Bishop of Passau
The Diocese of Passau is a Roman Catholic diocese in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.Campbell, Thomas. "Blessed Altmann." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 24 December 2018 He was also a prebendary in Aachen between 1056 and 1065, court chaplain to Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Henry III and a Canon (priest), canon in Goslar.
In 1065 he succeeded Egilbert, Bishop of Passau, Egilbert as Bishop of Passau and began reforms of the clergy. As bishop he was famous for his care of the poor, his vigor in the reformation of relaxed monasteries, and the building of new ones. He founded Abbey of St. Nikola in Passau, St. Nicholas' Abbey in Passau in 1070 as a monastery of the Canons Regular, and Göttweig Abbey in Lower Austria in 1083, later converted into a Order of St. Benedict, Benedictine monastery in 1094.
In 1074 he announced the reforms of Pope Gregory VII, whom he supported in the subsequent Investiture Controversy. Altmann was the most zealous promoter of the Church reform in the German lands.Floridus Röhrig: Leopold III. der Heilige Markgraf von Österreich. Verlag Herold, Wien-München 1985. , p21 In 1076, along with the Archbishop of Salzburg, Gebhard of Salzburg, Gebhard von Helfenstein (who had consecrated Altmann as a bishop), he did not take part in the Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire), Reichstag of Worms, Germany, Worms, and supported the counter-king Rudolf of Swabia. He was expelled from Passau by Emperor Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, who laid the city to waste in 1077/1078. The princely rights over the town of Passau were lost, the king lent them to the Burggrave Ulrich, whom he had employed. These were to be returned to the bishops only after the death of the Burggrave in 1099.
Altmann took part in the Fastensynodes 1079 and 1080 in Rome, was appointed Papal legate for Germany, and was able to win the Margrave Leopold II, Margrave of Austria, Leopold II of Austria over to the Papal party. In 1085 the Emperor deposed him as Bishop of Passau, after which he spent most of his time in the territory of the Austrian margrave, where he reformed the existing monasteries of St. Florian's Priory, St. Florian, Kremsmünster Abbey, Melk Abbey, Melk and St. Pölten Abbey, improved the parish church organisation, and had stone churches built at all of them. His influence on the government of the margraviate was at times so strong that he was called the "leader" of Margrave Leopold II. He died in Zeiselmauer in Lower Austria and was buried in the monastery of Göttweig Abbey. He is venerated as a saint, although no official canonization has ever taken place. His feast day is 8 August.
The ''Vita'' of Altmann of Passau was written by an anonymous monk of Göttweig some fifty years after the bishop's death.Smalley, Beryl. "A Pseudo-Sibylline Prochecy of the Early Twelfth Century in the ''Life'' of Altmann of Passau", ''Studies in Medieval Thought and Learning From Abelard to Wyclif'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 1981, p. 9
References
Sources
*Tomek, Ernst, 1935-39: ''Kirchengeschichte Österreichs''. Innsbruck - Wien - München: Tyrolia.
*Tropper, C., 1983: ''Der heilige Altmann''. In: ''900 Jahre Stift Göttweig 1083-1983. Ein Donaustift als Repräsentant benediktinischer Kultur''. (Exhibition catalogue) Göttweig.
*Wodka, Josef, 1959: ''Kirche in Österreich. Wegweiser durch ihre Geschichte''. Vienna: Herder.
*Fuchs, Adalbert, 1929: ''Der heilige Altmann. Kleine historische Monographien; 18''.
*Anon., 1965: ''Der heilige Altmann Bischof von Passau''.
External links
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{{Authority control
Year of birth unknown
1091 deaths
11th-century bishops in Bavaria
11th-century Christian saints
Roman Catholic bishops of Passau
German Roman Catholic saints
Lower Saxon nobility
Westphalian nobility
