Benedictines as Bishops

Time and again, Benedictine monks have been elevated to the episcopate. Usually they were abbots first, then bishops. In especially ancient dioceses, the cathedral church and the abbey church often were one and the same building, the abbot and bishop one and the same person. The Archdiocese of Salzburg, for instance, was founded by famous monk-bishops like Rupert and Virgil. For hundreds of years (until around the year 1000), the Salzburg bishops were simultaneously the abbots of St. Peter’s Abbey, immediately adjacent to the cathedral. A conference devoted to this topic was organized by Prof. Andreas Sohn (Sorbonne University) was held Oct. 27-29, 2021, at the Archabbey of St. Peter. Renowned historians from France, England, Germany, Switzerland and Austria presented papers. The conference was divided into a medieval section and a modern one, covering aspects as diverse as Canon Law, liturgical history, many biographies, and even an art historical study of the liturgical clothing worn by monks who had advanced to the episcopacy but continued to wear their habits. The valuable conference proceedings will be published in a conference volume.