HEDDO, BISHOP OF STRASBOURG - 8 MARCH

 

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Saints celebrated on the 8th of March

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HEDDO, BISHOP OF STRASBOURG

Heddo, remembered on March 8 and July 3, variously listed as Hetto, Etto, Heddon, Eddon, Haddon, Edda, Addam, Athik, Ethics, Euto, Haiko, Oddo, Otto, Speddo etc., was bishop of Strasbourg. A grandson of Ethiko, who was the father of Saint Odilia, Heddo descended from a renowned Alsatian ducal family. 

Heddo started his holy career as abbot of the Gregorienthal monastery, Upper Rhine Department. After some time, Abbot Pirmin (Pirminus), whom the Alemannic Duke Theobald had expelled from the Neichenau monastery (Augia dives) in 727, appointed Heddo abbot of this institute. As such he was very successful; he made his monastery the motherhouse of several others, among them Marbach (Marbacum) in Alsace, Pfäffers in Switzerland and Niederaltaich in Bavaria. His reputation, which spread far and wide, as well as the respect and love that Charles Martel gave him, aroused the suspicion of the Alemannic dukes.

Therefore it came to pass that Duke Theobald started  disliking Heddo, as he had previously frowned upon Pirmin, and sent him into exile to Uri in 732; only for Charles Martell to reinstate him in the same year. Two years later (in 734) Heddo became Bishop of Strasbourg. 

He is especially praised for his prudence and wise use of favours of the great and powerful, which never degenerated into servility, his unlimited generosity towards the poor, and his truly apostolic zeal. The fact that as bishop he remained a zealous Benedictine is shown by the introduction of the Benedictine rule in the monasteries of his diocese, which is particularly emphasized by his biographers. He also took firm control of the organisation of the secular clergy.  During his stay in Rome in 774, he reported to Pope Hadrian that he had appointed five archdeacons for his district and assigned a certain number of deans to each of them. He died, mourned by his entire community, on March 8, 776. 

 Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 2, Augsburg, 1861, p. 607)

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org