Saint Sturm

Sturm ( – 17 December 779), also called Sturmius or Sturmi, was a disciple of Boniface and founder and first abbot of the Benedictine monastery and abbey of Fulda in 742 or 744. Sturm's tenure as abbot lasted from 747 until 779.

Life Sturm was born in Lorch, Austria, and was most likely related to the Agilolfing dukes of Bavaria. His parents placed him under the care of Boniface, who was carrying out the church reorganization in Bavaria and Austria (founding the bishoprics of Salzburg, Regensburg and Würzburg). He was educated in the Benedictine monastery of Fritzlar by abbot Wigbert.

He was then active as a missionary in northern Hesse, where in 736 he established a monastic settlement in Haerulfisfeld (Hersfeld). Ordained in 740 as priest in Fritzlar. Boniface sent him to work for three years as a missionary in Westphalia. He then was a hermit at Hersfeld, until raiding Saxons drove him from his unprotected hermitage.

Sturm was instructed by Boniface in 744 to establish a monastery in the region of Eichloha, which had been granted to Boniface by the Frankish Mayor of the Palace Carloman. In the ruins of a 6th-century Merovingian royal camp, destroyed 50 years earlier by the Saxons, at a ford on the Fulda River, Sturm established the monastery and was named first abbot of Fulda by Boniface.

Around 748, Sturm and two other monks went to study Benedictine life as practiced at Monte Cassino and establish it at Fulda. They spent a year visiting Benedictine abbeys learning how the monks lived. Before returning to Fulda, Sturm met with Pope Zachary, who placed the monastery under the jurisdiction of the Vatican, rather than under the bishop. but fell ill and died soon after returning to Fulda on 17 December 779, where he was buried in the cathedral.

Veneration

Sturm was recognised as a saint prior to the East–West Schism in 1054, hence the Orthodox Church continues to honour him. The post-1054 Roman Papacy did not accept all pre-Schism saints, sometimes reviewing their status. He was accordingly formally canonized in 1139 by Pope Innocent II. His life was recorded in the Vita Sturmi by the fourth abbot of Fulda, Eigil of Fulda (d. 822), a relative of his who had been a monk in Fulda for over 20 years under abbot Sturm.

Saint Sturm's Fountain is located in Fulda in front of the old town hall. It depicts Benedict, Boniface, and Sturm.