Builder of the second Würzburg Cathedral

More or less famous personalities are also very popular as namesake for streets, paths and squares in Münnerstadt and the city districts. There are 210, 43 are named after doctors, pastors, poets, politicians or greats from the world of business. It is noticeable that there is not a single woman among them.

If new building areas are opened up soon, there would be an opportunity to change that. In the district of Windheim a 264 meter long street is named after the Würzburg bishop Arno (or Arn). It is not known when he was born. Nobody knows where he comes from either. He may have been a student of Bishop Gozwald von Würzburg and a member of the cathedral monastery. Only with his ordination as the ninth bishop of Würzburg does the church man, who also took on a variety of political and military tasks, step out of the darkness of history. In the year 855 Arno was appointed Bishop of Würzburg by Ludwig the German, who was first sub-king of Bavaria and from 873 to 846 king of Eastern Franconia. A ruler beyond the Alps did not need the rather unimportant Pope in distant Rome for this. Arno’s reign as bishop falls into the time of the Carolingian rulers Ludwig II of Italy, Karl II., Karl III. and Arnulf of Carinthia.

Two different sources

In those centuries bishops were not only churchmen, but also had important administrative tasks and were military leaders. On the one hand, Arno went down in diocese history as the builder of the second Würzburg Cathedral. On June 5, 855, shortly before he was appointed Gozbald’s successor to the bishopric, lightning struck the Salvator Cathedral, consecrated by Bishop Berowelf, according to a source. The building, which stood on the site of today’s Neumünster and was one of the largest church buildings of its era, burned down completely; a subsequent storm brought the walls of the cathedral to collapse.

According to another source, however, Arno was ordained bishop in September 854. Bishop Arno had a new cathedral built in the immediate vicinity in honor of the Franconian apostles. The three-aisled late Carolingian Kilian Cathedral (basilica sancti Kiliani) was probably consecrated between 880 and 890. On this occasion, the Kilian’s relics were transferred to the new crypt in a solemn procession, and many miracles are said to have happened. Bishop Arno also worked as a master builder outside his episcopal city: in the east of his diocese, according to the historian Thietmar von Merseburg, he had nine churches built in ten years. In the service of the empire and the imperial church, he repeatedly took part in diets and imperial synods. In four campaigns he was a military leader.

Stabbed at the altar

During the reign of King Ludwig, Moravia, Bohemia and Wends invaded Bavaria and caused great devastation. Bishop Arno accompanied the king on the campaign against them. In 891 he went to the field with Emperor Arnulf against Duke Zwentibold of Moravia and Bohemia. The duke was defeated and thrown back into the Meißener Land. Arnulf followed him there.

On July 13, 891, when a service was celebrated in honor of St. Margaret in the war camp of Emperor Arnulf, Bishop Arno was of course at the altar. Suddenly the duke’s warriors stormed the camp and caused a terrible slaughter. Bishop Arno stabbed them at the altar. His body was taken to Würzburg and buried there at the altar of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. In the ecumenical dictionary of saints, Bishop Arno is listed as a saint. There it says “the veneration as a martyr was particularly alive in Franconia in the 16th to 18th centuries”. Elsewhere, however, one searches in vain among the saints. He is also often referred to as blessed.

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• Windheim

• apostle

• Arnulf of Carinthia

• construction

• Bishops

• Generals and military leaders

• Karl II.

• Karl III.

• Kiliani

• Church buildings

• Krieger

• Ludwig II.

• Pastors and pastors

• Popes

• Simon Peter

• Wurzburg Cathedral

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