Waltgood

Waltgaud was born in the region of Fammen, in modern Wallonia ^[4] . His father was Count Adelreid, the beneficiary of the King of the Frankish state, Pepin Korotko , who died in the siege of Pivia in 771 ^[5] .

In 810, Waltgaud received the Diocese of Liege from Charlemagne , succeeding the bishop of Herbald who died on October 18, 809 . As the primate of one of the most important Frankish departments of the time, he was one of those who in 811 in Aachen witnessed the will of Emperor Karl with his signature ^[6] .

In 816/817, Waltgaud participated in the church cathedral in Aachen , at which decisions were made to conduct reforms in the empire based on the ideas of Benedict Aniansky , aiming to return monasticism to asceticism ^[4] . As part of these reforms, in 817, he replaced the canons in the Andagin Monastery with monks from other monasteries and established Benedictine rules in it. Constantly taking care of the monastery, Waltgaud made this monastery the richest in its diocese ^[7] . Later, he carried out the reform of the monasteries of Saint-Lambert (in Liège ), Notre-Dame (in Tongre ) and Notre-Dame-e-San Servas (in Maastricht ). In 817, Waltgaud founded the first shelter in the diocese for the poor and pilgrims ( St. Lambert Shelter). From the charter of the Liege bishop issued in the same year, it is known that at that time the diocese owned revenues from possessions in Tongra, Maastricht, Yui and Dinant , as well as from the monastery of Saint-Lambert ^[4] .

In 820, the territory of the Bishopric of Liège was first attacked by the Vikings who attacked Flanders . Thanks to the resistance that the Normans received from the Frankish coast guard, they were forced to leave the Flanders coast and transfer their robberies to the banks of the Seine ^[8] .

In 825, Waltgaud took part in the work of the church cathedral in Aachen , at which he received permission to transfer the relics of the patron saint of Liege, St. Hubert . On September 30 of the same year, the main event of the pontificate Bishop Waltgaud took place: the relics of Hubert were transferred from the St. Peter's Church of Liège to the Andagin Monastery, which has since become known as this saint (Saint-Hubert). At the request of Waltgaud, Bishop Jonah of Orleans rewrote The Life of Saint Hubert, supplementing it with a description of the ceremony of transferring the relics of the saint ^[9] .

In 829, Waltgaud participated in the work of the Paris Cathedral , where church affairs were discussed (at the initiative of the bishops, Emperor Louis I the Pious published the “ Capitulation of Education ” here) and secular (including the question of the upcoming division of the state between the sons of the emperor) . Immediately after this, on June 16 of this year, Bishop Liège was present at the church council in Mainz ^[5] .

Waltgaud repeatedly accepted the rulers of the Frankish state in his diocese (Charlemagne in 813 and Louis I the Pious in 814, 820, 823, 827 and in 831). On April 19, 831 in Heristal, the head of the Diocese of Liege received from the emperor as a gift to the bishopric the settlement of Esbe , the hereditary possession of the first wife of Louis, Irmengarda ^[4] . This is the last mention of Waltgaud in contemporary historical sources ^[7] . According to more recent data, he died on April 6, 836 ^[10] and was buried in the village of Serenshamp (near Rochefort ) ^[5] . The new head of the department of Liege was elected Bishop Pirard .