Bernward of Hildesheim

Saint Bernward, bishop of Hildesheim, was the thirteenth bishop of that Saxon city, from 993 until his death in 1022. Born about 960 into a noble Saxon family, he was tutor to the young Emperor Otto III, pastor and builder, a master of the arts and a benefactor of the poor. He is regarded as the first Saxon to be canonized and is sometimes called the saint of the arts.

Youth and learning

Bernward came from a noble Saxon family; his grandfather Athelbero was Count Palatine. Orphaned young, he was brought up by his grandfather and by his uncle Volkmar, Bishop of Utrecht, who placed him in the cathedral school of Hildesheim under Thangmar. There he advanced rapidly in the sciences, the liberal arts and even the mechanical ones. He became skilled in mathematics, painting, architecture and above all in making church vessels and ornaments of silver and gold.

He finished his studies at Mainz, where Archbishop Willigis ordained him priest. He declined a valuable post in his uncle's diocese and stayed to look after his aged grandfather until his death in 987. He then became chaplain at the imperial court, and soon afterward Empress-⁠Regent Theophano appointed him tutor and educator of her son Otto III, then six years old.

Ministry

On 15 January 993 he was consecrated bishop of Hildesheim. His time in office fell in the age of the Saxon emperors, whose roots lay near Hildesheim and who were related to him. The city was then a center of power in the Holy Roman Empire, and Bernward wished to give it a look fitting its rank. He enclosed the cathedral district with a strong wall of twelve towers and built other fortifications in the country against the attacks of neighboring Slavic tribes and of the pagan Normans. He founded monasteries and churches and set up art workshops and a school in which he himself taught; from it came painters, sculptors, goldsmiths and book illuminators. He cared for the spiritual life of his diocese and for the poor. His life was written by Thangmar, his teacher, in the Vita Bernwardi, though some parts were probably added later.

His works

The best known work linked with his name is the pair of cast bronze doors, now at St. Mary's Cathedral in Hildesheim, with scenes of the Fall of man, Adam and Eve, and of the salvation of man, the life of Christ. Also remembered is the Bernward Column, cast in bronze on the model of Trajan's Column in Rome, with a spiral of scenes from the life of the Savior. A cross and a candlestick attributed to him survive today. His attributes in icons are priestly vestments, chalice, staff, cross and at times a smith's hammer; he is patron of goldsmiths.

Between 1010 and 1020 he built the church of Saint Michael, on a symmetrical plan with two apses, characteristic of Ottonian Romanesque art. The bronze doors and St. Michael's church are today UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Death and veneration

Bernward died on 20 November 1022, a few weeks after the consecration of St. Michael's, and was buried in its west crypt. Pope Celestine III canonized him on 8 January 1193. His sarcophagus is still in St. Michael's church. In Hildesheim a neo-⁠Romanesque church of 1905-1907 and a thirteenth-⁠century chapel at Klein Düngen bear his name. He is commemorated on 20 November; in the Russian Orthodox Church he has been locally venerated in the diocese of Berlin and Germany since 2006.