William of Volpiano

William of Dijon or William of Volpiano or William of Saint - Bénigne (* June / July 962 on Isola San Giulio, † January 1, 1031 in Fécamp ) was a Burgundian- Italian abbot, the monastery reformer and architect. He was born at the castle on the Isola San Giulio ( Lake Orta in Piedmont ), the son of Count Robert of Volpiano. Since William was born during a (successful) attack of the Emperor Otto I, Otto was his godfather and sponsors. William's life story written shortly after his death by his pupil Rodulfus Glaber in the Abbey of Cluny.

In the year 969 began his education at the Benedictine Abbey of Locadio at Vercelli, where he entered into the Order. 987 he became a monk at Cluny at the time of Abbot Maiolus. One of his tasks was the reorganization of the Abbey of Saint -Sernin on the Rhône.

Abbey Saint- Bénigne, Dijon

990 William was ordained a priest and simultaneously abbot of the monastery of Saint- Bénigne in Dijon (see Dijon Cathedral ) which is a center of spirituality, education and culture was under his management within the meaning of the Cluniac reform. Saint- Bénigne became the mother house of about 40 other monasteries in Burgundy, Lorraine, Normandy and northern Italy. Under William's leadership, a new building of the abbey church with a large rotunda was built east of the choir.

Fécamp

In 1001 he was commissioned by Duke Richard II of Normandy, to reorganize the Abbey of Fécamp, which had been chosen by the dukes as their final resting place. He died in the year 1031. His grave is there in a chapel of the abbey church. His work in Fécamp had an impact on the abbeys Jumièges and Troarn. A student of William, Thierry, was first abbot of Jumièges, then abbot of Mont -Saint- Michel, where you took over liturgical practices from Dijon.

Fruttuaria

On February 23, 1003 William founded the abbey Fruttuaria in San Benigno Canavese about 20 km north of Turin; Founder of this monastery were Arduin, Margrave of Ivrea and King of Italy, and his wife, Berta, and Otto William, Count of Burgundy, who were among his relatives. The oriented at Cluny order of life of the monastery Fruttuaria served as a model for German monasteries such as St. Blaise in the Black Forest and Siegburg near Bonn, which is why we speak of the " fruttuarischen Klostereform ".

Saint- Germain -des- Prés

William of Dijon is also for the reconstruction of the Abbey of St. Germain -des- Prés responsible.