GREGORY OF EINSIEDELN, BL.

Abbot; d. Einsiedeln, Germany, 996. Of an English royal family, Gregory left his virgin wife, with her consent, and became a monk in the Mount Coelius monastery, Rome. In 949 he entered the benedictine monastery of einsiedeln, a foundation not yet 25 years old. Familiar with the English reforms of dunstan of canterbury, he gave Einsiedeln the norms of its cloistral life along the line of the English Regularis concordia when he became the third abbot in 964. The German Emperor otto i, related to him by marriage, accorded the abbey great material benefits and confirmed all its privileges. otto ii and otto iii also treated Gregory well. His community's reputation caused Gebhard II of Constance to ask him to supply religious for the monastery of petershausen. After his death his tomb near the altar of St. Maurice was the site of miracles. His relics were enshrined in 1609 at Einsiedeln.

Feast: Nov. 8.

Bibliography: p. schmitz, Histoire de l'ordre de Saint-Benoît, 7 v. (Maredsous, Belgium 1942–56) 1:180. o. ringholz, Geschichte des fürstilichen Benediktinerstiftes U. L. F. von Einsiedeln, 1 v., no more publ. (Einsiedeln 1904) 43–53. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige, 4 v. (Metten 1933–38) 3:281–283. r. tschudi, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 4:1192.

[b. cavanaugh]