St Conrad of Constance
St. Conrad's feast day is November 26th. St Conrad, was born the second son of the Guelf family. Guelf was the Italian form of Welf. The Welfs were an ancient Saxon family. Saxony was originally held by the descendants of Herman Billung. This line died out in 1106. Rudolf I was the son of Conrad, Count of Auxerre, of the Welf (Guelf) family,. They ruled the duchy of Burgundy from 885-886. Rudolph I was also the first king of Juran (888-912) in Upper Burgundy. He was crowned king at the Abbey of St. Maurice d' Agaune and later ruled Lorraine and Alsace. In 1137, King Lothair (former Duke of Saxony) gave the duchy to Henry the Proud and later to Albrecht "the Bear," whose mother, Eilika of Saxony, was of Billung blood. The first recorded ruler of Saxony (in Louda) was Albrecht "the Bear" of Brandenburg and Duke of Saxony. Albrecht died in 1170. Now the Welfs are a wealthy Bavarian dynasty in Germany. The Guelfs were sympathetic to the papacy. Another family, the Ghibellines, were sympathetic to the Holy Roman Emperors (of Germany). This later led to chronic strife within the cities of northern Italy in the 13th and 14th centuries. St. Conrad's father was Count Heinrich von Altdorf. Count Heinrich built Weingarten Abbey in Würtemburg.
Conrad became the Bishop of Constance in 934. He and Ulrich, the Bishop of Augsburg, were friends. Conrad took a vow of poverty, so when he inherited his family's lands he traded them with his brother's lands near Constance. It was upon this land that Conrad built three new churches.
Conrad traveled to the Holy Lands (Jerusalem) three times. Conrad continued to serve in his diocese for forty (40) years, until he died in 975.
*Auxerre of Yonne was in Central France.
*Burgindy/Bourgogne was a kingdom and region in central France.
8Alsace was in Western Germany from 1871-1919. It is now in France.
*Lorraine was a former kingdom of France, and later of Germany. Sources:
Butler's Lives of the Saints (on CD-ROM) USA: Harmony Media, Inc. "St. Bartholomew," 1996. Their Website
Hallam, Elizabeth. Saints: Who they are and how they help you. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994, 135.
Hallick, Mary P. The Book of Saints. Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life Publishing Company, 1984.
Hoever, Rev. Hugo. Lives of the Saints. New York: Catholic Books Publishing Co., 1989. 353.
Jöckle, Clemens. Encyclopedia of Saints. London: Alpine Fine Arts Collection Ltd., 1995, 52-53.
Kelly, Sean and Rosemary Rodgers. Saints Preserve Us. New York: Random House, 1993, 31.
Louda, Jiri. Lines of Succession. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2002.
McNeill, John. Illustrated Lives of the Saints. New York: Crescent Books, 1995, 28.
Whiteside, Lesley. The Book of the Saints New York: Quadrillion Publishing, Inc., 1998, 41.
Written and researched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewski
MY OTHER SAINT SITES:
This page was last updated on September 15, 2004
