Saint of the Day – 24 August – St Sandratus (Died 986) Abbot, Reformer, Official legate of the Emperor, Co-founder of Gladbach Monastery. Died in 986 at his one of his Monasteries. Also known as – Sandradus.
We know little of our St Sandratus except that he became a Monk in the monastery of St Maximinus, in Trier, Germany, where he must have excelled in both devotion and leadership qualiyties, in order to attract the attention of the Emperior.
In 972, Emperor Otto I appointed him to attend at the Monastery of St Gall in modern Switzerland, in order to effect much needed reforms there.
In 974, after the successful completion of his mission at St Gall, Sandratus was requested to assist Archbishop Gero of Cologne to found a Monastery at Gladbach which was named after the Gladbach, a narrow brook which now runs underground. The Abbey and its adjoining Villages grew into the Town of Gladbac, incorporated in the 1360s, the origin of the present City of Mönchengladbach in North Rhine-Westphalia.
At the same time, in the Alsace region, Sandratus was also appointed to the responsibility of governing the Weissenburg Monastery dedicated to Sts Peter and Paul, below is the Abbey Church today.
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