BERNWARD OF HILDESHEIM, ST.

Bishop and art patron; b. c. 960; d. Nov. 20, 1022. Bernward was the scion of a noble Saxon family; his maternal grandfather, Adalbero, was Count Palatine in Saxony. His uncle Volkmar, bishop of Utrecht (d. 990), brought Bernward to the cathedral school of Hildesheim, where he studied under thangmar sometime before 975. In Mainz, Archbishop Willigis (d. 1011) ordained him and later introduced him at court. In 978 Empress Theophano (d. 991) made him tutor of her son, otto iii, who later arranged his election to the Diocese of Hildesheim in January of 993. Once there, Bernward built castles against the invading Danes and Slavs, introduced the system of archdeaneries, and established an annual diocesan synod. In 996 he called monks from Sankt-Pantaleon in Cologne under Abbot Goderamnus to form the first monastery of men in the diocese at the Abbey of Sankt-Michael, and he endowed their chapel with a relic of the true cross. In his struggle with Willigis over the Abbey of Gandersheim, he went to Rome (1000–01), where his rights over the abbey were confirmed, and in 1007 the archbishop finally abandoned his claims. Bernward consecrated the unfinished church of Sankt-Michael (Sept. 29, 1022) and accepted the habit of the Benedictine Order (Nov. 11, 1022) shortly before his death. He was buried in the crypt of Sankt-Michael's, and Pope celestine iii canonized him (December 21, 1192).

His biography was begun by Thangmar (Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores 4:757–786). Bernward played an outstanding role in the spiritual and political life of his period. His intellectual clarity and power of abstraction as well as his artistic sensitivity are reflected in the rich production of his workshop. He is the patron of goldsmiths and an important figure in his own right in the development of eleventh-century art. Today his name is most commonly associated with the bronze doors cast for Sankt-Michael c. 1008 to 1015 and the bronze column from c. 1018 to 1020. The unity of the door reliefs, which develop the theme of man's fall and redemption, lies not in the narrative sequence, but in the symbolic structure. Geometric clarity and harmony of proportions, already visible in the true cross reliquary, a crux gemmata, reach their perfection in Sankt-Michael itself. In this greatest of Ottonian churches, the classical tradition for the first time is translated completely into the medieval language of symbolic order.

Feast: Nov. 20.

Bibliography: Bernward von Hildesheim und das Zeitalter der Ottonen, ed. m. brandt and a. eggebrecht (Hildesheim 1993). Bernwardinische Kunst, proceedings from a symposium (October 10–13, 1984) organized by the Kommission für Niedersächsische Bauund Kunstgeschichte of the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft in Hildesheim (Göttingen 1988). f.j. tschan, St. Bernward of Hildesheim, 3 v. (Notre Dame 1942–52). h. beseler and h. roggenkamp, Die Michaeliskirche in Hildesheim (Berlin 1954). b. gallistl, Die Bernwardsäule und die Michaeliskirche zu Hildesheim (Hildesheim 1993); Die Bronzetüren Bischof Bernwards im Dom zu Hildesheim (Freiburg 1990). r. wesenberg, Bernwardinische Plastik (Berlin 1955). w. von den steinen, "Bernward von Hildesheim über sich selbst," Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 12 (1956) 331–362. r. drÖgereit, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 2:260–261. h. jantzen, Ottonische Kunst (2d ed. Hamburg 1959). k. algermissen, Bernward und Godehard von Hildesheim (Hildesheim 1960). a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum (Metten 1933–38) 3:335–338.

[a. a. schacher]