Wolfgang of Regensburg
Three men are remembered as the great German saints of the 10th century: Ulrich of Augsburg, Conrad of Constance, and Wolfgang of Regensburg. Wolfgang was born around 934 and died on the 31st of October 994. He became bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria at Christmas 972 and held the post until his death. Both the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches honour him as a saint. Yet this respected churchman also spent part of his life as a hermit, hidden away in the Alps until a stranger stumbled upon him. How does a scholar from a Swabian noble family end up teaching a future emperor? What drew a bishop away from his duties and into the wilderness? And how did one man's legacy come to be tied to an axe, a lake, and a long line of painted altars?
At the age of seven, Wolfgang already had a churchman tutoring him at home. He came from the family of the Swabian Counts of Pfullingen. Later he studied at the celebrated monastic school of Reichenau Abbey, where he made a close friend in Henry of Babenberg. Henry's brother was Bishop Poppo of Würzburg. Wolfgang followed Henry to Würzburg to hear the lectures of an Italian grammarian named Stephen of Novara at the cathedral school. When Henry became Archbishop of Trier in 956, he called his friend to join him. Wolfgang taught at the cathedral school there and pushed for reform in the archdiocese, though many people met his efforts with hostility. Trier also shaped his religious outlook. At St. Maximin's Abbey, one of the great reform monasteries of the 10th century, he met Ramuold, who taught the future Saint Adalbert of Prague. Henry died in 964, and Wolfgang then entered the Benedictine order at the Abbey of Maria Einsiedeln in Switzerland. In 968 he was ordained a priest by Saint Ulrich, the same man who would soon ask him to take on a far more dangerous task.
In 955 the Battle of the Lechfeld ended in defeat for the Hungarians, but the danger they posed did not end with it. They settled in ancient Pannonia and remained a constant menace to the empire. Ulrich saw the threat clearly. Emperor Otto the Great shared his concern. Together they wanted the Hungarians won over by preaching rather than by weapons alone. According to the abbey annals, Wolfgang was "sent to the Hungarians" because he was judged the most suitable man to evangelize them. Other missionaries followed him, sent by Piligrim, the Bishop of Passau. The new mission field fell under Piligrim's authority. That same Piligrim would soon play a decisive part in Wolfgang's own career.
On the 23rd of September 972, Bishop Michael of Regensburg died. Piligrim then persuaded the emperor to appoint Wolfgang as the successor, and the appointment came at Christmas 972. Wolfgang's work as bishop proved to be of the highest importance. He became the tutor of Emperor Saint Henry II, who took from him the principles that guided his whole life. Other pupils also rose high. Poppe, a son of Margrave Luitpold, became Archbishop of Trier in 1018. Tagino served as Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1004 to 1012. A single teacher thus helped shape a future emperor and two archbishops. Wolfgang's most lasting changes, however, concerned the monasteries inside his own diocese.
For many years the bishops of Regensburg had themselves served as the abbots of St. Emmeram's Abbey, an arrangement known as holding it in commendam. Wolfgang judged this arrangement harmful to the abbey and to monastic life. He gave the abbey abbots of its own again, taking it out of episcopal control. He was among the first German bishops to do so, and many others copied him in the following years. For the new abbot he called Ramuold, the Benedictine he had met at Saint Maximin in Trier. Ramuold took the post in 975. Wolfgang also backed the monastic reforms associated with Gorze Abbey, which aimed to restore strict adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict. In 983 he founded the convent of St. Paul, called Mittelmünster, in Regensburg. He held it up as a model for the convents of Obermünster and Niedermünster, which he also reformed. He further helped renew the ancient Benedictine Abbey of Niederaltaich, founded by the Agilolfinger dynasty, which took on new life from that time.
In 975 Emperor Otto II proposed shrinking the diocese of Regensburg to create a new diocese at Prague. Wolfgang accepted the loss with real generosity. Adalbert of Prague, whom Ramuold's old pupil connection had brought into his circle of acquaintance, became the first bishop of the new see. As a prince of the empire, Wolfgang carried out his duties to the emperor with great scrupulousness. Like Ulrich, he was a mainstay of the Ottonian policies. He attended imperial Diets. In the autumn of 978 he went with Otto II on the campaign to Paris, and in June 983 he took part in the Diet of Verona. Gebhard I later succeeded him in Regensburg. Years before that, however, a political quarrel had already driven Wolfgang out of the city.
In 976 a dispute broke out between Duke Henry II of Bavaria and Emperor Otto II. Apparently because of it, Wolfgang spent a year at Mondsee. From there he withdrew as a hermit to a solitary spot in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria, which is now the Wolfgangsee, or "Wolfgang's Lake." A hunter discovered him there, and he was brought back to Regensburg. His death came during a journey down the Danube toward Pöchlarn in Lower Austria. He fell ill at the village of Pupping, which lies between Eferding and the market town of Aschach near Linz. At his own request, he was carried into the chapel of Saint Othmar, and he died there. Friends carried his body up the Danube to Regensburg. They were Count Aribo of Andechs and Archbishop Hartwich of Salzburg. He was buried with solemn ceremony in the crypt of Saint Emmeram. Many miracles were reported at his grave, and in 1052 he was canonized.
Churches across the region began choosing Wolfgang as their patron soon after his death, and several towns took his name. He is sometimes counted among the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and he is the patron saint of woodcutters. The link to woodcutters comes from a tale about his hermit days. Having picked out a lonely place in the wilderness, he prayed and then hurled his axe into the thicket. Wherever it landed, he took as the place where God wanted his cell to stand. The little market town of St. Wolfgang grew up on that very spot, and its people still show the axe. Painters picked up the story. Wolfgang is usually shown in a bishop's robes with an axe in his right hand and a crozier in his left. Another favourite scene shows him as a hermit in the wilderness, found by a hunter.
The medieval Tyrolean painter Michael Pacher, who lived from 1430 to 1498, created the high altar of St. Wolfgang as a lasting tribute. Panel pictures from it now hang in the Old Pinakothek in Munich, showing the chief events of the saint's life. Another monumental Late Gothic work, the Kefermarkt altarpiece in Kefermarkt in Upper Austria, is also dedicated to him. The oldest known portrait is far smaller. It is a miniature painted around the year 1100 in the Evangeliary of Saint Emmeram, which is now kept in the library of the castle cathedral at Kraków. A later painter named Schwind, whose picture hangs in the Schack Gallery at Munich, chose a stranger legend. His painting shows Wolfgang forcing the devil to help him build a church. All of these images depend on written accounts, and one monk's biography stands behind nearly all of them.
Around 1050, a Benedictine monk of St. Emmeram named Otloh wrote the life of Wolfgang. The abbey itself had requested it. Scholars value this work highly for the early medieval history of both the church and civilization in Bavaria and Austria, and every later account of the saint rests on it. The oldest and best manuscript of Otloh's life, numbered 322, is not in Regensburg at all. It sits in the library of Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland, the very monastery where Wolfgang became a Benedictine more than eight decades before his canonization.
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Common questions
Who was Wolfgang of Regensburg?
Wolfgang of Regensburg was a German bishop and saint who lived from about 934 to the 31st of October 994. He was bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria from Christmas 972 until his death, and he is a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
Why is Wolfgang of Regensburg the patron saint of woodcutters?
Wolfgang of Regensburg is the patron saint of woodcutters because of the axe in his story. After choosing a solitary spot in the wilderness, he threw his axe into the thicket and treated the place where it fell as the site for his cell.
What did Wolfgang of Regensburg do as bishop?
Wolfgang of Regensburg reformed monasteries and convents, tutored future leaders and served the emperor. He gave St. Emmeram's Abbey abbots of its own again, founded the convent of St. Paul in 983 and supported the Gorze reforms.
Where did Wolfgang of Regensburg die and where is he buried?
Wolfgang of Regensburg died in the chapel of Saint Othmar at Pupping in Upper Austria. His body was carried up the Danube to Regensburg and buried in the crypt of Saint Emmeram.
When was Wolfgang of Regensburg canonized?
Wolfgang of Regensburg was canonized in 1052. Many miracles had been reported at his grave in the crypt of Saint Emmeram in Regensburg.
Who taught by Wolfgang of Regensburg became famous?
Wolfgang of Regensburg tutored Emperor Saint Henry II. Poppe, who became Archbishop of Trier in 1018, and Tagino, Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1004 to 1012, were also his pupils.
What is the Wolfgangsee named after in connection with Wolfgang of Regensburg?
The Wolfgangsee in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria means Wolfgang's Lake. It is the solitary spot where Wolfgang of Regensburg withdrew as a hermit before a hunter found him.
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5 references cited across the entry
- 3BookMy First Book of SaintsPaolo O. Pirlo — Sons of Holy Mary Immaculate - Quality Catholic Publications — 1997
- 4Bernhardt, John W., Itinerant Kingship and Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, c. 936–1075. 1993, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 102, n.62]