ST ALTMANN OF PASSAU, BISHOP - 8 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 8th of August

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.

ST ALTMANN OF PASSAU, BISHOP 

[Several sources list Altmann as a saint, although he seems not to have been canonised. This article refers to him as "Blessed Altmann"]

The friend of Gregory VII and Anselm, conspicuous in the contest of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, as Bishop of Passau and Papal Legate. 

HE WAS CHAPLAIN OF THE COURT OF HENRY III

He was born at Paderborn about the beginning of the eleventh century, presided over the school there, was chaplain at the court of Henry III, and then became Bishop of Passau. 

HE WAS FAMOUS FOR HIS CARE OF THE POOR

The Bollandists find that, because of these successive occupations, it is impossible to make him out a Benedictine monk. As a bishop he was famous for his care of the poor, his vigour in the reformation of relaxed monasteries, the building of new ones, and the splendour with which he invested divine worship - Henry IV himself contributing lavishly to enrich the church of Passau, chiefly through the intervention of the Empresses Agnes and Bertha, his wife and mother - and finally for the opposition which he aroused in enforcing Gregory’s decree of celibacy of the clergy. 

HE WAS RECALLED TO HIS SEE

With the help of Henry the recalcitrants succeeded in driving him from his see. He was recalled, however, shortly after the death of Hermann the intruder, at whose deathbed he is said to have appeared. Hermann begged for absolution, and asked not to be buried as a Bishop. 

Altmann’s second possession of his see lasted only a short time. He was again expelled, and died in exile ten years after. He was one of the four South German bishops who sided with Gregory, and defied Henry, in refusing to take part in the Diet of Worms to depose the Pope. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)