Frowin of Engelberg

Frowin of Engleberg, in German Frowin von Engelberg (died 11 March 1178) was a Swiss German Benedictine abbot. Though never formally beatified, Frowin was styled "Blessed" by some chroniclers.[1]

Title Page of St. Gregory's "Moralia"- Job Visited by His Three Friends; attributed to Frowin (Cleveland Museum of Art)

Life

Of the early life of Frowin nothing is known, save that he is claimed as a monk of their community by the historians of Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland and St. Blasius Abbey in Baden. The first authentic fact in his career is his election as abbot, the year 1142, to succeed Adelhelm in the newly established monastery of Engelberg in the Canton of Unterwalden, Switzerland.

Through his efforts the possessions and privileges, civil and ecclesiastical, of the abbey were greatly increased, while its renown as a home of learning, art, and piety spread far and wide. He established a famous school in his abbey, in which besides the trivium and quadrivium, philosophy and theology were likewise taught. The library which he collected possessed, for those days, a vast number of manuscripts. According to a list that he left, it contained Homer, Cicero, Cato, Ovid and other authors of antiquity. This rich collection perished in 1729, when the abbey was destroyed by fire.

Works

Frowin not only copied books for his library, but composed several. Two of these, a commentary on the Lord's Prayer, and a treatise in seven books, "De Laude Liberi Arbitrii" ("In Praise of Free Will", but in reality a discussion of the chief theological questions of his day, directed, it is thought, against the errors of Abelard) are still extant, having been discovered by Mabillon in the archives of Einsiedeln. Frowin's other works, Commentaries on the Ten Commandments and various parts of Holy Scripture, are lost.[2][3][4]

Veneration

Pétin ("Dictionnaire Hagiographique" I, iiii) gives 7 March as his feast day, and credits him with many miracles.

References

See Acta Sanctorum, March, IX, 683.
Gillian R. Evans -Augustine on Evil - 1990 Page 177 "In the next generation there were some who took Anselm's line, in a modified way: Honorius Augustodunensis, an admirer who had met Anselm and heard him speak, and later in the twelfth century Frowin of Engelberg"
Giles Constable Monks, hermits, and crusaders in Medieval Europe 1988 Page 176 "and FROWIN OF ENGELBERG, De laude liberi arbitrii Ubri septem, of which the prologue and table of contents (only) are published in Pat. lat., ..."
Achard (de Saint-Victor) Works ed. Hugh Feiss - 2001 - Page 25 "Often we find allusions to Achard's metaphysics of participation and unity. Frowin of Engelberg incorporated part of Sermon 13 into his De laude liberi arbitrii,..."

External links

Catholic Encyclopedia article

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[1] See Acta Sanctorum, March, IX, 683.

[2] Gillian R. Evans -Augustine on Evil - 1990 Page 177 "In the next generation there were some who took Anselm's line, in a modified way: Honorius Augustodunensis, an admirer who had met Anselm and heard him speak, and later in the twelfth century Frowin of Engelberg"

[3] Giles Constable Monks, hermits, and crusaders in Medieval Europe 1988 Page 176 "and FROWIN OF ENGELBERG, De laude liberi arbitrii Ubri septem, of which the prologue and table of contents (only) are published in Pat. lat., ..."

[4] Achard (de Saint-Victor) Works ed. Hugh Feiss - 2001 - Page 25 "Often we find allusions to Achard's metaphysics of participation and unity. Frowin of Engelberg incorporated part of Sermon 13 into his De laude liberi arbitrii,..."