Eckebert

Eckebert (Ekbert, Egbert), Abbot of Schönau, b. in the early part of the twelfth century of a distinguished family along the Middle Rhine; d. March 28, 1184, in the Abbey of Schönau. He was for a time canon in the collegiate church of Sts. Cassius and Florentius at Bonn. In 1155 he became a Benedictine at Schönau in the Diocese of Trier, and in 1166, after the death of the first abbot, Hildelin, he was placed at the head of the monastery. A man of great zeal, he preached and wrote much for the salvation of souls and the conversion of heretics. The Cathari, then numerous in the Rhineland, gave him especial concern. While a canon at Bonn he often had occasion to debate with heretics, and after his monastic profession, was invited by Archbishop Rainald of Cologne to debate publicly with the leaders of the sect in Cologne itself. His chief works are: "Sermones contra Catharos" with extracts on the Manichaeans, from St. Augustine (P.L., CXCV); "De Laude Crucis" (ibid.); "Soliloquium seu Meditationes" (ibid.); "Ad Beatam Virginem Deiparam sermo panegyricus" (ibid., CLXXXIV); "De sanctae Elizabethae virgine", a biography of his sister, a Benedictine nun and a famous visionary and mystic (see Elizabeth of Schoenau), a portion of which is in P.L., CXCV, also in "Acta SS.", June, IV, 501 sqq. (ed. Palmé, 1867). A complete edition of his works is found in Roth, "Die Visionen der hl. Elisabeth and die Schriften der Aebte Ekbert and Emecho von Schönau" (Brünn, 1884).

FRANCIS J. SCHAEFER