BL. WILLIAM OF HIRSCHAU, ABBOT - 4 JULY

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 4th of July

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. WILLIAM OF HIRSCHAU, ABBOT

Blessed William was abbot of Hirschau, monastic reformer; he was born in Bavaria and died at Hirschau, July 5, 1091. He was educated and took the Benedictine habit at St Emmeram, Ratisbon. 

HE ASSUMED THE MANAGEMENT OF THE MONASTERY

In 1069 he was called to Hirschau to succeed the deposed Abbot Frederick. He at once assumed the management of the monastery, but would not accept the abbatial benediction till after the death of his unjustly deposed predecessor in 1071. 

HE WAS THE FIRST TO INTRODUCE LAY BROTHERS

Under William’s abbacy, Hirschau reached the zenith of its glory and, despite the unusually strict monastic discipline which he introduced from Cluny, the number of priest-monks increased from 15 to 150. He was the first to introduce lay brothers (fratres laici, also called conversi, barbati, or exteriores) into the German Benedictine monasteries. Before his time there were, indeed, men-servants engaged at the monasteries, but they lived outside the monastery, wore no religious garb, and took no vows. 

HE WENT TO ROME

In 1075 William went to Rome to obtain the papal confirmation for the exemption of Hirschau. On this occasion he became acquainted with Gregory VII, with whose reformatory labours he was in deep sympathy and whom he afterwards strongly supported in the great conflict with Henry IV. 

HE CONSTRUCTED VARIOUS ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS

William had received an excellent education at St Emmeram, and in the knowledge of the quadrivials he was unsurpassed in his time. He constructed various astronomical instruments, made a sun-dial which showed the variations of the heavenly bodies, the solstices, equinoxes, and other sidereal phenomena. He was also a skilled musician and made various improvements on the flute. Besides composing the "Constitutiones Hirsaugienses", he is the author of a treatise "De astronomia", of which only the prologue is printed, and "De musica". William also had a standard edition of the Vulgate made for all the monasteries of the Hirschau reform. He is commemorated in various martyrologies July 4 or 5.

(From: "Catholic Encyclopedia", 1913)