the Benedictines in Monte Casino, met Boniface in Rome, joined him in Germany (a.d. 740) and
became bishop of Eichstädt in Bavaria in 742. He directed his attention chiefly to the founding of
monasteries after the Benedictine rule. He called to his side his brother Wunnebald, his sister
Walpurgis, and other helpers from England. He died July 7, 781 or 787. He is considered by some
as the author of the biography of Boniface; but it was probably the work of another Willibald, a
presbyter of Mainz.
Gregory, Abbot of Utrecht, was related to the royal house of the Merovingians, educated
at the court, converted in his fifteenth year by a sermon of Boniface, and accompanied him on his
journeys. After the death of Boniface he superintended the mission among the Friesians, but declined
the episcopal dignity. In his old age he became lame, and was carried by his pupils to wherever his
presence was desired. He died in 781, seventy-three years old.
Sturm, the first Abbot of Fulda (710 to Dec. 17, 779), was of a noble Bavarian family and
educated by Boniface. With his approval he passed with two companions through the dense beech
forests of Hesse in pursuit of a proper place for a monastery. Singing psalms, he rode on an ass,
cutting a way through the thicket inhabited by wild beasts; at night after saying his prayers and
making the sign of the cross he slept on the bare ground under the canopy of heaven till sunrise.
He met no human being except a troupe of heathen slaves who bathed in the river Fulda, and
afterwards a man with a horse who was well acquainted with the country. He found at last a suitable
place, and took solemn possession of it in 744, after it was presented to him for a monastery by
Karloman at the request of Boniface, who joined him there with a large number of monks, and
often resorted to this his favorite monastery. "In a vast solitude," he wrote to Pope Zacharias in
751, "among the tribes entrusted to my preaching, there is a place where I erected a convent and
peopled it with monks who live according to the rule of St. Benedict in strict abstinence, without
flesh and wine, without intoxicating drink and slaves, earning their living with their own hands.
This spot I have rightfully secured from pious men, especially from Karloman, the late prince of
the Franks, and dedicated to the Saviour. There I will occasionally rest my weary limbs, and repose
in death, continuing faithful to the Roman Church and to the people to which I was sent?"^122
Fulda received special privileges from Pope Zacharias and his successors,^123 and became a
centre of German Christianity and civilization from which proceeded the clearing of the forests,
the cultivation of the soil, and the education of youths. The number of Benedictine monks was
increased by large re-enforcements from Monte Casino, after an Italian journey of Sturm in 747.
The later years of his life were disturbed by a controversy with Lullus of Mainz about the bones
of Boniface after his martyrdom (755) and by calumniations of three monks who brought upon him
the displeasure of King Pepin. He was, however, reinstated in his dignity and received the remains
of his beloved teacher which repose in Fulda. Charlemagne employed him as missionary among
the Saxons. His bones were deposited in the convent church. Pope Innocent II. canonized him, A.
D, 1139.^124
(^122) Condensed translation from Epist. 75 in Migne, fol. 778.
(^123) See "Fulda und seine Privilegien" in Jul. Harttung,Diplomatisch-historische Forschungen, Gotha, 1879, pp. 193 sqq.
(^124) The chief source is the Vita Sturmi by his pupil Eigil abbot of Fulda, 818 to 822, in Mabillon, "Acta Sanct. Ord.
Bened." Saec. VIII. Tom. 242-259.