Gotthard of Hildesheim

Wooden statue of St. Gotthard, carved about 1505, Cath. Church in Schellerten-Farmsen, Lower Saxony, Germany.

Gotthard (or Godehard) (960 – 5 May 1038 AD; ), also known as Gothard or Godehard the Bishop, was a German bishop venerated as a saint.

Life Gotthard was born in 960 near Niederaltaich in the diocese of Passau. Gotthard studied the humanities and theology at Niederaltaich Abbey, where his father Ratmund was a vassal of the canons. While at the abbey, Gotthard became a canon under Abbot Erkanbert. Gotthard then continued his studies at the archiepiscopal court of Salzburg, being consecrated by Aribo, Archbishop of Mainz. During the 15 years of his episcopal government, while earning the respect of the clergy. He was particularly interested in the education of the young clergy, and he started several schools. The cathedral school in Hildesheim became under him a center for learning. Gotthard ordered the construction of some 30 churches. He founded a monastery beside the chapel on the Zierenberg about 1025 and had a church built there which was dedicated to Saint Maurice and consecrated in 1028.

Despite his advanced age, he defended the rights of his diocese vigorously.

Veneration of Gotthard spread to Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Eastern Europe. Gotthard was invoked against fever, dropsy, childhood sicknesses, hailstones, the pain of childbirth, and gout.

Niederaltaich Abbey made its famous abbot the patron saint of the abbey's well-known grammar school, the St.-Gotthard-Gymnasium.

Gotthard also became the patron saint of traveling merchants, and thus many churches and chapels were dedicated to him in the Alps.

According to an ancient Ticinese tradition, the little church in St. Gotthard Pass (San Gottardo) in the Swiss Alps was founded by Galdino, Archbishop of Milan (r. 1166-76). Goffredo da Bussero, however, attributes the founding of the church to Enrico da Settala, Bishop of Milan from 1213 to 1230. The hospice was entrusted to the care of the Capuchin Order in 1685 by Federico Visconti, and later passed under the control of a confraternity of Ticino.