Benedict of Aniane

Benedict of Aniane ( * before 750 in southern France, Given Name: Witiza, † February 11 821 in Kornelimünster near Aachen ) was a Reformabt, the assumed 817 all the monasteries of the Frankish Empire of the Benedictine rule.

Life

He served under Pepin and Charlemagne military service. On the first expedition of Charlemagne against the Lombard king Aistulf Benedict watched as his brother was drowned. After this experience, he joined 773/774 in the monastery of St. Seine near Dijon in. 782 he returned to his home in southern France, where he founded a monastery in the town of Aniane. Here in the south of France Louis the Pious ruled as a king, with the Benedict worked closely. When Louis succeeded his father Charles was the Great as Emperor of the Frankish empire, he took Benedict with Aachen to the royal palace. Together translated Benedict and Ludwig in the following years the work begun by the Great Karl continued, the monks unified under the Rule of St. Benedict to integrate into the imperial church. The Aachen council ( 816-819 ) wrote the rule, and one written by Benedict consuetudo, the Capitulare Monasticum, firm as the only binding monastic rule. In addition, the Council also decided the clear separation between monk and canon.

These decisions were the decisive basis for the subsequent form and meaning of the Benedictine Order. To demonstrate that the reform did not constitute a break with the monastic tradition, Benedict led two collections, first, the Codex regularum, an extensive collection of monastic rules and rule -like texts, including the Life of Pachomius, secondly, the Concordia regularum, a thematically ordered synoptic arrangement the provisions of the various rules.

With the support of Louis the Pious Benedict founded 816/817 the abbey Inda (later imperial abbey Kornelimünster ). It should act as a pattern in terms of the monastery of St. Benedict of Nursia ( 480-547 ), founder of the Benedictines, established rules and reforms. Benedict of Aniane died in the abbey in Kornelimünster on February 11, 821

There is disagreement in the research, the importance of Benedict Aniane alongside other actors have for the monastic reform of the Carolingian Renaissance. Recently this has been seen in perspective and even the use of the term " anianische reform " criticized. But it should be noted that in Fulda still placed around 840 Brun Candidus of Fulda in his vita of the abbot Eigil extensive quotations from the text corpus of Benedict of Aniane and points to the reform of the monastery by monks " from the West ", which for a testimony sustained reform consciousness is to be seen.