Benno, Saint

▪ German bishop

born c. 1010, , Hildesheim?, Saxony

died c. 1106, , Meissen, March of Thuringia; canonized 1523; feast day June 16

      bishop of Meissen.

      While a canon with the imperial collegiate church of Goslar, he was made bishop of Meissen in 1066. In the troubles between empire and papacy that followed, Benno took part against the emperor Henry IV, for which he was imprisoned. In 1085 he was deposed by the Synod of Mainz, but after the death of Pope Gregory VII, whose cause Benno championed, he submitted. On the recommendation of the antipope Clement III, Benno was restored to his see, which he held until his death. Other than legendary or traditional lore, little else is known of Benno's life. His canonization by Pope Adrian VI drew from Martin Luther a pamphlet entitled Wider den neuen Abgott und alten Teufel, der zu Meissen soll erhoben werden (“Against the New Idol and the Old Devil About to Be Set up at Meissen”). He is the patron saint of Munich, where his relics were enshrined in 1580.

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