Richard of Verdun
Richard of Verdun (970–1046) was the abbot of the influential northeastern French Monastery of St. Vanne from 1004 to 1046.[1]
Life
Richard was born to a noble family of
Richard entered the monastery of St. Vanne as a young man, and upon his arrival he was shocked and dismayed by the relatively poor state of the monastery. So great were his feelings that he had attempted to be transferred from St. Vanne, but was eventually talked out of it by Odilo of Cluny.[3]
Through the influence of Bishop Haimo of Verdun, Richard was elected to succeed Fergenius as abbot of St. Vanne in October 1004. Due to his intimate connections with the local nobility, notably
Despite his critics, Richard was generally well-regarded and considered to be a man knowledgeable of "...corporate religious ideals and the needs of a whole community".
Many of Richard's reliquary acquisitions during his tenure as abbot of St. Vanne seem to be highly suspect; at times even illegal.[3] According to Patrick Geary, Richard "...saw nothing contradictory or immoral about his theft or falsification of important relics".[1] Instead, the overall spiritual power and protection that the relics of saints could offer outweighed any misgivings about the "rightness" of theft or falsification. In Richard's viewpoint, if the relic had not chosen him to acquire it, it would have interceded on behalf of its original possessors.[11]
Due to a reputation as an effective administrator, Richard eventually came to govern twenty-one autonomous monasteries,
He retired to a hermitage near Remiremont Abbey, but returned to Saint-Vanne around 1039.[2]
References
- ^ Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in The Central Middle Ages. Princeton University Press,1990, p. 65
- ^ ISBN 9780801456305
- ^ a b Geary 1990, pp. 65-66
- ^ Geary 1990, pp. 66-67
- ^ a b Geary 1990, pp. 67
- ^ ISBN 9781136787164
- ^ Geary 1990, pp. 68
- ^ Geary 1990, pp. 68-69
- ^ Geary 1990, pp. 69
- ISBN 9780231500760
- ^ Geary 1990, pp. 65, 70