Saints celebrated on the 8th of May
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VENERABLE FREDERICK, ABBOT OF HIRSCHAU
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| Monastery yard in the snow |
Venerable Frederick (Fredericus, Friedrich is remembered on May 8, and also on February 19. He descended from an old noble family of Swabia and was carefully instructed in the sciences in his youth. Following the inspiration of divine grace, he entered the monastery of Meinradszelle (now Mariä-Einsiedeln in Switzerland), where he distinguished himself for his humility and obedience, as well as for his zeal in his studies.
At that time, the monastery building at Hirschau [Hirsau] had already lain desolate and dilapidated for half a century. The Counts of Calw, as protectors of the monastery, had sadly been instrumental in bringing it into this pitiful condition.
Pope Leo IX, who happened to came to Germany, saw the sad state of affairs and demanded from Count Adalbert, his relative, the restoration of the monastery, to which he bound himself under severe oaths. He would have probably tried to avoid the task as soon as Leo turned his back, but Adalbert's pious wife, Wiltrudis, persuaded her husband, with incessant entreaties and representations, to lay the foundation for the new church in 1060 and, in 1066, to summon twelve monks from Einsiedeln, headed by our Venerable Frederick. On the feast of Saint Thomas, he was consecrated abbot by Bishop Einhard of Speyer.
Through his zeal and wise leadership, the community flourished in all virtues, and Wiltrudis was delighted with its excellent progress. Frederick led the way in everything, worked like the least of the brothers, wore the same attire as the others, often took off his own clothes out of love for the poor, or deprived himself of food, zealously watched and fasted, loved solitude and the reading of the Holy Scriptures, etc. For his perfection, God allowed him to undergo severe trials. Some monks slandered him to Count Adalbert as a man who only sat in his cell, indifferent to the affairs of the monastery, and, since these complaints were unsuccessful, as a hypocrite guilty of fornication.
Adalbert, who was never fond of him, because Frederick, upon taking over the monastery, had protested in the presence of the Bishop of Speyer against any interference in the monastic affairs on the part of the count, immediately pronounced the sentence of deposition upon him, about which the pious abbot did not utter a word of complaint.
Meanwhile, the course of this unjust procedure came to the ears of Abbot Ulrich of Lorsch. He remembered past incidences when the monks had ganged up against rulers who set standards that they considered too high. Therefore he hurried to Hirschau, and rescued Venerable Frederick by transferring him to the monastery of Saint Michael on the Ebersberg, where the meek and holy man ended his life in pious exercises on May 8, 1070. When his corpse was undressed to be washed and prepared for burial, it was discovered that he wore an iron chain around his body, which had embedded itself deep into his flesh. He was interred in the church of Saint Michael, and his memory is celebrated in the monasteries of the Benedictine Order on February 19. Sintzel* lists Frederick on March 5. Migne* calls him "Blessed Frederick." (But. XIX. 485. Lech.)
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 2, Augsburg, 1861, pp. 313-14)
*A hagiography source used by the authors
Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Bachilda may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org
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