Poppo of Stavelot

Poppo of Stavelot (* 978 in Deinze, † January 21, 1048 in Marchiennes ) was a 1624 sainted abbot of a total of 17 partially direct imperial abbeys and a representative of the Cluniac monastic reform.

Life

Poppo grew up as an only child of a noble family in Flanders. Already 978 Tizekinus his father was killed in battle against the King of France. The first son received the education of a typical aristocrat of his time. Poppo went around 1000 on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and was on his way back to Rome in 1005.

An awakening experience allowed him to enter in 1005 as a Benedictine in the monastery cloister of Saint - Remi at Reims. 1008 he was appointed by Richard of Saint -Vanne in the monastery of Saint- Vanne in Verdun. In 1013 he was promoted at the behest of his teacher, Richard of St. Vanne to the prior of the abbey of Saint- Vaast in Arras. After the Emperor Henry II met, appointed him to this in 1020 as abbot in the sister monasteries of Stavelot and Malmedy. In 1023 he became abbot of the Abbey of St. Maximin in Trier.

In order to reform the monastic life and to return to its origins, Poppo of Stavelot designed a separate rule for its monasteries. Therefore him emperor Conrad II entrusted 1028-1037 in addition to the supervision of the Reich Abbey of Echternach, Saint- Ghislain, Hersfeld, White City, Saint Gallen and Limburg in Bad Durkheim. Through the mediation of the Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne Poppo in 1024 had founded the Abbey Brauweiler. Most recently, he was responsible for 17 major monasteries. In addition to his clerical positions, he was an advisor to Henry II and Conrad II and was used by them as an envoy. Under Henry III. However, he lost a lasting influence.

Poppo of Stavelot drove in his subordinate monasteries reform sustainable progress, often against the resistance of the monks. After the death of Conrad II became the part of the Emperor's monastic reform, no longer supported as a means against the secularization of the monasteries, which they could not achieve sustained success in the Holy Roman Empire. Personally Abbot Poppo was an ascetic and above all an excellent organizer.

The Benedictine died on a journey, which he undertook because of his reform efforts. He was buried in the monastery of Stavelot; for the canonization in 1624 opened to the grave, and rose to the bones. Today, the relics are in a silver shrine, in the parish church of Stavelot ( Stavelot ).