Adalgar (died 9 May 909), venerated as Saint Adalgar, was the third archbishop of
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
from 888 until his death. Adalgar is revered as a
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
in the
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
and
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
Churches. His
feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
is 29 April.
Life
When
Rimbert Saint Rimbert (or Rembert) (''c.'' 830 - 11 June 888 in Bremen) was archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, in the northern part of the Kingdom of East Frankia from 865 until his death in 888. He most famously wrote the hagiography about the life Ansgar, th ...
was appointed in 865 to succeed
Ansgar
Ansgar (8 September 801 – 3 February 865), also known as Anskar, Saint Ansgar, Saint Anschar or Oscar, was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North" b ...
, the first archbishop of
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, the abbot of the Benedictine abbey of
Corvey
The Princely Abbey of Corvey (german: link=no, Fürststift Corvey or Fürstabtei Corvey) is a former Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastical principality now in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was one of the half-dozen self-ruling '' princely ...
gave him his brother, Adalgar, as a companion. The young Adalgar was then a
deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
. Toward the end of Rimbert's life, he was consecrated
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
to assist the latter; and he succeeded him in the archbishopric on 11 June 888. During the latter half of his twenty years’ rule, age and infirmity made it necessary for him also to have a coadjutor in the person of Hoger, another monk of Corvey; and later five neighboring bishops were charged to assist the archbishop in his metropolitan duties.
Adalgar lived in troublous times. Although
Arnulf's victory over the
Normans
The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Fran ...
(891) was a relief to his diocese, and although under
Louis the Child
Louis the Child (893 – 20/24 September 911), sometimes called Louis III or Louis IV, was the king of East Francia from 899 until his death and was also recognized as king of Lotharingia after 900. He was the last East Frankish ruler of the Car ...
(900-911) it suffered less from
Hungarian onslaughts than the districts to the south and east of it, yet the general confusion restricted Adalgar's activity, and he was able to do very little in the northern kingdoms which were supposed to be part of his mission. There were also new contests over the relation of
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
to the
archiepiscopal see of Cologne.
Bremen had originally been under the jurisdiction of Cologne; but this relation was dissolved on the reestablishment of the archbishopric of Hamburg in 848; and
Pope Nicholas I had confirmed the subordination of Bremen to Hamburg in 864. In 890 Archbishop
Hermann of Cologne wrote to
Pope Stephen V
Pope Stephen V ( la, Stephanus V; died 14 September 891) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from September 885 to his death. In his dealings with Photius I of Constantinople, as in his relations with the young Slavic Orthodox ...
, demanding that the archbishop of Hamburg, as bishop of Bremen be subject to him.
The course of the controversy is somewhat obscure; but it is known that Stephen cited both contestants to Rome, and when Adalgar alone appeared, Hermann being represented by delegates with unsatisfactory credentials, the pope referred the matter to Archbishop
Fulk of Reims
Fulk the Venerable (died June 17, 900) was archbishop of Reims from 883 until his death. He was a key protagonist in the political conflicts of the West Francia, West Frankish kingdom that followed the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire in the ...
, to decide in a synod at
Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany
Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...
.
Knibbs, Eric. ''Ansgar, Rimbert and the Forged Foundations of Hamburg-Bremen'', Routledge, 2016, p. 213
/ref> In the meantime, Stephen died; and his successor Formosus
Pope Formosus (896) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 6 October 891 until his death on 4 April 896. His reign as pope was troubled, marked by interventions in power struggles over the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the K ...
placed the investigation in the hands of a synod which met at Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
in 892 under Hatto of Mainz. On the basis of its report, Formosus decided that Bremen should be united to Hamburg so long as the latter had no suffragan sees, but should revert to Cologne when any were erected, the archbishop of Hamburg meanwhile taking part in the provincial synods of Cologne, without thereby admitting his subordination.
Little is known of Adalgar's personality. From the way in which Rimbert's biographer and Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen ( la, Adamus Bremensis; german: Adam von Bremen) (before 1050 – 12 October 1081/1085) was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. Adam is most famous for his chronicle ''Gesta ...
speak of him, he seems to have been a man of some force, but perhaps not strong enough for the difficult times in which his activity was cast.
See also
*List of Catholic saints
This is an incomplete list of people and angels whom the Catholic Church has canonized as saints. According to Catholic theology, all saints enjoy the beatific vision. Many of the saints listed here are to be found in the General Roman Calend ...
Notes
Literature
* Erhard Gorys: Lexikon der Heiligen. München Juni 2005, S. 17.
* Otto Heinrich May: Adalgar. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, , S. 48 (Digitalisat).
* Adalgar. In: Heinrich August Pierer, Julius Löbe (Hrsg.): Universal-Lexikon der Gegenwart und Vergangenheit. 4. Auflage. Bd. 19, Altenburg 1865, S. 786 (online bei zeno.org).
* Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz: ADALGAR. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Band 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2., unveränderte Auflage Hamm 1990, , Sp. 28.
References
*
External links
mittelalter-genealogie.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adalgar
Year of birth unknown
909 deaths
Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen
Medieval German saints
Bishops in the Carolingian Empire
10th-century German bishops
10th-century Christian saints