STURMI, ST.

Benedictine, founder and first abbot of fulda; d. Fulda, Dec. 17, 779. Sturmi, of Bavarian extraction, joined (St.) boniface and became his favorite disciple. Having made his novitiate at Fritzlar ca. 735, he was ordained ca. 740 and devoted himself to missionary work among the Hessians. Commissioned by Boniface, he founded the monastery of Fulda (March 12, 744) and visited the great Italian Benedictine abbeys of subiaco, monte cassino, and St. Andrew (747–748) to learn their organization and way of life. During his tenure of office Fulda flourished economically and as an intellectual and cultural center. A dispute with Abp. lull of mainz over Fulda's exemption was followed by Sturmi's banishment by King Pepin to the Abbey of jumiÉges (763), but he was permitted to return and resume work at Fulda (766). Charlemagne granted Sturmi a part of the newly won Saxon lands as missionary territory. While accompanying Charlemagne's Saxon campaign (779), he fellill. He returned to Fulda, died, and was buried there. He was canonized (1139) at the Second Lateran Council.

Feast: Dec. 17.

Bibliography: Vita s. Sturmi, ed. g. h. pertz, Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Berlin 1826–), Scriptores 2:365–377. Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne, 217 v., indexes 4 v. (Paris 1878–90) 89:1257–64. f. flaskamp, Westfälische Lebensbilder 2 (1931) 1–14; Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 7 v. (3d ed. Tübingen 1957–65) 6:444. w. hessler, "Zur Abfassungszeit von Eigils Vita Sturmi," Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 9 (1959) 1–17.

[d. andreini]