- Wolfgang of Regensburg
::"For the village of St. Wolfgang in the
Salzkammergut region ofUpper Austria , the setting of "White Horse Inn ", seeSt. Wolfgang (village) ."Infobox Saint
name=Saint Wolfgang
birth_date=924
death_date=994
feast_day=October 31
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church
imagesize=frame
caption=St. Wolfgang (painting, c.1490)
birth_place=
death_place=
titles=The Almoner
beatified_date=
beatified_place=
beatified_by=
canonized_date=1052
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
attributes=forcing the devil to help him to build a church; episcopal dress; depicted with an axe in the right hand and thecrozier in the left; or as a hermit in the wilderness being discovered by a hunter.
patronage=apoplexy ;carpenter s andwood carvers ; paralysis;Regensburg, Germany ; stomach diseases; strokes
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
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prayer=
prayer_attrib=Saint Wolfgang or Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg (c.
934 -October 31 ,994 ) wasbishop of Regensburg inBavaria from Christmas 972 until his death. He is asaint of theRoman Catholic church (canonized in 1052). He is regarded as one of the three great German saints of the 10th century, the other two being Saint Ulrich and SaintConrad of Constance .Education and ordination
Wolfgang was descended from the family of the
Swabia n Counts ofPfullingen ("Mon. Germ. His.: Script.", X, 53). When seven years old he had an ecclesiastic as tutor at home; later he attended the celebrated monastic school at Reichenau Abbey.Here he formed a strong friendship with
Henry of Babenberg , brother of BishopPoppo of Würzburg , whom he followed to Würzburg in order to attend thelecture s of the noted Italian grammarian,Stephen of Novara , at the cathedral school.After Henry was made Archbishop of
Trier in 956, he summoned Wolfgang, who became a teacher in the cathedral school of Trier, and also laboured for the reform of the archdiocese, despite the hostility with which his efforts were met.Wolfgang's residence at Trier greatly influenced his monastic and ascetic tendencies, as here he came into contact with the great reformatory monastery of the 10th century,
St. Maximin's Abbey, Trier , where he made the acquaintance ofRamwold , the teacher of SaintAdalbert of Prague .After the death of Archbishop Henry of Trier in 964, Wolfgang entered the Benedictine order in the Abbey of Maria Einsiedeln,
Switzerland , and was ordained priest by Saint Ulrich in 968.Mission to the Magyars
After their defeat in the
Battle of the Lechfeld (955), a victory gained with the aid of Saint Ulrich, the heathenMagyars settled in ancientPannonia . As long as they were not converted toChristianity they remained a constant menace to the empire.At the request of Ulrich, who clearly saw the danger, and at the desire of the Emperor
Otto the Great , Wolfgang, according to the abbey annals, was "sent to the Magyars" as the most suitable man to evangelize them.He was followed by other missionaries sent by
Piligrim ,Bishop of Passau , under whose jurisdiction the new missionary region came.Bishop of Regensburg
After the death of Bishop Michael of Regensburg (
September 23 ,972 ) Bishop Piligrim obtained from the emperor the appointment of Wolfgang as the new bishop (Christmas , 972). Wolfgang's services in this new position were of the highest importance, not only for the diocese, but also for the cause of civilization. As Bishop of Regensburg, Wolfgang became the tutor of Emperor Saint Henry II, who learned from him the principles which governed his saintly and energetic life. Poppe, son ofMargrave Luitpold,Archbishop of Trier (1018), andTagino, Archbishop of Magdeburg (1004–1012), also had him as their teacher.Wolfgang deserves credit for his disciplinary labours in his diocese. His main work in this respect was connected with the ancient and celebrated
St. Emmeram's Abbey , which he reformed by granting it once more abbots of its own, thus withdrawing it from the control of the bishops of Regensburg, who for many years had been abbots "in commendam ", a condition of affairs that had been far from beneficial to the abbey and monastic life. In the Benedictine monk Ramwold, whom Saint Wolfgang called from St. Maximin at Trier, St. Emmeram received a capable abbot (975).The saint also reformed the convents of
Obermünster andNiedermünster at Regensburg, chiefly by giving them as an example the convent of St. Paul, Mittelmünster, at Regensburg, which he had founded in 983. He also co-operated in the reform of the ancient and celebrated Benedictine Abbey of Niederaltaich, which had been founded by theAgilolfing er dynasty, and which from that time took on new life.He showed genuine episcopal generosity in the liberal manner with which he met the views of the Emperor
Otto II regarding the intended reduction in size of his diocese for the benefit of the new Diocese ofPrague (975), to which Saint Adalbert was appointed first bishop. As prince of the empire he performed his duties towards the emperor and the empire with the utmost scrupulousness and, like Saint Ulrich, was one of the mainstays of theOttonian policies.He took part in the various imperial diets, and, in the autumn of 978, accompanied the Emperor Otto II on his campaign to
Paris , and took part in the greatDiet of Verona in June 983. He was a success by Gebhard I.Hermitage and death
Towards the end of his life Saint Wolfgang withdrew as a
hermit to a solitary spot, now theWolfgangsee ("Wolfgang's Lake") in theSalzkammergut region ofUpper Austria , apparently on account of a political dispute, but probably in the course of a journey of inspection toMondsee Abbey which was under the direction of the bishops of Regensburg. He was discovered by a hunter and brought back to Regensburg.While travelling on the
Danube toPöchlarn inLower Austria , he fell ill at the village ofPupping , which is betweenEferding and the market town ofAschach nearLinz , and at his request was carried into the chapel ofSaint Othmar at Pupping, where he died.His body was taken up the Danube by his friends Count Aribo of
Andechs and Archbishop Hartwich ofSalzburg to Regensburg, and was solemnly buried in the crypt of St. Emmeram. Manymiracle s were performed at his grave; in 1052 he was canonized.After his death
Soon after Wolfgang's death many churches chose him as their
patron saint , and various towns were named after him.In
Christian art he has been especially honoured by the great medievalTyrol ean painter,Michael Pacher (1430–1498), who created an imperishable memorial to him, the high altar of St. Wolfgang. In the panel pictures which are now exhibited in the Old Pinakothek atMunich are depicted in an artistic manner the chief events in the saint's life.The oldest portrait of Saint Wolfgang is a miniature, painted about the year 1100 in the celebrated Evangeliary of St. Emmeram, now in the library of the castle cathedral at
Kraków .A fine modern picture by Schwind is in the
Schak Gallery at Munich. This painting represents thelegend of Wolfgang forcing thedevil to help him to build a church.In other paintings he is generally depicted in episcopal dress, an
axe in the right hand and thecrozier in the left, or as a hermit in the wilderness being discovered by a hunter.The axe refers to an incident in the life of the saint. After having selected a solitary spot in the wilderness, he prayed and then threw his axe into the thicket; the spot on which the axe fell he regarded as the place where
God intended he should build his cell. This axe is still shown in the little market town of St. Wolfgang which sprang up on the spot of the old cell.St. Wolfgang is sometimes counted among the
Fourteen Holy Helpers Literature
At the request of the Abbey of St. Emmeram, the life of St. Wolfgang was written by Otloh, a Benedictine monk of St. Emmeram about 1050. This life is especially important for the early medieval history both of the church and of civilization in
Bavaria andAustria , and it forms the basis of all later accounts of the saint.The oldest and best manuscript of this "Vita" is in the library of
Einsiedeln Abbey inSwitzerland (MS. No. 322), and has been printed with critical notes in "Mon. Germ. His.: Script.", IV, 524-542.
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