July 4 William of Hirsau d. 1091

Thommy and John

good morning
i love you


When we find ourselves in postion to lead, our saintly abbots, especially our namesakes give us plenty of advice....

e.g. William of Hirsau; wilhelm von Hirsau....
Wiliam of Hirsau became a benedictine monk - in the 11th c. they were the creme de la creme of monastic order monks... and the source of the Clunic reforms. this educated man joined the monastery following his own vocation...
try not to think of our blesseds, our monks, our abbots stereotypically. what do we know about William the man; the boy billy? from his adult accomplishments, we might guess - i suggest it's worth your checking into, if only for fun and the breaking of a stereotype or two....

in 1069, William was sent to the monastery at Hirsau to become their abbot. the man who had been the abbot had been deposed unjustly - my easily reached sources do not elaborate; maybe by herny IV's henchmen, maybe by a coup - altho a monastery with fifteen benedictine priests might not seem worth the effort of a coup - - except that any monastery has great wealth, many reaources, and the potential beyond imagination. whatever was happening at Hirsau was not working, for the abbot, for the community, and, thus very likely for the benedictines or the church. William was sent to Hirsau to fix things....
so many times i have been sent to a hospital to fix things. as ceo. as vp. as consultant [with operations responsiblity]. and the reformist abbots, especially of namesake abbots, provide some guidance and inspiration and a resource for the mucho help i need to deliver on the charge of my assignment.
When William arrived at Hirsau, he took the reins of leadership but not the title of abbot - in deference to the man who was deposed but still there. to have been chosen abbot, that man must have been a dedicated benedictine, a faithful catholic, a man once admired among his peers. william would not add to the disgrace of his being removed as leader.... that alone is lesson enough for us to recall ...

William of Hirsau became abbot in 1071. he brought strict reforms from cluny and lived as the model monk amongst his freres. Reform. strict adherence to the rule of Benedict. William of Hirsau led the elimination of clerical corruption - there were men running amuck within the monastery and they frothed over into the communinty with their corruption and scandals. William of Hirsau also rejected any secular control over the Church's property, people, or practices. this of course set him against his own king henry IV [germany] and in the camp of the reforming pope gregory VII. an apparently risky if not untenable proposition.

William of Hirsau's efforts resulted, in one grand measure of his impact, in the increase of priests at Hirsau from 15 to 150! [not unlike the flourishing of the Dominican Sisters in nashville! and for many of the same reasons.]

fundamentals fundamentally lived, taught, implemented with fervor and faith.

and, oh by the by, William, remember was an educated man, William of Hirsau also fulfilled the talents and resources and blessings given to him in other ways. his vocation was more that the title 'abbot' suggests to the stereotyping eye....
William of Hirsau was unsurpassed in his time in the knowledge of quadrivials. In medieval education, the four advanced liberal arts (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music), which were studied after mastery of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic). He constructed various astronomical instruments, made a sun-dial which showed the variations of the heavenly bodies, the solstices, equinoxes, and other sidereal phenomena (The sidereal period is the time that it takes the object to make one full orbit around the Sun, relative to the stars. This is considered to be an object's true orbital period.)
William of HIrsau was also a skilled musician and made various improvements on the flute. So many ways to fulfill our vocation - to know love and serve God.... with all of our talents... in pursuit of perfection....

how do you fulfill your vocation? your talents?

i love you
dad