St. Bernward of Hildesheim

  Posted on August 24, 2024  by admin  No comments

Born: c.960 at Utrecht, Netherlands

Died: 20 November 1022 of natural causes

Canonized: 1193 by Pope Celestine III

Patronage: architects, goldsmiths, painters, sculptors.Also known as Berward, Bernward

Member of a noble Saxon family. Grandson of Athelbero, Count Palatine of Saxony. Orphaned at an early age. Raised by his uncle Volkmar, bishop of Utrecht, and educated at the cathedral school at Heidelberg, where he was a schoolmate of Blessed Meinwerk of Paderborn and at Mainz. Ordained at Mainz. Imperial chaplain and tutor to the future Emperor Otto III beginning in 987. Bishop of Hildesheim, Germany from 993 till 1020. Encouraged the arts; commissioned religious paintings and sculpture, refurbished existing buildings, built new ones (thus his patronage of the builder’s arts), and made altar vessels of gold and silver by hand, and dabbled in architecture and ornamental ironwork. His rule was marked with peace, and around 1020 he retired to a Benedictine monastary to spend his remaining days in prayer.