- Blessed Frowin
Blessed Frowin (d.
11 March 1178 ) was aBenedictine abbot. Though never formallybeatified , Frowin has commonly been styled "Blessed" by the chroniclers [See "Acta Sanctorum ", March, IX, 683.] .Life
Of the early life of Frowin nothing is known, save that he is claimed as a monk of their community by the historians of
Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland andSt. Blasius Abbey inBaden . The first authentic fact in his career is his election as abbot, the year 1142, to succeedAdelhelm in the newly establishedmonastery of Engelberg in theCanton of Unterwalden , Switzerland.Through his efforts the possessions and privileges, civil and ecclesiastical, of the abbey were greatly increased, while its renown as a home of learning, art, and piety spread far and wide. He established a famous school in his abbey, in which besides the "trivium" and "
quadrivium ", philosophy and theology were likewise taught. The library which he collected possessed, for those days, a vast number of maruscripts. According to a list that he left, it containedHomer ,Cicero ,Cato ,Ovid and other authors of antiquity. This rich collection perished in 1729, when the abbey was destroyed by fire.Works
Blessed Frowin not only copied books for his library, but composed several. Two of these, a commentary on the Lord's Prayer, and a treatise in seven books, "De Laude Liberi Arbitrii" ("In Praise of Free Will", but in reality a discussion of the chief theological questions of his day, directed, it is thought, against the errors of
Abelard ) are still extant, having been discovered byMabillon in the archives of Einsiedeln. Frowin's other works, Commentaries on the Ten Commandments and various parts of Holy Scripture, are lost.Veneration
Pétin ("Dictionnaire Hagiographique" I, iiii) gives
7 March as his feast day, and credits him with many miracles.Notes
External link
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06310b.htm "Catholic Encyclopedia" article]
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