Saint Wolfgang of Ratisbon

Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries	Biographies

A sincere attempt is being made with this new series by our website, to now acquaint our readers with the lives of the Orthodox Saints and Martyrs of the original One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of our Lord, who, like some of the Orthodox Saints of the British Isles, lived and propagated the Faith in the Western territories of the European Continent during the first millennium of Christianity and prior to the Great Schism of 1054 AD.

Our father among the Saints Wolfgang, Bishop of Ratisbon, the glorious light of Bavaria, was born of illustrious parents about the year 934.

After studying at Reichenau and Würzburg, he led the cathedral school at Trier, and undertook to reform the churches of the area, for which he met with hostility.

He began to live an ascetic life and after some years became a monk at Einsiedeln, then was ordained priest by St. Ulric of Augsburg. Together with St. Ulric and St. Conrad, St. Wolfgang was one of the three Stars in the firmament of the Orthodox Church in pre-Schism Germany.

Wolfgang was sent as a missionary to the pagan Magyars, and later, in 972, was made Bishop of Ratisbon.

He became the tutor to Emperor St. Henry II, was spiritual father and mentor to several of the early 11th c. German bishops, and restored genuine monastic life in the region.

He was a zealous preacher, and his liberality to the poor earned him the title of "Elemosynarius Maior," that is, "The Great Almsgiver."

Once, in the midst of a political controversy, St. Wolfgang disappeared. A hunter found him living as a hermit near a lake now called Lake St. Wolfgang, and he returned to his see.

Then, while visiting Pöchlarn in Lower Austria, upon the Danube, the Saint took ill and reposed soon after. His sacred relics were transported up the Danube to Ratisbon and there enshrined.

His holy life was written in 1050.