Oct. 31, though best known as the Vigil of the Solemnity of All
Saints (All Hallows’ Eve) in the Western church, is also the liturgical
feast day of St. Wolfgang of Ratisbon, who was regarded as one of the
greatest German saints of his time.
The Benedictine monk and bishop, who served as a missionary to pagans
and a reformer of the Church in southeastern Germany, was born around
934 in the historic southwestern German region of Swabia.
Wolfgang came from a family of nobility and was privately tutored as a
child. Later on, the future monk was educated at the renowned Monastery
of Reichenau, and at Wurtzburg. Wolfgang showed intellectual prowess and
found companionship during his years of study, but was also dismayed by
the petty jealousies and moral lapses he observed in Wurtzburg’s
academic environment.
In 956, his school companion Henry was chosen to lead the Archdiocese
of Trier. Though Wolfgang had become interested in monastic life, he
chose to go with Henry to Trier, where his service to the Church
included a teaching position in the cathedral school.
After Archbishop Henry’s death in 964, Wolfgang left Trier, became a
monk of the Order of Saint Benedict, and settled at a monastery in the
diocese of Augsburg. Its school prospered under his direction, and the
local bishop – the future St. Ulrich – ordained him to the priesthood in
968. In his youth, Wolfgang had envisioned a secluded life of
contemplation; but things turned out differently, as he was sent east to
evangelize the Magyars in 972.
By Christmas of that year, Wolfgang had been chosen as the new Bishop
of Ratisbon (present-day Regensburg in Bavaria). But he continued to
live out his monastic vocation, retaining his distinctive Benedictine
habit and dedicating himself to the same ascetic lifestyle. Amid the
work of preaching and reform, Wolfgang remained a man of prayer,
silence, and contemplative solitude.
Not surprisingly, the Bishop of Ratisbon made monasticism a focus of
his church reforms, reviving religious life in places where it had
fallen into disorder. Wolfgang also showed extraordinary care for the
poor in his diocese, to such an extent that he was called “the Great
Almoner.”
On the other hand, he was also involved in affairs of state at
a high level, and tutored the children of the Duke of Bavaria,
including the future Holy Roman Emperor St. Henry II.
Wolfgang, despite being one of the great bishops and saints of his
time, still encountered
serious difficulties in his leadership of the
Diocese of Ratisbon. On one occasion, a political conflict caused him to
withdraw from his diocese to a hermitage for a period of time.
Wolfgang
is also said to have struggled with the great geographical extent of
the diocese, parts of which were eventually entrusted to the Bishop of
Prague.
In 994, while traveling in Austria, Wolfgang became sick and died in
the village of Pupping. Miracles associated with his tomb, including
many healings, led to his canonization of 1052.
Several of St.
Wolfgang’s devotees experienced relief from stomach ailments, and he
remains a patron saint of such troubles today. His intercession is also
sought by victims of strokes and paralysis, and by carpenters.