Saint of the Day – 22 April – Blessed Wolfhelm of Brauweiler (c1020-1091) Abbot of Brauweiler Abbey, near Cologne, Theologian, Writer, Defender of the Doctrine of the Church and of the property of the Church, Miracle-worker. Born in c1020 in the Lower Rhineland (in modern Germany and died on 22 April 1091 at his Monastery of natural causes. Also known as – Wolfelmi Brunwilarensis, Wulfhelm… Wolphelmus… Name means: “the one who protects against the wolf” (Old High German). His sister Bertha, was a Nun of Vilich Abbey, who wrote a Vita of the Abbess Adelheid.
Wolfhelm was the son of a noble family from the Lower Rhine, He received his education at the Cathedral school in Cologne under Archbishop St Heribert(c970-1021) and then worked there as a teacher.
In Trier in 1036, Wolfhelm entered the Benedictine order in what was then the reform Monastery of St Maximinus. He later relocated to the Monastery in Gladbach – today’s Mönchengladbach – which was subordinate to his uncle, Abbot Heinrich of St Pantaleon in Cologne.
In 1065 he became the 3rd Abbot in Brauweiler. Wolfhelm wrote theological writings, for example in the Sacrament dispute against Berengar of Tours, who questioned the Doctrine of transubstantiation , and he campaigned emphatically for Church buildings and Monastery properties, especially the large Klotten estate on the Moselle River which was disputed between his own Monastery and the Archdiocese of Cologne. By his extreme difficult efforts, he managed to secure this inheritance from Queen Richeza for his Monastery of Brauweiler.
Even during his lifetime, numerous miracles were associated with his person. Around 1115, the Monk Konrad von Brauweiler wrote a life story with the aim of achieving Wolfhelm’s Canonisation.
AnaStpaul 