ON SAINT WIHO, BISHOP OF OSNABRÜCK IN WESTPHALIA.
9TH CENTURY.
CommentaryWiho, Bishop of Osnabrück, in Westphalia (St.)
By G. H.
[1] Osnabrück, in the region of the old Bructeri, afterwards occupied by the Saxons, which now belongs to Westphalia, a distinguished city in a most pleasant valley, which is watered by the river Hase, is situated. In this and the neighboring territory of Westphalia, Duke Widukind once held sway, At Osnabrück after Widukind was conquered by Charlemagne and waged very many wars against Charlemagne: by whom at last vanquished, he embraced the Christian religion and led a holy life: as we have set forth more fully at his Life on January 7. "Among these wars," says Albert Krantz, book 1 Metropolis, chapter 2, Saint Wiho ordained Bishop "Charles in the year from the salvation of the world seven hundred and eighty, in the place of Osnabrück, sufficiently frequented by inhabitants, when he had fortified with an imposed garrison the nearby castle of Widukind now taken, built the first Episcopal church in the province, and set over it the holy man Wiho, the first Pontiff of that place, a man by race and origin a Frisian: because in that nation, through Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, there a Martyr, many had already believed in Christ. To him he assigned from the revenues of the province whence he might live with his Clergy, for confirming the newly baptized in the received religion of Christ. The sensible man acted, out of zeal for the sacred religion, sufficiently insisting by word and deed, that he might both preserve and multiply the souls committed to him."
[2] Ecclesiastical Office of him Francis William, Count of Wartenberg, Bishop of Osnabrück, Ratisbon, Minden, and Verden (and afterwards raised to the dignity of Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church), ordered in the year 1652 the proper Offices of the Saints of the Church and Diocese of Osnabrück to be published, and in them is an Office under the double rite of Saint Charlemagne on January 27, on which day we also have published his Acts. But on this April 20 there is an Office also under double rite of Saint Wiho Bishop of Osnabrück and Confessor, and the Collect is prescribed which is usually read in the Mass of the Common of Doctors; and this particular fourth Lesson is recited of him: "Wiho, a Frisian by nation, illustrious for his singular virtues and the sanctity of his life, when Charlemagne founded the Church of Osnabrück, was ordained by Pope Hadrian the first Bishop of that See. In which office he was always diligent and unwearied with zeal for souls in converting the peoples of all Saxony, of whom he himself was appointed Pastor. At length, having suffered many tribulations and wearied with labors, full of days, when he had presided over his Church for thirty-two years, he holily fell asleep in the Lord." Thus there. Similar things are inserted in the Martyrology of Osnabrück. Concerning the time of the Bishoprics founded in Saxony we shall treat on April 30, where of Saint Swibert first Bishop of Verden; and we shall show that the full constitution at least of them pertains to the end of the 8th or the beginning of the 9th century: which being posited, Wiho would have prolonged his life to about the year 830, unless you wish to bring into the reckoning of these years those in which he administered the Church of Osnabrück, perhaps with only the title of Priest.
[3] an altar erected The same Most Illustrious Prince and Bishop of Osnabrück, Francis William, restored and endowed the Greco-Latin schools which Charlemagne was once believed to have set up at Osnabrück, an Academy having been erected there and called the Carolina; which both Pope Urban VIII approved and the Emperor Ferdinand II confirmed in the year 1630. To adorn its auspices, the Society of Jesus of Osnabrück, whose college was founded for the said end by the same Prince, published a Christian Athenaeum, illustrated with various kinds of learning: in whose sketch, scheme 23 and the oration subjoined, the Osnabrückers are said to have begun to be formed to Christian mildness through Charlemagne the Victor, and through the first Bishop of the Church of Osnabrück, Saint Wiho, its first Rector, a great man, a holy man, the glory and ornament of the Frisian nation, Rector of the Carolina Academy, not so much magnificent with secular pomp as venerable with distinguished learning and modesty. And in sketch 3 (in which he treats of a new temple erected in honor of Saint Ignatius Founder of the Society of Jesus), scheme 1, Saint Wiho is introduced as Moderator of the Carolina schools, and is applauded to divine Religion with some verse; and in scheme 19 is described the fifth altar of the temple, dedicated to Saints Charlemagne, Charles Borromeo, Wiho first Bishop of the Osnabrückers, and Blessed Adolph the twenty-eighth: whose Acts we illustrated on February 11, and of Saint Wiho these things are subjoined: "Once he led our ancestors, redeemed from the error of Gentilism, to the camps and standards of Christian liberty: having gathered from all the homes of the inhabitants, he burned idols in the middle of the forum: he led the flock committed to him to the most salubrious pastures of life: he fed those perishing with hunger, turned away the lurking wolves, armed them against the force of the infernal army, incited them to the battle of Christian virtues, and led many victors with him into the most splendid temples of the heavens by triumphal rite." An applause is added to Saint Wiho 1st Bishop of Osnabrück, patron of the third altar, composed as an elegiac poem, which can be read there, as also another in sketch 4 scheme 1 printed, in which Saint Wiho applauds to the Queen of Wisdom triumphing anew at Osnabrück.