Pilgrim

bishop of Passau 18^th , inventor of the Lorcher Fabel

Preliminary remark:

Year of birth, childhood and youth of Pilgrim are unknown. Pilgrim descended from the family of the Sieghardinger, a branch of the noble Bavarian family of the Aribonen (www.genealogie-mittelalter.html).

His father was Sieghard, Earl of Chiem- and Sundergau.

Pilgrim was educated at the monastery school in Niederaltaich (www.abtei-niederaltaich.de) and at the court of his uncle archbishop Friedrich of Salzburg.

14./15.06.970	bishop Adalbert of Passau dies; with the help of his uncle Friedrich of Salzburg, Pilgrim becomes bishop of Passau.
971	Pilgrim is consecrated to bishop of Passau.
between 971 and 985	Pilgrim forges several documents; the so-called Lorcher Fabel arises.
between 971 and 991	Pilgrim is said to entrust his writer Konrad with the record of the Nibelungenlied. This is controversial. Research tends towards considering bishop Wolfger von Erla as employer.
972	Pilgrim influences Otto I. on the filling of the Regensburger bishops see.
between 976 and 985	Pilgrim orders to transfer the remains of Saint Maximilian from Altötting to Passau.
July 976	Pilgrim achieves that a part of the tolls is used for the reconstruction of the Passauer Dom, further Passauer merchants are released from navigation toll in the whole empire; Emperor Otto II. donates Pilgrim the abbey Niedernburg.
977	Duke Heinrich der Zänker of Bavaria occupies Passau. Otto II. occupies the town and destroys the fortifications.
October 977	Pilgrim receives from emperor Otto II. the Ennsburg and 10 king’s hufe at Lorch as indemnity for the destructions.
985 - 991	Pilgrim obtains several privileges among other things tenth rights, rights and property in the Ostmark (territories south of the Danube).
October 20./21. 991	Pilgrim dies.

Valuation:

Already Albert Behaim characterizes Pilgrim as a conspicuous personality.

After the raids of the Hungarians he succeeded in restoring the bishopric, rebuilding of destroyed churches and cloisters and recovering and spreading rights and property of the bishopric, if necessary by forging or falsification respectively..

He did not succeed in interspersing the claims of the Lorcher Fabel.

Literature:

Egon Boshof: Die Stadt im Früh- und Hochmittelalter: Unter der Herrschaft der Bischöfe. In: Egon Boshof, Walter Hartinger u.a. (Hrsg.), Geschichte der Stadt Passau, Passau ^²2003, S. 68 - 72.
Franz Rainer Erkens: Bischof Pilgrim von Passau 971 - 991 - Versuch einer Würdigung anläßlich des 1000. Todestages. In: Ostbairische Grenzmarken Passauer Jahrbuch für Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde 34, Passau 1992, S. 25 - 37.
Die Regesten der Bischöfe von Passau I 739 - 1206, bearb. von Egon Boshof (Regesten zur bayerischen Landesgeschichte bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, I, 1992), München 1992, Nr. 218 - 251.
August Leidl: Die Bischöfe von Passau 739 - 1968 in Kurzbiographien (Neue Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Ostbairische Heimatforschung Nr. 38), Passau ²1978, S. 19 - 20.
Annette Zurstraßen: "Pilgrim". In: Liselotte Lutz u.a. (Red.), Lexikon des Mittelalters, Bd. 6, München Zürich 1993, Sp. 2157 - 2158.

Working and translation: Ruth Weber
(3.8.2004/13.5.2005)