ANSBALD, ST.

Abbot; d. July 12, 886. Very little is known about his early life, but after Eigil resigned as abbot of Prüm (860), Ansbald was elected to succeed him. He is regarded as one of the outstanding men who held this office, and under his leadership the abbey gained great renown for its flourishing religious observance. From letters written by lupus of ferriÈres, a close friend of the abbot of Prüm, it is clear that Ansbald was interested in collating the monastery's manuscripts of various classical authors, especially the manuscripts of the Letters of Cicero. After the havoc wrought by the raids of the Normans, Ansbald was able rapidly to restore the abbey to its once flourishing condition with the help of Charles III the Fat. He died with a reputation for great sanctity, and his name was inserted in several monastic martyrologies.

Feast: July 12.

Bibliography: j. mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti (Venice 1733–40) 6:475–477. r. aigrain, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 3:429–430. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienhereux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes (Paris 1935–56) 7:270–272. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum (Metten 1933–38) 2:439, 441. a. zimmermann, Lexicon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:583; Bibliotheca sanctorum (Rome 1961–) 1:1336. lupus of ferriÈres, Correspondance, ed. and tr. l. levillain, 2 v. (Paris 1927–35) 2:4.

[h. dressler]