Blessed Gebhard von Salzburg ( 101015 June 1088), also occasionally known as Gebhard of Sussex, was

Archbishop of Salzburg The Archdiocese of Salzburg (; ) is a Latin Church, Latin rite archdiocese of the Catholic Church centered in Salzburg, Austria. It is also the principal diocese of the ecclesiastical province of Salzburg. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian ...

from 1060 until his death. He was one of the fiercest opponents of King

Henry IV of Germany Henry IV (; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son of Henry III, Holy R ...

during the

Investiture Controversy The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest (, , ) was a conflict between church and state in medieval Europe, the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture), abbots of monasteri ...

Life

Of Gebhard's origins, all that is known for certain is that he was born in the German

stem duchy A stem duchy (, from '':wikt:Stamm, Stamm'', meaning "tribe", in reference to the Franks, Saxons, Baiuvarii, Bavarians and Alemanni, Swabians) was a constituent duchy of the Kingdom of Germany at the time of the extinction of the Carolingian dyna ...

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

. Although he appeared in a 17th-century genealogy by Gabriel Bucelin as a scion of the

comital Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

House of Helfenstein, this lineage is entirely speculative. Gebhard presumably studied in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, was ordained a priest at Salzburg in 1055 and became court

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

to Emperor Henry III. Then a loyal supporter of the

Salian dynasty The Salian dynasty or Salic dynasty () was a dynasty in the High Middle Ages. The dynasty provided four kings of Germany (1024–1125), all of whom went on to be crowned Holy Roman emperors (1027–1125). After the death of the last Ottonia ...

, he also travelled as an ambassador to the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

court at

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

and held the office of an Imperial

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

between 1057 and 1059. On 30 July 1060 he was consecrated bishop of the

Archdiocese of Salzburg The Archdiocese of Salzburg (; ) is a Latin rite archdiocese of the Catholic Church centered in Salzburg, Austria. It is also the principal diocese of the ecclesiastical province of Salzburg. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian archdioceses, ...

. He reorganized the

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...

s paid by the Carantanian peasants and the parish system in

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

, where in 1072 he dissolved the double monastery of

Gurk Abbey Gurk Abbey () was a short-lived nunnery in Gurk, Carinthia (in present-day Austria), founded in 1043 by Saint Hemma of Gurk. The monastery arose at the site of a former Celtic temple, dedicated to the Gallo-Roman goddess Epona. In 898 the Carolin ...

, founded by Saint Hemma in 1043, and replaced it by the suffragan

Diocese of Gurk The Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt (, ) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church covering the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is part of the ecclesiastical province of Salzburg. Though named after Gurk Cathedral, the bishop's see since 1787 ...

. Gebhard also established Admont Abbey in 1074, vested with Hemma's estates in the Carinthian

March of Styria The March of Styria (; ; ) was a southeastern March (territorial entity), frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, encompassing various regions around the river Mur (river), Mur. Created sometime before 970, it was broken off the larger March of ...

. Besides this, he had the fortresses Hohensalzburg, Hohenwerfen and Friesach built. In 1075, Gebhard supported the German king Henry IV struggling with the Great Saxon Revolt. In the following

, however, he took the side of

Pope Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII (; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana (), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. One of the great ...

. Like his friend bishop Altmann of Passau he did not attend the 1076 Synod of Worms held by the king and instead allied with the oppositional princes at the diet of

Trebur Trebur is a municipality in Groß-Gerau district in Hessen, Germany. It is 13 km southeast of Mainz, and 8 km south of Rüsselsheim. Geography Location Trebur is located in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region. The cities of Mainz, Wiesb ...

later in that year. Even after Henry's Road to Canossa, Gebhard supported the election of anti-king

Rudolf of Rheinfelden Rudolf of Rheinfelden ( – 15 October 1080) was Duke of Swabia from 1057 to 1079. Initially a follower of his brother-in-law, the Salian emperor Henry IV, his election as German anti-king in 1077 marked the outbreak of the Great Saxon Revolt a ...

in March 1077; as Gebhard was unwilling to be reconciled with the king, Henry IV expelled him from Salzburg. While his diocese was devastated by the king's forces, Gebhard spent nine years in Swabia and

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

, trying to win their bishops' support for Pope Gregory VII. Meanwhile in Salzburg, Berthold von Moosburg was installed as anti-bishop in 1085. Gebhard was not able to return to Salzburg until 1086, assisted by the support of Duke Welf I of Bavaria. Gebhard died at Hohenwerfen on 15 June 1088 and is buried in the church of Admont Abbey. His feast day is 15 June. He is shown as a bishop with a

Greek cross The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Jesus, Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a crucifix and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' (La ...

and a

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

. In 1629 the process of

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christianity, Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon ca ...

was begun, but was effectively put on hold due to the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

. It has never been concluded.

Notes

Sources

*Amon, Karl, 1991: ''Die heiligen Bischöfe und Erzbischöfe der Kirche von Salzburg''. In: ''Sursum Corda, Festschrift für P. Harnoncourt''. * *Karner, Pius, 1913: ''Austria Sancta. Die Heiligen und Seligen Salzburgs''. Vienna. *Tomek, Ernst, 1935-59: ''Kirchengeschichte Österreichs''. Innsbruck/Vienna/Munich: Tyrolia. *Wimmer, Otto, Melzer, Hartmann, Gelmi, Josef (eds.), 2002: ''Gebhard Erzb. von Salzburg''. In: ''Lexikon der Namen und Heiligen''. Hamburg: Nikol. *Wodka, Josef, 1959: ''Kirche in Österreich. Wegweiser durch ihre Geschichte''. Vienna: Herder. *Wodka, Josef, 1960: ''Gebhard EB v. Salzburg''. In: ''Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche''. 2nd edition, vol. 4. Freiburg i. B.: Herder.

External links

AEIOU Austrian Biographical Encyclopaedia

{{Authority control Roman Catholic archbishops of Salzburg 11th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the Holy Roman Empire 1010s births 1088 deaths