Conrad of Constance

Saint Conrad was bishop of Constance from 934 until his repose on 26 November 975, of the powerful Welf family. He was enrolled among the saints in 1123, at the First Lateran Council, and since 2006 is also venerated in the Orthodox Church as a locally venerated saint in Germany. His feast is on 26 November.

Life

He was the son of Count Heinrich of Altdorf. He studied at the cathedral school of Constance, where he distinguished himself by a fine mind, diligence and a gift for organising. He became a canon and provost of the cathedral and, with the support of Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg, was consecrated bishop of Constance in 934. It is counted among his achievements that he avoided becoming entangled in the politics of the day and kept his energies for his episcopal duties; he was nevertheless close to the emperor Otto I, with whom he went to Italy, in 962, and was a witness of his coronation at Rome, in the winter of 961-962. With Otto he had not only a working bond but friendship, for they were related in spirit; the emperor visited Constance in 972.

Pilgrimages and buildings

He made three pilgrimages to Jerusalem, praying at the holy places and bringing relics to Constance, and several to Rome. After these journeys he raised churches in Constance, taking as model the forms of the churches he had seen in the Eternal City and the Holy Land. He had as patrons Saints Maurice and Lawrence; in his time churches were built dedicated to Saint Maurice, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Lawrence and the holy Apostle Paul. He founded several churches on the episcopal estates and the hospital at Kreuzlingen, named after a portion of the True Cross which he brought from Jerusalem and gave to it.

Veneration

His body was buried in the church of Saint Maurice, then the relics were moved to the cathedral; at the Reformation they were thrown into Lake Constance. His life was written around 1120 by Udalschalk, a monk of the abbey of Saint Ulrich and Saint Afra at Augsburg, later abbot; because of its late date it has little content. His memory as a model of courage was supported by Bishop Ulrich I of Dillingen. In icons he is shown as a bishop with a chalice in which, or over which, there is a spider: the story says that once, during the Liturgy, a spider fell into the chalice; spiders were then thought poisonous, but Conrad drank the Blood of Christ, spider and all, as a token of faith; according to the story, the spider afterward came out unharmed from the saint's mouth.