Albert of Stade (c. 1187 – c. 1260) was a German monk, historian and poet.
![StadeJohanniskloster](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/StadeJohanniskloster.JPG)
Albert probably studied in the school of
Bremen Cathedral
Bremen Cathedral (german: Bremer Dom or St. Petri Dom zu Bremen), dedicated to St. Peter, is a church situated in the Bremer Marktplatz, market square in the center of Bremen (city), Bremen. The cathedral belongs to the Evangelical Church of Breme ...
. He joined the
Benedictine Order
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
and entered the
monastery of Harsefeld near
Stade
Stade (), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (german: Hansestadt Stade, nds, Hansestadt Stood) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the district () which bears its name. It is l ...
. He rose to become
prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
and in 1232 was elected
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
. He was opposed both to the lax enforcement of the
Benedictine Rule
The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot.
The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...
at Harsefeld and to the introduction of the stricter
Cistercian observance. For this reason he resigned as abbot in 1240 and joined the
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
friary of Saint John in Stade.
[Kai-Henrik Günther, "Albert of Stade", in '']Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle
The Medieval Chronicle Society is an international and interdisciplinary organization founded to facilitate the work of scholars interested in medieval annals and chronicles, or more generally medieval historiography. It was founded in 1999 and in ...
'', edited by Graeme Dunphy & Cristian Bratu (Brill, 2016). Consulted online on 22 December 2019.
In the same year that he became a friar, Albert began writing a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
world chronicle
A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...
, the ''Annales Stadenses'' or ''Annals of Stade''. It begins at
Creation
Creation may refer to:
Religion
*''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing
* Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it
* Creationism, the belief tha ...
and ends in 1256. The early portions appear to have been based on
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
's ''Libellus de sex aetatibus mundi'' and
Ekkehard Ekkehard (and Eckardt, Eckard, Eckart, Eckhardt, Ekkehart) is a German given name. It is composed of the elements ''ekke'' "edge, blade; sword" and ''hart'' "brave; hardy". Variant forms include Eckard, Eckhard, Eckhart, Eckart.
The Anglo-Saxon fo ...
's ''Chronicon''. As he approaches his own time, Albert becomes, like most medieval chroniclers, both fuller and more reliable.
Albert also wrote several theological and literary works while he was a friar.
[ He is credited with ''Raimundus'', a versification of ]Raymond of Penyafort
Raymond of Penyafort ( ca, Sant Ramon de Penyafort, ; es, San Raimundo de Peñafort; 1175 – 6 January 1275) was a Catalan Dominican friar in the 13th century, who compiled the Decretals of Gregory IX, a collection of canonical laws tha ...
's ''Summa de casibus poenitentiae
The ''Summa de casibus poenitentiae'' (Summary Concerning the Cases of Penance) is a book written from 1224 to 1226 by Raymond of Penyafort. It is a guide for members of the Dominican Order when hearing confessions. The work was later revised and ...
'',[ and with ''Troilus'', a Latin epic about the ]Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has ...
in 5,320 lines.
Albert died between 1256 and 1258/1261,[ although he has sometimes been credited with the continuations added to his ''Annals'' to bring it down to 1265.
]
Notes
Sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albert of Stade
1180s births
1260s deaths
German Benedictines
Benedictine abbots
German chroniclers
German Friars Minor
Franciscan scholars
13th-century German Roman Catholic priests
13th-century Latin writers
13th-century German historians
Medieval Latin poets
German male poets
13th-century German poets