GREGORY, ABBOT OF EINSIEDELN

GREGORY, ABBOT OF EINSIEDELN - 8 NOVEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 8th of November

VENERABLE GREGORY, ABBOT

The Venerable Gregory (Gregorius, Gregor), Abbot of Einsiedeln, is said to have been an Englishman of very noble descent. Legend calls him the son of a king, namely Edward the Elder, and a brother of Athelston and Edmund (Bollandists*). According to Butler* he was the brother of the first wife of the German Emperor Otto I, while Migne* reckons that Gregory was but a close relative of hers.

In another passage Butler states that Gregory gave himself up to godliness at an early age and, out of a deep love for God, forsook the false delights of the world. Still in his youth, he bid farewell to his fatherland, his parents, his bride etc., and, moreover, secretly went to Rome with two other youths. They hung their hats at a monastery on Mount Cœlius (Monte Celio), where Gregory devoted himself completely to the strictest penances etc.

By divine Providence, he came to Switzerland in A.D. 949, to the institute originally founded by St Meinrad in 838, which had been re-established by Venerable Benno in 906: the monastery of Maria Einsiedeln.

Gregory edified the monastery community through his pious conduct to such an extent that, following the death of Abbot Eberhard (in the year 958), he was elected abbot. According to other sources, a certain Thietland was Eberhard's successor, and Gregory his coadjutor from 960 and only became abbot proper in 963.

Both the emperors Otto II and III held Gregory in high esteem. The pious Gebhard, bishop of Constance, asked Abbot Gregory for monks for the Petershausen monastery, which Gebhard had built and funded from his own means. Petershausen is now a suburb of Constance. The holy Bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg esteemed Gregory as his teacher and educator. Under Gregory's direction, the school at Einsiedeln became of the most famous of that period.

Gregory died on November 8, 996 and was buried at the altar of St Maurice. His relics were solemnly raised in 1609. Migne* calls him "saint", Lechner* "venerable". (But., Mur., Mg.)

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 2, Augsburg, 1861)

*A hagiography source used by the authors

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

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