Albert of Stade (c. 1187 – c. 1260) was a German monk, historian and poet. StadeJohanniskloster

Albert probably studied in the school of

Bremen Cathedral Bremen Cathedral (german: Bremer Dom or St. Petri Dom zu Bremen), dedicated to St. Peter, is a church situated in the market square in the center of Bremen. The cathedral belongs to the Bremian Evangelical Church, a member of the Protestant umbre ...

. He joined the Benedictine Order and entered the monastery of Harsefeld near Stade. He rose to become prior and in 1232 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 ...

. He was opposed both to the lax enforcement of the

Benedictine Rule The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...

at Harsefeld and to the introduction of the stricter Cistercian observance. For this reason he resigned as abbot in 1240 and joined the

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

friary of Saint John in Stade.Kai-Henrik Günther, "Albert of Stade", in ''

Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle The Medieval Chronicle Society is an international and interdisciplinary organization founded to facilitate the work of scholars interested in medieval annals and chronicles, or more generally medieval historiography. It was founded in 1999 and in ...

'', edited by Graeme Dunphy & Cristian Bratu (Brill, 2016). Consulted online on 22 December 2019. In the same year that he became a friar, Albert began writing a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

world chronicle A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...

, the ''Annales Stadenses'' or ''Annals of Stade''. It begins at

Creation Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing * Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it * Creationism, the belief tha ...

and ends in 1256. The early portions appear to have been based on Bede's ''Libellus de sex aetatibus mundi'' and

Ekkehard Ekkehard (and Eckardt, Eckard, Eckart, Eckhardt, Ekkehart) is a German given name. It is composed of the elements ''ekke'' "edge, blade; sword" and ''hart'' "brave; hardy". Variant forms include Eckard, Eckhard, Eckhart, Eckart. The Anglo-Saxon fo ...

's ''Chronicon''. As he approaches his own time, Albert becomes, like most medieval chroniclers, both fuller and more reliable. Albert also wrote several theological and literary works while he was a friar. He is credited with ''Raimundus'', a versification of

Raymond of Penyafort Raymond of Penyafort ( ca, Sant Ramon de Penyafort, ; es, San Raimundo de Peñafort; 1175 – 6 January 1275) was a Catalan Dominican friar in the 13th century, who compiled the Decretals of Gregory IX, a collection of canonical laws tha ...

's ''

Summa de casibus poenitentiae The ''Summa de casibus poenitentiae'' (Summary Concerning the Cases of Penance) is a book written from 1224 to 1226 by Raymond of Penyafort. It is a guide for members of the Dominican Order when hearing confessions. The work was later revised and ...

'', and with ''Troilus'', a Latin epic about the

Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ...

in 5,320 lines. Albert died between 1256 and 1258/1261, although he has sometimes been credited with the continuations added to his ''Annals'' to bring it down to 1265.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Albert of Stade 1180s births 1260s deaths German Benedictines Benedictine abbots German chroniclers German Friars Minor Franciscan scholars 13th-century German Roman Catholic priests 13th-century Latin writers 13th-century German historians Medieval Latin poets German male poets 13th-century German poets