Benno II. von Osnabrück

Benno II ( – 27 July 1088) was Bishop of Osnabrück from 1068 until his death. He served as a close advisor and architect of Emperor Henry IV. In 1080 he founded the Benedictine abbey of Iburg Castle.

Life He was born at Löhningen (today part of Ühlingen-Birkendorf) in Klettgau, Swabia, the son of a ministerial family. His parents sent him at an early age to the monastic schools of Straßburg and Reichenau where the learned Herman Contractus was then teaching. Together with William I, Archbishop of Strasbourg, he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem about 1040.

Having completed his education, he taught for some time at the cathedral school of Speyer in Rhenish Franconia. around 1085. (However, he did not author the Gesta Romanae ecclesiae contra Hildebrandum of Cardinal Beno.) On the other hand, Benno tried to bring about a reconciliation, and Heitemeyer include him in the list of saints. Kerler says that he is invoked against grasshoppers, because he once dispersed them by his prayers.