the 930s.

Sigfried was Count in the Ardennes, and is known in European historiography as founder and first ruler of the Castle of Luxembourg in 963 AD, and ancestor and predecessor of the future counts and dukes of Luxembourg. He was also an advocate of the abbeys of St. Maximin in Trier and Saint Willibrord in Echternach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gembloux Abbey</span>

Gembloux Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in Wallonia near the town of Gembloux in the province of Namur, Belgium. Since 1860, its buildings host the University of Liège's Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech faculty and campus.

WaleranII of Arlon, supposedly also called Udon of Limburg, was the count of Arlon from AD 1052 and, if he was the same person as Udon, also count of Limburg from 1065 and advocatus of the Abbey of Sint-Truiden. He was the younger son of Waleran I, Count of Arlon, and his wife Adelaide. His elder brother Fulk became Count of Arlon.

The House of Ardenne–Verdun was a branch of the House of Ardenne, one of the first documented medieval European noble families, centered on Verdun. The family dominated in the Duchy of Lotharingia (Lorraine) in the 10th and 11th centuries. All members descended from Cunigunda of France, a granddaughter of the West Frankish king Louis the Stammerer. She married twice but all or most of her children were children of her first husband, Count Palatine Wigeric of Lotharingia. The other main branches of the House of Ardennes were the House of Ardenne–Luxembourg, and the House of Ardenne–Bar.

Saint John of Gorze was a Lorraine-born monk, diplomat, administrator, and monastic reformer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trudo</span>

Saint Trudo was a saint of the seventh century. He is called the "Apostle of Hesbaye". His feast day is celebrated on 23 November.

Dietrichof Metz was Bishop of Metz from 964 until his death.

The Abbey of St. Evre was a Benedictine, later Cluniac, monastery in Toul, France. Established in or just before 507, it was the oldest monastery in Lorraine and of great significance in the monastic and religious reforms in the Rhine and Moselle region of the 10th and 11th centuries.

Cunigunda of Sulichgau (893-924) was the daughter of Ermentrude of France, daughter in turn of Louis the Stammerer. Her father was Eberhard of Sulichgau, son of Unruoch III. In 898 her uncle Charles III gained control as king of the Franks, changing Cunigunda's life for the better.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sint-Truiden Abbey</span> Former Benedictine monastery in Belgium

Sint-Truiden Abbey or St Trudo's Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Sint-Truiden in the province of Limburg, Belgium. The abbey was founded in the 7th century and was one of the oldest and most powerful in the Low Countries. The town of Sint-Truiden grew up around it. The great Romanesque abbey church, dedicated to Saint Remaclus and Saint Quintin, was demolished in 1798, four years after the suppression of the abbey.

Saint Guibert of Gorze is the founder of Gembloux Abbey, in Gembloux. He was canonized in 1211. Saint Guibert's Day is observed on 23 May.

The pagus or gau of Hasbania was a large early medieval territory in what is now eastern Belgium. It is now approximated by the modern French- and Dutch-speaking region called Hesbaye in French, or Haspengouw in Dutch — both being terms derived from the medieval one. Unlike many smaller pagi of the period, Hasbania apparently never corresponded to a single county. It already contained several in the 9th century. It is therefore described as a "Groẞgau", like the Pagus of Brabant, by modern German historians such as Ulrich Nonn.

The County of Duras was a medieval county with its seat at the castle of Duras. The 18th century version of this castle still stands and is a part of modern Sint-Truiden in the province of Belgian Limburg. The county was one of several counties in the Hesbaye region which covers the south of Belgian Limburg, and stretches into the neighbouring provinces. As a distinct entity under the name Duras the county only existed within the 12th century. After the first male line of counts died out, the county of Duras came by marriage to the Counts of Montaigu, whose other holdings were further south. Later they became part of the neighbouring County of Loon, which was ruled by cousins of the original counts of Duras.

Adalbero II of Metz was a Catholic bishop of the 10th and 11th centuries. From 984 until his death he was the bishop of Verdun and bishop of Metz. He was the son of Frederick I, Duke of Upper Lorraine and Beatrice of France, daughter of Hugh the Great.

The House of Luxembourg (or Luxembourg), also known as the House of Ardenne–Luxembourg in order to distinguish it from later families, were a Lotharingian noble family known from the tenth and eleventh centuries. They are one of the three main branches of the House of Ardenne, along with the House of Ardenne–Verdun, and the House of Ardenne–Bar.

References

  1. 1 2 Eugen Ewig (1953). "Adalbero I.Bischof von Metz (seit 929), † 962 Sankt Trond (Diözese Lüttich)". Neue Deutsche Biographie. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München. pp. 40–41. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Félicien de Saulcy (1833). "Les Monnaies des évêques de metz ....Adelbéron 1er". Mémoires de l'Académie Nationale de Metz.
  3. "Bar Adalbero I. von: Bischof von Metz". Dr. Joachim Conrad i.A. Saarländische Biografien - PD. Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  4. Adolf Schinzl; Alberdingk Thijm (1875). "Adelbero I.: Adalbero, seit 929 Bischof von Metz, † 26. April 964, Sohn des..." Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) . Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig & Wikisource. pp. 143–145. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  5. Kreins, Jean-Marie. Histoire du Luxembourg. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2010. 5th edition.
  6. Véronique Gazeau; Monique Goulletpublisher=CRAHM, Université de Caen en Basse-Normandie (2008). La réforme en Lorraine. p. 105. ISBN   978-2-902685-61-5 . Retrieved 2 October 2015.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Pierre de Ram (1866). "ADALBÉRON Ier, abbé de Saint-Trond, évêque de Metz, était fils de Vigeric ou Wideric, le premier de ..." Biographie nationale de Belgique. Académie Royale de Belgique. pp. 29–30. Retrieved 2 October 2015.