St. Ulrich

Ulrich
Feastday: July 14
Birth: 1029
Death: 1093

Ulrich was born at Ratisbon, Germany. He became a page at the court of Empress Agnes but opted for the religious life. He was ordained a deacon by his uncle, Bishop Notker of Freising, and became Archdeacon and provost of the Cathedral. When he found that his position had been filled while he was on a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem, he became a Benedictine monk at Cluny in 1052. He was ordained, was named chaplain to the nuns at Marcigny, but resigned when he lost the sight of an eye and then returned to Cluny. He served as Prior at Peterlingen, was founding Friar of Ruggersberg Priory, but returned to Cluny, when he opposed Bishop Burchard of Lausanne for his support of Henry IV against the Pope. He was founding Abbot of the monastery at Zell in the Black Forest and of a convent at nearby Bollschweil. He became totally blind in 1091 and died two years later, on July 10, at Augsburg. He was the author of Consuetudines cluniacences, on the liturgy and the direction of monasteries and novices. His feast day is July 14.

Not to be confused with Ulrich Zell, an early printer in Cologne.

Saint Ulrich of Zell, also known as Wulderic, sometimes of Cluny or of Regensburg (c. 1029 – 1093), was a Cluniac reformer of Germany, abbot, founder and saint.

Life

Ulrich was born at Regensburg in Bavaria (formerly also known as Ratisbon) in early c. 1029. His parents, pious and rich, were Bernhold and Bucca, niece of Bishop Gebhard II of Regensburg. Ulrich was probably educated at the school of St. Emmeram's Abbey, along with William of Hirsau, with whom he remained friends throughout his life, but in 1043 he was called to the court of his godfather, Henry III, King of the Germans where he acted as page to Queen Agnes, who was of the ducal house of Aquitaine, patrons of the reforming Abbey of Cluny. Ordained deacon by his uncle Nidger, Bishop of Freising, he was made archdeacon of the cathedral there, but was deeply moved by the spirit of reform that was sweeping from Cluny through the 11th century church. On his return from a journey to Rome he distributed his possessions to the poor, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and, after another short visit to Rome, returned to Regensburg, where he founded a religious community, and then entered the Abbey of Cluny in 1061, during the abbacy of Saint Hugh.

Here he was ordained priest and appointed confessor to the convent at Mareigny in the diocese of Autun, and prior of the community of men in the same place. He also lost an eye and was obliged to return to Cluny.

Later life

He was then named prior at Peterlingen (now Payerne) in the Diocese of Lausanne, but on account of troubles caused by Bishop Burchard von Oltingen, a partisan of Henry IV, Ulrich returned again to Cluny, where he acted as adviser to the abbot. His influence drew the Benedictine community of Rüeggisberg to become a Cluniac priory in 1072, the first reformed priory in German-speaking lands . A nobleman had donated to Cluny some property at Grüningen near Breisach, and Ulrich was sent to inspect the place and eventually to lay the foundation of a monastery. Not finding the locality suitable, he and his monks moved in 1087 to Zell (Sell, Sella, Villmarszelle) in the Black Forest, where his high reputation soon brought him many disciples. He enjoyed the good opinion of Blessed Gebhard III, Bishop of Basle, who frequently visited him. In 1090 he established Bollschweil Priory, a Cluniac nunnery at Bolesweiler (now Bollschweil), about a mile from Zell. For the last two years of his life he was blind.

He died at Zell, later known as St. Ulrich im Schwarzwald, probably on 10 July 1093. He was buried in the cloister, but three years later his body was brought into the church.

His feast was celebrated for the first time on 14 July 1139, and 14 July remains his feast day.

Works

His work "Consuetudines cluniacenses" ("Uses of Cluny") was composed at the request of William of Hirsau, in three books. The first two, written between 1079 and 1082, treat of liturgy and the education of novices; the third, written not later than 1087, speaks of the administration of monasteries.

His life of Hermann of Zähringen, Margrave of Baden, later a monk of Cluny, is lost.

Biographies

Two biographies of him exist: the first was written anonymously around 1109 by a monk of Zell at the request of Adalbert, a recluse near Regensburg; the other (the Vita posterior), also anonymous, was written between 1109 and 1130. Particulars of his life are also contained in his writings.

Literature

  • Michael Buhlmann: Benediktinisches Mönchtum im mittelalterlichen Schwarzwald. Ein Lexikon. Vortrag beim Schwarzwaldverein St. Georgen e.V., St. Georgen im Schwarzwald, 10. November 2004, Teil 2: N–Z (= Vertex Alemanniae, H. 10/2), S. 102.
  • Dieter Heck: Ulrich von Zell. Der Reform verpflichtet (Hagiographie/Ikonographie/Volkskunde; Nr. 105). Schnell + Steiner, München und Zürich 1992.
  • Johannes Madey: Ulrich von Zell. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Band 19, Bautz, Nordhausen 2001, ISBN 3-88309-089-1, Sp. 1453–1455.
  • Florian Lamke: Cluniazenser am Oberrhein. Konfliktlösungen und adlige Gruppenbildung in der Zeit des Investiturstreits (= Forschungen zur oberrheinischen Landesgeschichte, Bd. 54), Freiburg / München 2009, bes. S. 136-152.
  • Wolfgang Müller: St. Ulrich. In: Die Benediktinerklöster in Baden-Württemberg. (= Germania Benedictina, Bd. 5), Ottobeuren 1976, S. 615
  • E. Tremp: Ulrich von Zell. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters (LexMA). Band 8, LexMA-Verlag, München 1997, ISBN 3-89659-908-9, Sp. 1205–1026.

Notes

  1. ^ Johannes Madey (2001). "Ulrich von Zell, auch Ulrich von Regensburg, von Cluny oder von Grüningen". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). 19. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1453–1455. ISBN 3-88309-089-1.
  2. ^ Consuetudines Cluniacenses in: Patrologia Latina 149, pp. 635–778.
  3. ^ Vita Udalrici prioris Cellensis, ed. R. Willmans, in: MGSS XII, 249-269 (with selected passages from the "Vita posterior")
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Ulrich Ulrich Birth: 1029 Death: 1093
Birth: 1029 Death: 1093