CONCERNING ST. ADOLPHUS, BISHOP OF OSNABRUCK IN WESTPHALIA
THE YEAR 1222
A HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Adolphus, Bishop of Osnabruck in Westphalia (Saint)
By G.H.
[1] The monastery of Altenkamp, commonly called Camp, of the Cistercian Order, most celebrated for its fame and piety, is situated in the diocese of Cologne, on the borders of Cleves and Guelders, not far from Rheinberg. At Altenkamp, It was founded by Frederick, Archbishop of Cologne, who issued a charter in the year of Christ 1122, which Gaspar Jongelinus reproduces in book 2 of his "Notice of the Cistercian Order," asserting that this was the first monastery of the Order in Germany and that it had been the most fruitful mother of a hundred or more other houses. The first Abbots were under the fourth Abbot Henry, sent thither by Arnold, Abbot of Morimond; Theodore, an associate of St. Bernard; and Ebrard, upon whose death in the year 1184, Gerard succeeded. Under this Abbot, says the same Jongelinus, a most noble young man, St. Adolphus, from a Canon of Cologne becomes a Cistercian monk, reared in luxury, named Adolphus, a Canon of the Metropolitan Church of St. Peter at Cologne, moved by the upright life and praiseworthy conduct of the monks of Camp, assumed the habit prescribed by the Cistercian Fathers as a sign of innocence and humility, and having become a monk, advanced in so few days that he was soon elevated to be Bishop of Osnabruck. So far that source. Caesarius of Heisterbach, in book 1 of his "Memorable Histories" of his own time, chapter 22, describes this conversion while St. Adolphus was still living:
[2] "The noble young man, Lord Adolphus, now Bishop of Osnabruck, had been a Canon of the greater Church in Cologne. When on one occasion he had come to Camp, a house of our Order, and after Mass was standing in the oratory at prayer, he saw how the monks, converted by seeing the penance of the monks: both old and young, running to all the altars, bared their backs for the taking of disciplines, humbly confessing their sins. This sight, as a certain intimate of his narrated to me, wrought such good in the heart of the young man that he could not depart; but, scorning the pomp of the world and converting himself entirely to God, remaining there, he received the sacred habit of the religious life; in which he so advanced that, not long after, both on account of his noble birth and on account of his religiosity, he ascended to the episcopal summit in the aforesaid Church." So far Caesarius; Angel Manrique reproduces this in volume 3 of the Cistercian Annals, at the year 1204, chapter 5, number 10, and adds that this ceremony by which he was moved to compunction he had not seen described elsewhere up to that point, and that up to that point it was unknown at what time he was elevated to the episcopate, having previously assigned, following the Chronicle of Miraeus, the year 1190, as given in the same place, chapter 7, number 2. For the rest, "youth" in Caesarius is used in relation to the more mature age at which others are elevated to the episcopate.
[3] Osnabruck, or Osnaburgum, is an ancient city in the middle of Westphalia, Bishop of Osnabruck in Westphalia, or the western region of ancient Saxony, adorned with an episcopal See by Charlemagne, a church having been built there in honor of St. Peter and Saints Crispin and Crispinian. The twenty-eighth Bishop of this See was St. Adolphus, of whom Peter Merssaeus Cratepolius writes thus in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Osnabruck: "XXVIII. St. Adolphus: when the former had been transferred to another life, he was assumed to the helm of the Church. This Adolphus was very devout, and greatly adorned his Church by his exemplary life and teaching. He was very generous to the poor and to lepers, and did not neglect the temporal goods of the Church. After governing for twenty-one years, he died a holy death, and God declared his holiness." His predecessor was Gerard of Lippe, who succeeded not to "another life," as Cratepolius would have it, but was transferred to the Archbishopric of Bremen, and Adolphus succeeded him, on the authority of Albert Krantz in the Metropolis. In book 7, chapter 19, Krantz relates the following about Adolphus:
[4] "After Gerard had been transferred to the Church of Bremen, Adolphus presided over the Church of Osnabruck in the twenty-eighth place, a man of singular industry and uncommon devotion, who augmented the office of the Cantor, he promotes the good of the Church, but also burdened it in turn, so as to amplify the worship of religion. By his industry and solicitude he added much to the Church, attending simultaneously to both spiritual and temporal growth. As evidence of the holiness of the man, they relate this memorable incident: that when he was making a journey to Varstelnau, in the middle of the road a leper had his hut. The Bishop, taking pity on him, took care to visit him whenever he passed by, visiting and encouraging a leper, and invited him to patience by fraternal address, setting before him as an example the Passion of Christ; and nonetheless he left an alms for the man in need. His retainers were weary of the delay the Bishop made there in passing; and yet, since no one dared to oppose his distaste to the Bishop, they arranged for the leper to be removed before the Bishop should pass along the road, by their own contrivance. And miraculously transported back to the cell from which he had been removed, The Bishop entered the hut as was his custom, and although they had long since seemed to have transferred the leper so that the Bishop would not waste time there, behold, he sees him sitting before him in his accustomed place. When Adolphus had repeated his customary counsels to him, the leper dissolved in gratitude, saying that he had profited greatly from his teachings; and in the sight of all who were present, he breathed his last -- he is present at his holy death: giving signs of holiness while all marveled and grieved at the fraud they had committed. The Bishop was of such reputed holiness upon his death that whoever in passing should touch with a disrespectful foot the stone of his sepulchre he himself after death is distinguished by miracles, would incur a singular disgrace on that day. He presided over his Church for twenty-one years with the greatest praise of himself and the benefit of his flock."
[5] The birthday of St. Adolphus is celebrated in the Martyrology of Osnabruck on February 11 with this eulogy: "At Osnabruck in ancient Saxony, He is venerated on February 11, St. Adolphus, Bishop and Confessor of the same city, who, being a member of the Cistercian Order in the monastery of Altenkamp, was called to the Chair of Osnabruck on account of his holy life and is buried there." He is listed on the same day in the Cistercian Menology of Chrysostom Henriquez, and in the Annals of Cologne by Aegidius Gelenius. Also with an ecclesiastical Office: The ecclesiastical Office for him is performed in the Church and diocese of Osnabruck with the double rite; and indeed everything is said from the Common of a Confessor-Bishop, except Lessons IV and V of the second Nocturn; in the last of which we find the following: "In which office, namely the episcopal, he shone wondrously in divine and human activities; he greatly augmented the Treasurership of the Church, founded the Cantorship, and instituted the feast of St. Catherine to be celebrated in the marketplace throughout his diocese; he was munificent toward all churches, especially toward the Chapter and ministers of the church, and very generous toward the poor, especially lepers; and after he had governed his Church most excellently for twenty years, he rested peacefully in the Lord in the year of Christ one thousand two hundred and twenty-two. Died in the year 1222. Honored after his death, After death also he was always held in such great reverence by the Christian faithful that no one would cross or tread upon his sepulchre with his feet, as is done with those of other deceased persons. Wherefore Francis William, Bishop of Osnabruck, moved by piety toward his holy predecessor, on the fourth day before the Nones of December in the year of Christ one thousand six hundred and fifty-one, elevated in 1651: ordered his sepulchre, in the presence of his Chapter and many of the Christian faithful, to be opened, and the sacred bones found therein to be elevated and placed in the sacristy with due honor." So far that source. The proper Offices of Osnabruck were printed by the authority and command of the said Bishop in the year 1652.
[6] St. Adolphus is treated in the Roll of Bishops of Osnabruck, at the major Synod celebrated there in the year 1628, and in the "Christian Athenaeum" of the city of Osnabruck, an altar is dedicated to him in the church of the Society of Jesus, in section 3, plate 12, where Blessed Adolphus the Bishop is depicted admiring and praising the power of Aaron of the New Law in Sapphic verse; and in plate 19 is described the fifth altar of the Church of the Society of Jesus, dedicated to Saints Charles the Great and Borromeo, to St. Wiho, the first Bishop of Osnabruck, and to Blessed Adolphus; and of the latter the following encomium is added: "This man, a constant contemplator of the divine Scriptures, treated the vain hisses of the world with indifference, embraced Christian modesty most ardently, refreshed the despised and those pressed by want with the most generous showers of beneficence, visited even those infected with leprosy (despite the vain indignation and occasional gnashing of teeth of the princes of his court), assisted them with money and good counsel, and gloriously sent them to heaven, not without a miracle." St. Wiho is venerated on April 20; St. Charles Borromeo on November 4. We treated of St. Charlemagne on January 28.
[7] The same things, expressed in elegiac verse, are then appended, where the Patron of the altar is also saluted in the title: "The same Conradus III, Count of Rittberg, Bishop of Osnabruck, applauds Blessed Adolphus, the twenty-eighth Bishop of Osnabruck, Patron of this fourth altar:
'Leaving the great halls of the proud world, Why do you visit humble cottages, Bishop Adolphus? Why approach the horrid hovels of scaly leprosy? Why are you eager to bring so many joys to wretched paupers? What do you seek amid such squalor, great Bishop? I know not -- unless you seek gems, by loving souls.'"