Saint Burchard of Meissen (died 25 September 969) was the first

Bishop of Meissen The Bishop of Dresden-Meissen is the Ordinary (Catholic Church), ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dresden-Meissen in the Archdiocese of Berlin. The diocese covers an area of and was erected as the Diocese of Meissen on 24 June 1921. Th ...

, from 968.''Sächsische Biographie'' (Peter Neumeister): Burchard, Bischof von Meißen
/ref> Archbishop

Adalbert of Magdeburg Adalbert of Magdeburg (c. 91020 June 981), sometimes incorrectly shortened to "Albert", known as the Apostle of the Slavs, was the first Archbishop of Magdeburg (from 968) and a successful missionary to the Polabian Slavs to the east of what is ...

consecrated him in Magdeburg as the first Bishop of Meissen, where he established the first

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

Meissen Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrecht ...

. The only documented facts about him are his name, the details of his consecration and the date of his death. In the absence of facts a traditional account of his death developed, to the effect that he died on 14 June in either 970 or 972 from a fall from his horse, but this is not supported by any evidence. He is sometimes said to have been a

Benedictine , 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 ...

monk from St. Emmeram's Abbey, Regensburg, or St. John's Abbey, Magdeburg (Kloster Berge), but there is no documented evidence of this either. He is venerated as a saint; his feast day is 14 June.Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon
]

Notes and references

Literature

* Machatschek, Eduard: ''Geschichte der Bischöfe des Hochstiftes Meissen in chronologischer Reihenfolge: Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Culturgeschichte der Mark Meissen und des Herzog und Kurfürstenthums Sachsens. Nach dem ''Codex diplomaticus Saxoniae regiae'', anderen glaubwürdigen Quellen und bewährten Geschichtswerken bearbeitet'' (pp. 11–19). C. C. Meinhold, Dresden 1884 * * Rittenbach, Willi, and Seifert, Siegfried: ''Geschichte der Bischöfe von Meißen 968-1581'' St. Benno, Leipzig 1965 Roman Catholic bishops of Meissen German saints Year of birth unknown 969 deaths {{Germany-RC-bishop-stub