Gregory of Utrecht ( 700/705 – August 25, 776) was born of a noble family at
Trier
Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...
.
[Monks of Ramsgate. "Gregory of Utrecht". ''Book of Saints'']
1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 26 July 2013 He became a follower of Saint Boniface, who sent him to study at the Monastery of Saint Michael at
Ohrdruf
Ohrdruf () is a small town in the district of Gotha in the German state of Thuringia. It lies some 30 km southwest of Erfurt at the foot of the northern slope of the Thuringian Forest. The former municipalities Crawinkel, Gräfenhain an ...
. He then accompanied Boniface on his missionary journeys. In 750, Boniface appointed Gregory abbot of St. Martin's Monastery in Utrecht. St. Martin's became a centre of learning and missionary activity. When, in 754, Eoban left to accompany Boniface on their last missionary trip, Gregory was tasked with administering the diocese of Utrecht, which he did faithfully for the next twenty-three years until his death in 776.
Life
Gregory of Utrecht was born around the year 700 of a noble family at
Trier
Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...
.
His father Alberic was the son of Addula, who in her widowhood was Abbess of Pfalzel (''Palatiolum'') near Trier. (Because of the similarity of names and also because of a forged will, Addula has been frequently confused with
Saint Adela of Pfalzel, daughter of
Dagobert II
Dagobert II ( la, Dagober(c)tus; ang, Dægberht; died 679) was a Merovingian king of the Franks, ruling in Austrasia from 675 or 676 until his death. He is one of the more obscure Merovingians. He has been considered a martyr since at least the ni ...
of
Austrasia, thus wrongly imputing to Gregory membership of the royal house of the
Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...
s).
[Mershman, Francis. "St. Gregory of Utrecht." The Catholic Encyclopedia]
Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 22 October 2021
He received his early education at Pfalzel. When, in 722,
Boniface
Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations o ...
passed through Trier on his way from
Frisia to
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
and
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and lar ...
, he stayed at this convent. Abbess Addula called on her fifteen years old grandson to read the scriptures at the meals. Saint Boniface gave an explanation of them and expanded upon the merits of an apostolic life, by which Gregory was inspired to accompany him.
[ When Gregory persisted in his desire to go with Boniface, Addula gave him servants and horses.
He now became a disciple of Boniface, who sent him to the Monastery of Saint Michael at ]Ohrdruf
Ohrdruf () is a small town in the district of Gotha in the German state of Thuringia. It lies some 30 km southwest of Erfurt at the foot of the northern slope of the Thuringian Forest. The former municipalities Crawinkel, Gräfenhain an ...
to continue his studies.[Butler, Alban. "Saint Gregory, Abbot and Confessor". ''Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints'']
1866. CatholicSaints.Info. 9 August 2014, Gregory later became Boniface's helper, and accompanied him in all his missionary tours.[
]
Abbot
In 738 Saint Boniface made his third journey to Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
; Gregory went with him and brought back many valuable additions for his library. In 744 Saint Willibrord
Willibrord (; 658 – 7 November AD 739) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary and saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first bishop of Utrecht and died at Echternach, Luxembourg.
Early life
His father ...
, the first Bishop of Utrecht, had died but no successor had been named. Boniface had taken charge and had appointed an administrator, Saint Eoban. About 750 Gregory was made Abbot of St. Martin's, in Utrecht.[ In 754 Boniface started on his last missionary trip accompanied by Eoban, who was to share his martyrdom. After this, Pope Stephen II and ]Pippin the Younger
the Short (french: Pépin le Bref; – 24 September 768), also called the Younger (german: Pippin der Jüngere), was King of the Franks from 751 until his death in 768. He was the first Carolingian to become king.
The younger was the son of t ...
ordered Gregory to look after the diocese. For this reason he is sometimes called ''bishop'', though he never received episcopal consecration.[
The school of his abbey, the ''Martinsstift'', a kind of missionary seminary, was now a centre of learning for many nations: ]Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
, Frisians, Saxons
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
, even Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
ns and Swabians. England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
too, though it had splendid schools of its own, sent scholars. Among his disciples, Saint Ludger is perhaps the best known, later to be the first Bishop of Münster
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...
and author of the ''Life'' of Gregory, in which he describes Gregory's virtues, his contempt of riches, his sobriety, his forgiving spirit and his deeds of alms.
When the murderers of Gregory's two half-brothers were sent to him by the civil magistrates to be put to what death he should think fit, according to the custom of the country at that age, which left the punishment of the assassins to the direction of the relations of the deceased person; he gave every one of them a suit of clothes with an alms, and dismissed them with good advice.[
Gregory welcomed ]Lebuinus
Lebuinus (also known as ''Lebuin'', ''Lebwin'' or ''Liafwin ') is the Apostle of the Frisians and patron of Deventer (born in England of Anglo-Saxon parents, date unknown; died at Deventer c. 775).
Life
Lebuinus was a monk in Wilfrid's monastery ...
of Ripon
Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...
and entrusted him with the mission of Overijssel on the borders of Westphalia
Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants.
The territory of the regio ...
, and gave him Marchelm (or Marcellinus), a disciple of Saint Willibrord, as a companion. In 767 Gregory, who did not wish to receive episcopal consecration himself, sent Alubert, who had come from England to assist him in his missionary work, to York to be consecrated bishop.Mershman, Francis. "St. Ludger." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 24 January 2020
Some three years before Gregory's death, paralysis attacked his left side and gradually spread over his entire body.[ Gregory died at ]Maastricht
Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...
on August 25, 776. At the approach of death he had himself carried into church, where he died. He was succeeded by his nephew, Alberic of Utrecht
Saint Alberic of Utrecht, nl, Alberik I van Utrecht, (died 21 August 784) was a Benedictine monk and bishop of Utrecht, in what is today the Netherlands.
Life
Alberic was the nephew of Saint Gregory of Utrecht. Little is known of Alberic before ...
, prior of St. Martin's.
Veneration
His relics were kept at Utrecht, and in 1421 and 1597 were examined at episcopal visitations. A large portion of his head is in the church of Saint Amelberga at Susteren
Susteren (; li, Zöstere ) is a city in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is located in the municipality of Echt-Susteren, about 7 km northwest of Sittard. It was a separate municipality until 2003, when it was merged with Echt. Susteren r ...
, where an official recognition took place on 25 September 1885 under the supervision of the Bishop of Roermond
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Roermond is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, located in the Netherlands. The diocese is one of the seven suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrec ...
. A letter written by Saint Lullus, Bishop of Mainz
The Diocese of Mainz, historically known in English as ''Mentz'' as well as by its French name ''Mayence'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was founded in 304, promoted in 780 to Metrop ...
, to Saint Gregory is still extant.
References
Sources
* ''Luidgeri vita Gregorii Abbatis Traiectensis'', ed. by O. Holder-Egger, Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores (in folio), 15 part 1 (1887), pp. 63–79
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory Of Utrecht
700s births
770s deaths
8th-century Frankish bishops
8th-century Frankish saints
Bishops of Utrecht
Christian missionaries in Germany
Burials at St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht
Echt-Susteren
People from Trier
German Christian missionaries