Wibald ( la, Wibaldus) (early 1098 – 19 July 1158) was a 12th-century Abbot of Stavelot (Stablo) and

Malmedy Malmedy (; german: Malmünd, ; wa, Måmdiy) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On January 1, 2018, Malmedy had a total population of 12,654. The total area is 99.96 km2 which gives a populati ...

, both in present-day

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, and of

Corvey The Princely Abbey of Corvey (german: link=no, Fürststift Corvey or Fürstabtei Corvey) is a former Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastical principality now in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was one of the half-dozen self-ruling '' princel ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Biography

Wibald was born near Stavelot in 1098. Soon after he studied at the monastic schools at Stavelot and Liège and entered the

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 ...

monastery at

Waulsort Waulsort ( wa, Åssôrt) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Hastière, located in the province of Namur, Belgium. Until the reorganisation of the Municipalities of Belgium 1977, Waulsort was a municipality in its own r ...

near Namur in 1117. After presiding for some time over the monastic school at Waulsort he went to the monastery at Stavelot and in 1130 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 ...

of Stavelot and Malmedy. On 22 October 1146, he was also elected Abbot of Corvey and four months later the convents at

Fischbeck Fischbeck (Elbe) is a village and a former municipality in the district of Stendal, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Wust-Fischbeck Wust-Fischbeck is a municipality in the district of Stendal, in ...

and Kemnade were annexed to Corvey Conrad III. During the abbacy of Wibald, the monastery of Stavelot reached the period of its greatest fame, and at Corvey the monastic discipline which had been on the decline was again restored. Wibald was one of the most influential councillors of the

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

Lothaire II and King Conrad III. Combining patriotism with a submissive devotion to the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

, he used his great influence to preserve harmony between the emperors and the popes. In 1137 he accompanied Lothair on a military expedition to Italy and through the emperor's influence was elected Abbot of

Monte Cassino Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, west of Cassino and at an elevation of . Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first h ...

. When King Roger of Sicily threatened to destroy the monastery unless Wibald resigned the abbacy, he returned to Stavelot, having been Abbot of Monte Cassino for only forty days. During the reign of Conrad III (1138–52), Wibald became still more influential. All the emperor's negotiations with the Apostolic See were carried on by Wibald, and he visited Rome on eight occasions on imperial embassies. The emperor would enter upon no political undertaking without consulting the abbot. Hoping to acquire the island of

Rügen Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...

, he took part in the partly successful 1147

Wendish Crusade The Wendish Crusade (german: Wendenkreuzzug) was a military campaign in 1147, one of the Northern Crusades and a part of the Second Crusade, led primarily by the Kingdom of Germany within the Holy Roman Empire and directed against the Polabian Sl ...

. During the absence of Conrad III in

Outremer The Crusader States, also known as Outremer, were four Catholic realms in the Middle East that lasted from 1098 to 1291. These feudal polities were created by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade through conquest and political in ...

(1147–49), Wibald was the

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of the king's young son

Henry Berengar Henry Berengar (1136/7–1150), sometimes numbered Henry (VI), was the eldest legitimate son of Conrad III of Germany and his second wife, Gertrude von Sulzbach. He was named after his father's maternal grandfather, the Emperor Henry IV, and his mot ...

, but seems to have had little to do with the political affairs of Germany during that period. Conrad's successor,

Frederick I Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt o ...

, esteemed Wibald highly and sent the abbot on a mission to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

in 1154 and again in 1157. His sudden death at

Bitolia Bitola (; mk, Битола ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki ...

Paphlagonia Paphlagonia (; el, Παφλαγονία, Paphlagonía, modern translit. ''Paflagonía''; tr, Paflagonya) was an ancient region on the Black Sea coast of north-central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus (region), Pontus t ...

in 1158 while returning from the second mission gave rise to the suspicion that he was poisoned by the Byzantines.

Writings

More than 400 of Wibald's epistles are still extant. He himself collected them in the so-called ''Codex epistolaris Wibaldi''. Beginning with the year 1146, they became a chief source for the history of Conrad III and the early reign of Frederick Barbarossa.

References

The best edition was prepared by Jaffé, "Monumenta Corbeiensia" in "Bibliotheca rerum German.", I (Berlin, 1864), 76-602. They are also printed in '' Patrologia Latina'' CLXXXIX, 1121-1458.

Sources

{{Authority control 1098 births 1158 deaths German abbots 12th-century Roman Catholic priests People of the Northern Crusades Christians of the Wendish Crusade Abbots of Stavelot 12th-century people of the Holy Roman Empire