Berowulf or Berowelf (died 26 September 800) was the
bishop of Würzburg from 768 or 769 until his death. Since the 11th century, his name has appeared as ''Bernwelf''. It may also be spelled ''Berowolf'', ''Bernwulf'' or ''Bernulf''. Berowulf's predecessor,
Megingoz, retired in 768.
The first reference to Berowulf as bishop comes from April 769. Prior to his election he was a monk from the local monastery of Sankt Andreas. As bishop, he introduced the rule of
Chrodegang to replace that of
Boniface. He had a close relationship with
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
(reigned 768–814), who charged him with the evangelisation of the
Slavs
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
in the upper
Main
Main may refer to:
Geography
* Main River (disambiguation)
**Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany
* Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province
*"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries
...
region.
In 779 he was commissioned to establish a new missionary diocese, the
bishopric of Paderborn, in the east. The first two bishops of that see,
Hathumar and
Badurad, were sent to
Würzburg Cathedral to be educated at the school Berowulf had established. He also grew the
scriptorium, and the first catalogue of books in the cathedral library dates from his episcopate. The main part of the list was written in an
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
hand around 800. A later addition, in a German hand, notes five books which had been lent to
Holzkirchen and
Fulda Abbey
The Abbey of Fulda (German ''Kloster Fulda'', Latin ''Abbatia Fuldensis''), from 1221 the Princely Abbey of Fulda (''Fürstabtei Fulda'') and from 1752 the Prince-Bishopric of Fulda (''Fürstbistum Fulda''), was a Order of Saint Benedict, Benedicti ...
. In all, it contains thirty-five books. It was compiled after 787—since the manuscript fly-leaf contains a copy in the same hand of Charlemagne's letter ''
De litteris colendis'' of that year—but probably before 800.
In October 788, Berowulf brought the relics of
Saint Kilian to the cathedral which now bears the saint's name. In 787, he tried unsuccessfully to assert episcopal control over Fulda. His successor in Würzburg was the obscure Liuttrit (800–803).
Notes
Sources
*
*
*
{{Authority control
800 deaths
Roman Catholic bishops of Würzburg
Year of birth unknown