Sturmi
was the son of Christian parents in Bavaria. He was placed under the
direction of St. Boniface, the great apostle of the Germans, who, in
turn, entrusted the youth’s education to St. Wigbert in the abbey of
Fritzlar.
In due course ordained a priest, Sturmi was a
missionary in Westphalia for three years, after which he took to an
eremitical life.
Later, when St. Boniface founded the monastery
of Fulda in 744, he appointed Sturmi abbot. The favorite foundation of
St. Boniface, Fulda became a point from which Germany could be
effectively evangelized and the pattern-seminary of priests for all
Germany.
Soon after the foundation, Sturmi traveled to Italy to
study Benedictine observance at Monte Cassino. There seems to be
evidence that Pope St. Zachary granted the Abbey of Fulda to be subject
directly to the Pope, free from episcopal jurisdiction. After the
martyrdom of St. Boniface, St. Lull as his successor, acted differently
toward the abbey claiming it should be subject to his jurisdiction as
bishop. In the ensuing struggle, Sturmi was banished and another
appointed abbot, but the monks did not accept him and expelled him,
threatening to appeal to the king.
Eventually,
Sturmi returned to the helm of Fulda Abbey, but his efforts to
evangelize the Germans was somewhat truncated by Charlemagne’s conquests
and his rather truculent enforcement of religion. When Charlemagne
turned to Spain to fight the Moors, the Saxons drove out the monks from
Fulda.
In 779 when Charlemagne returned, incurring some victories
against the Saxons, St. Sturmi was in a better position but he did not
live to continue his missions.
The saintly abbot fell gravely ill, and despite the efforts of Charlemagne’s own physician, he died on December 17, 779.
First photo by: 4028mdk09
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