Gebhard of Constance

Saint Gebhard was Bishop of Constance from 979 to 995, founder of the Benedictine abbey of Petershausen and a father to the poor. He was born about 949 at Hohenbregenz Castle and reposed on 27 August 995. He is patron of the city of Constance and of the land of Vorarlberg.

Youth

He was the youngest son of Count Ulrich of Bregenz and Dietburga, of a powerful family of southern Germany related to the Ottonians and the dukes of Swabia. His mother died at his birth, and his elder brother Lütfried became count of Winterthur. Destined for the Church, he was given to his uncle, Bishop Conrad of Constance, to be raised, and studied at the cathedral school. He became a canon and then a priest.

Bishop

In 979, after the death of Bishop Gaminolf, he was elected Bishop of Constance. Emperor Otto II, whose godson he was, had a hand in his appointment, and he was consecrated at Mainz Cathedral by the bishops Willigis of Mainz and Erkanbald of Strasbourg. As a member of the emperor's household he was drawn into the affairs of his time: he took part in Otto II's Italian campaign in 980 or 981, received members of the royal family at Constance, and in 990 was for a short time counsellor to Empress Theophanu and administrator of the bishoprics of Pavia and Padua.

Little is known of his rule: that he consecrated or founded a number of parish churches and that a diocesan synod met at Constance in the year of his death. He cared for monastic reform and was known for his care of the poor. In 990 he began a programme on the episcopal estates by which serfs were to learn crafts and so support themselves. He chose the best of them as cooks, millers, fullers, cobblers, gardeners and carpenters, and decreed that the goods of a serf who died should pass to his heirs and not to the see.

Petershausen Abbey

His chief work was the Benedictine abbey of Petershausen, founded about 983 on the northern bank of the Rhine opposite the bishop's residence and dedicated to the lasting memory of himself and his parents. He went to Rome in April 989 and obtained from Pope John XV privileges for the new abbey, together with the head of Saint Gregory the Great. Otto III later gave the relics of the Apostle Philip as well. On 28 October 992 he consecrated the abbey church in honour of Saint Gregory the Great.

Veneration

He died on 27 August 995 at Constance and, as he wished, was buried in the church of Petershausen. After the canonization of Bishop Conrad in 1123, the abbey sought the canonization of Gebhard, so as to have a saint of its own. His Life was written then, and on 27 August 1134 his remains were moved to a new tomb. Bishop Ulrich II approved his veneration.

The relics were lost in 1530 during the Reformation, except for part of an arm, given in 1821 to the pilgrimage church of Saints George and Gebhard in Hohenbregenz Castle. Pilgrimages to the Gebhardsberg are documented from 1670. Gebhard is patron of the city of Constance, of Vorarlberg and of the dioceses of Freiburg and Feldkirch, and is invoked at childbirth and against diseases of the throat. He is shown as a bishop giving his staff to a lame man. He is commemorated on 27 August, and on 26 November, together with Saint Conrad, in some German dioceses.