ALTMANN OF PASSAU, ST.

Bishop; b. Westphalia, Germany, c. 1015; d. Zeiselmauer, near Vienna, Austria, Aug. 8, 1091. He became canon and teacher at Paderborn, provost of the canons of Aachen c. 1051, and then chaplain to Empress Agnes (d. 1114). After a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he was named bishop of Passau in 1065. His concern for the purity and pastoral zeal of his clergy made him a champion of the vita communis according to the Rule of St. Augustine, and he introduced this rule when founding Sankt Nikola outside Passau (c. 1070) and Göttweig (1083) and when reforming Sankt Florian (1071) and Sankt Pölten (1081). He was also instrumental in the foundation of the Augustinian houses of Rottenbuch (1073) and Reichersberg (1084). Altmann courageously published the papal decrees against married priests in 1074 and was the first to announce Emperor Henry IV's excommunication in Germany in 1076. As papal legate, he attended the princes' meeting at Tribur in October 1076. Driven from his diocese in 1077 or 1078 by the imperial party, Altmann fled to Rome. In 1080 he returned to the eastern part of his diocese, where he continued his political and pastoral efforts under the protection of Margrave Leopold II (d. 1095) until his death. He was buried in the Abbey of Göttweig, and a monk of this monastery wrote his vita (Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores 12:226– 243). Since the late nineteenth century, his cult has been permitted in the dioceses of Passau, Linz, and Sankt Pölten.

Feast: Aug. 8.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Aug. 2:356–389. altmann of passau, Streitschriften, ed. m. sdralek (Paderborn 1890). a. linsenmayer, Zur Erinnerung an den seligen Bischof Altmann v. Passau, 1065–1091 (Munich 1891). e. tomek, Kirchengeschichte Österreichs (Innsbruck 1935–59) 1:138–143. j. haller, "Der Weg nach Canossa," Historische Zeitschrift 160 (1939) 229–285, esp. 280–283. w. wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter, ed. r. holtzmann (Tübingen 1948) 1:385–389, 541–545. r. bauerreiss, Kirchengeschichte Bayerns, v.2 (St. Ottilien 1951) 98–103, 233–236. j. oswald, Lexicon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:402–403, bibliog. g. allmang, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 2: 826–827.

[a. a. schacher]