Purchart (died 17 July 1022) was

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 ...

of the Abbey of Saint Gall from 1001 to 1022.

Life

Purchart enjoyed great devotion among his monks. Thus, several stories are told about him, for example the one that in his youth, he went with Ekkehart II to Hedwig, the Countess of Swabia, at Castle Hohentwiel. He is supposed to have amused her with his self-composed verses, whereupon she gave him lessons in Greek. However, from the time before his election as abbot, documentary validation of his career is lacking; not even the book of vows gives any indication. Henry II affirmed the immunity of the abbey and the free election of abbots on 17 June 1004. Purchart's term of office ended when he died of an epidemic that befell Henry II's army on the return from his campaign of Italy.

Works

Purchart is said to have countermanded the corruption of the Abbey of Saint Gall after Kerhart's reign. He restored the abbey breed and brought a lot of lost property, especially issued fief, back to the abbey. Moreover, he had the convent buildings repaired and enlarged, increased the church treasure and probably equipped the cloister with images from the life of Saint Gall and inscriptions written by

Ekkehard IV Ekkehard IV ( 980 – c. 1056) was a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall and the author of the ''Casus sancti Galli'' and ''Liber Benedictionum''. Life According to the testimony in his "Chronicle" (especially in view of his statement that he had heard ...

. Under Purchart, the German language was especially cultivated, as

Notker Labeo Notker Labeo (c. 950 – 28 June 1022), also known as Notker the German ( la, Notcerus Teutonicus) or Notker III, was a Benedictine monk and the first commentator on Aristotle active in the Middle Ages. "Labeo" means "the thick-lipped one". Late ...

was at that time head of the convent school of Saint Gall. Purchart successfully resisted legal and financial claims of the Bishopric of Constance and the archpriests in particular.

Notes and references

External links

* Erhart, Peter. 2010: "Purchart"
Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Purchart 02 10th-century births 1022 deaths Year of birth unknown Abbots of Saint Gall