Benno II of Osnabrück

Benno II, Bishop of Osnabrück was born at Luningen in Swabia and died 27 July1088, in the Benedictine monastery of Iburg near Osnabrück.

His parents sent him at an early age to the monastic school of Strasburg where the learned Herman Contractus of Reichenau was then teaching. Having completed his education and made a pilgrimage to Palestine, he taught for some time at Speyer in Rhenish Bavaria.

On account of his skill in architecture he was made imperial architect by Emperor Henry III and, as such, supervised the construction of numerous castles and churches in the empire. When the Rhine, which flowed close to the Cathedral of Speyer, threatened to undermine its foundations, Benno saved the structure by changing the course of the river.

In 1047 he became teacher at the Benedictine school of Goslar (Hanover) and, shortly after, was made head master of the cathedral school at Hildesheim. In 1051 he accompanied Azelin, bishop of Hildesheim, on the emperor's Hungarian campaign and upon his return was made provost of the Cathedral of Hildesheim and archpriest at Goslar.

In 1069 Benno was consecrated Bishop of Osnabrück, then vacant through the death of Benno I. During the conflict between Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV, Benno for a long time sided with the emperor. When, at the Synod of Worms, in 1076, Gregory VII was deposed, Benno, like most other German bishops, signed the formula of deposition and incurred ecclesiastical excommunication. With some other excommunicated bishops, Benno hastened to Italy, where the pope freed them from the ban at Canossa, before Henry himself arrived there.

After the emperor's second excommunication, Benno tried to bring about a reconciliation. With Liemar, Archbishop of Bremen he commissioned the anti-papal polemic of Wido of Osnabrück [I. S. Robinson, "Authority and Resistance in the Investiture Contest: The Polemical Literature of the Late Eleventh Century" p. 152, 159.] , around 1085.

He retired to the monastery of Iburg, which he had founded in 1070. In a little house near the monastery he lived according to the rule of the monks during the week, while on Sundays and holydays he assisted at his cathedral in Osnabrück.

Strunck [Westphalia Saneta, Paderborn, 1855.] and Heitemeyer [Die Heiligen Deutschlands, Paderborn, 1889.] include him in the list of saints. Kerler [Die Patronate der Heiligen, Ulm, 1905.] says that he is invoked against grasshoppers, because he once dispersed them by his prayers.

References

*Thyen, Mittheil. Des hist. Vereins zu Osnabruck, IX, 1-243;
*Wattenbach, "Geschichtsquellen im Mittalalter" (Berlin, 1894), II, iii.

The most important source is "Vita Bennonis", by Norbert, a contemporary of Benno and third Abbot of Iburg (1085-1117). It is published in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., XII, 58-84. See also Breslau, "Die echte und interpolierte Vita Bennonis" in Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft fur altere deutsche Geschichtskunde (Strasburg, 1902), 77-135.

Notes

External link

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02481c.htm "Catholic Encyclopedia" article]