Bruno of Wurzburg
(c. 1005 ? 27 May 1045), also known as
Bruno of Carinthia
, was
imperial chancellor
of Italy from 1027 to 1034 for
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
, to whom he was related, and from 1034 until his death
prince-bishop of Wurzburg
.
Origin and Imperial politics
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Bruno was the son of
Conrad I, Duke of Carinthia
, and
Matilda of Swabia
, and thus a cousin of the
Salian
Emperor
Conrad II. He courted
Agnes of Poitou
on behalf of Conrad's son and successor
Emperor Henry III
. Bruno laid the cornerstone of
Wurzburg Cathedral
, and in 1042 dedicated the
Abbey of St. Burchard
, rebuilt by Abbot Willemund.
[1]
He also accompanied Henry on his second Hungarian Campaign, during which Bruno died in an accident at Persenbeug on the
Danube
in the present
Lower Austria
.
Death
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The retinue of Henry III had stopped at the residence of Countess Richlinde of Ebersberg, who was faced with the task of distributing the estate of her recently deceased husband Count Adalbero II of Ebersberg. During a great banquet given by the countess, a load-bearing pillar supporting the banqueting hall broke, causing the entire floor to collapse. The king was only slightly hurt but the countess, Bishop Bruno and Abbot Altmann of
Ebersberg Abbey
were so badly injured that they did not survive more than a few days. The Annals of
Niederaltaich
add a legend to the story: before the feast, at the
Strudengau
on the Danube near
Grein
, the devil was supposed to have appeared to the bishop and threatened him already, but the bishop was able to repel him. Bruno's body was returned to his residence in Wurzburg.
He was succeeded by his nephew,
Adalbero of Wurzburg
.
[2]
Burial and cultus
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Many cathedrals were built in that period, and from 1040 Bruno began the construction of
Wurzburg Cathedral
. The consecration of the
crypt
on 16 June 1045 was combined with his burial. Bruno was not formally
canonized
by the Roman Catholic Church, but is nevertheless
revered
as a
saint
. His
feast day
is May 17 (not the 27th, see Roman Martyrology).
[3]
Bruno wrote a well-known commentary on the
Psalms
, to which he appended an analysis of ten Biblical hymns, consisting of extracts from the writings of the
Church Fathers
.
References
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Sources
[
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]
- Peter Kolb and Ernst-Gunther Krenig (eds.), 1989:
Unterfrankische Geschichte
, pp. 229?232. Wurzburg
External links
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