Ulrich of Zell

Ulrich of Zell, also known as Wulderic, sometimes of Cluny or of Regensburg (c. 1029 – 1093), was a Cluniac reformer of Germany, abbot, founder and saint.

Life Ulrich was born at Regensburg in Bavaria (formerly also known as Ratisbon) in early 1029. His father Bernhold was from Bavaria; his mother Bucca from Swabia, a niece of Bishop Gebhard II of Regensburg and also related to Ulrich of Augsburg. Pious and wealthy, they were childless for many years and made a pilgrimage to Magnus of Füssen, vowing to dedicate a son to the religious life.

Ulrich was probably educated at the school of St. Emmeram's Abbey, along with William of Hirsau, with whom he remained friends throughout his life, but in 1043 he was called to the court of his godfather, Henry III, King of the Germans where he acted as page to Queen Agnes, who was of the ducal house of Aquitaine, patrons of the reforming Abbey of Cluny. Ulrich later had to leave the court because his father had been accused of collaborating with enemies from Hungary and had been executed. but was deeply moved by the spirit of reform that was sweeping from Cluny through the 11th century church. On his return from a journey to Rome he distributed his possessions to the poor, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and, after another short visit to Rome, returned to Regensburg, where he founded a religious community, and then entered the Abbey of Cluny in 1061. Here he soon became personal secretary to Abbot Hugo.

Here he was ordained priest and Hugo commissioned Ulrich to spread the Cluny reforms. He was appointed confessor to the convent at Mareigny in the diocese of Autun, and prior of the community of men in the same place. He also lost an eye and was obliged to return to Cluny. He then went to Augsburg to reform St. Ulrich's and St. Afra's Abbey. The project failed because the population drove Ulrich out of the city.

Ulrich took over an already existing monastic community, founded before 1072 on the Tuniberg by Hesso of Eichstetten and Rimsingen. sometime between 1077 and 1080 Kloster Tuniberg moved to Grüningen. Not finding the locality suitable, he and his monks moved in 1087 to Zell, in the Möhlin valley, where there had previously been a cell of the Abbey of Saint Gall. Ulrich's high reputation soon brought him many disciples. He enjoyed the good opinion of Bishop Gebhard, whom he probably helped in reforming the monastery of St. Alban. In 1090 he established Bollschweil Priory, a Cluniac nunnery at Bolesweiler (now Bollschweil), about a mile from Zell. Around 1090, Ulrich went blind, resigned as prior in St. Ulrich, but refused the offer to return to Cluny for the sake of better care. was composed at the request of William of Hirsau, in three books. The first two, written between 1079 and 1082, treat of liturgy and the education of novices; the third, written not later than 1087, speaks of the administration of monasteries.

His life of Hermann of Zähringen, Margrave of Baden, later a monk of Cluny, is lost.

Biographies Two biographies of him exist: the first (with selected passages from the "Vita posterior") was written anonymously around 1109 by a monk of Zell at the request of Adalbert, a recluse near Regensburg; the other (the Vita posterior), also anonymous, was written between 1109 and 1130. Particulars of his life are also contained in his writings.