Benno of Metz

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BENNO OF METZ

Bishop; d. Aug. 3, 940. Benno came from a noble Swabian family. While still a young man he was made a canon at Strassburg. In 906, he retired to the hermitage that had formerly housed St. Meinrad. He rebuilt the chapel and the dwelling and soon gathered a group of disciples. Benno was named bishop of Metz in 927 by King Henry I, who opposed the locally elected candidate; but in 929 Benno was attacked by his enemies and blinded. Although the attackers were excommunicated and banished at the Synod of Duisburg (929), Benno renounced his episcopal office and returned to his former hermitage. In 934 he was joined by Eberhard, provost of Strassburg Cathedral, who developed the hermitage into the celebrated monastery of einsiedeln. Benno's cult has never been formally recognized, and he should properly be titled venerable.

Bibliography: a. bigelmair, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1912) 7:136162. a. m. burg, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (Freiburg 195765) 2:206.

[f. behrends]