Saints celebrated on the 31st of May
PILIGRINUS, BISHOP OF PASSAU
Piligrinus of Passau (Piligrim, Pilgrim, Pilegrinus, Peregrinus) is also remembered on May 20.
This famous bishop of Passau is listed by some as a "saint" and by others as a "blessed". Born Count von Pechlarn, he had been a canon in Niederaltaich for a long time.
In A.D. 971 he mounted the episcopal chair and governed his church for twenty years with great wisdom and piety. He was the 27th bishop.
By organising the pastoral care, he continued the work of conversion and secured the See's existence. He received external support for this from Duke Geisa and his wife Sarolta.
His main merit is probably his great zeal for the conversion of the Hungarians. He wanted to make them Christians, and thereby bring peace both to themselves and to the neighbouring peoples. Five thousand Magyars were soon converted. He prepared the predominance of the Roman Church over the Greek Church in Hungary. He led new settlers into these depopulated lands and exempted them from imperial taxes.
The creed he sent to Pope Benedict VII is distinguished by the beauty of the language and the concise content, similar to the so-called Athanasian. In the same correspondence he calls himself Bishop of Lorch. For this he received the pallium, had the title of Archbishop conferred on him, and won his diocese's independence of Salzburg, from which, however, arose much suffering for him.
The seven bishoprics of Hungary, which had formerly been under Lorch, were subordinated to him. The diocese of Regensburg owes it to him that St Wolfgang became bishop there.
Nevertheless, he also had his enemies, who even burned down his cathedral. But Emperor Otto II, grateful for the unshakable loyalty shown to him, provided him with plenty of means to rebuild it more beautifully than before.
He brought the cathedral school to extraordinary bloom. At his instigation, Master Conrad wrote the Nibelungen saga in Latin, which later gave rise to the glorious poem that bears this name. He died in the reputation of holiness on May 31, 991. A number of miracles through his intercession were documented in A.D. 1189. They do, however, lack historical and ecclesiastical certification.
Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - 🎨 Passau See Coat of Arms; based on Siebmachers Wappenbuch 1605
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