This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Lambert of Maastricht is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
| Saint Lambert of Maastricht | |
|---|---|
 The murder & martyrdom of Saint Lambert |
|
| Bishop & Martyr | |
| Born | 636, Maastricht |
| Died | 700, Liège |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Major shrine | Liège. |
| Feast | 17 September |
Saint Lambert or Landebertus (c. 636 - c. 700) was the bishop of Maastricht (Tongeren) from about 670 until his death. Lambert was from a noble family of Maastricht, a protegé of his uncle, Bishop Theodard of Maastricht. When Theodard was murdered soon after 669, the councillors of Childeric II made Lambert bishop of Maastricht. Lambert was related to Hugobert and Plectrude, Pepin of Heristal's lawful wife and thus an in-law of hereditary mayors of the palace of Austrasia who controlled the Merovingian kings of Austrasia. After Childeric was murdered in 673, the faction of Ebroin, majordomo of Neustria and the power behind that throne, expelled him from his see, in favor of their candidate, Faramundus. Lambert spent seven years in exile at the recently-founded Abbey of Stavelot (674 –681)). With a change in the turbulent political fortunes of the time, Lambert was returned to his see.
In company with Willibrord, who had come from England in 691, Lambert preached the gospel to the pagans in the lower stretches of the Meuse, in the area that came to be called Brabant.
Shortly after Lambert's (and Plectrude's) family had murdered Dodo, a domesticus of Pepin of Heristal and father of Pepin's mistress Alpaida, Dodo's relatives murdered Lambert out of revenge, on his estate, the Gallo-Roman villa that has become Liège. The official Roman Catholic version is that Lambert became a martyr for his defence of marital fidelity, denouncing Pepin's liaison with Alpaida, daughter of Dodo, who was to become the mother of Charles Martel (CE "Saint Lambert").
Although Lambert was buried at Maastricht, his successor as bishop, Hubertus, translated his relics to Liège, to which the see of Maastricht was eventually moved, and where the main square remains the Place Saint-Lambert.
His feast day in the Roman Catholic Church calendar is September 17. The Lambertusfest in Münster has long been a folk holiday, celebrated for two weeks culminating on the eve of the 17th of September. Children build "Lambertus pyramids" of branches, decorated with lanterns and lamps around which they dance and sing traditional songs (known as Lambertussingen or Käskenspiel).
External links
- Biografisch-Bibliografisches Heiligenlexikon: Heilige Lambert (in German)
- Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon: Lambert (in German)
- Catholic Encyclopedia: "Saint Lambert"
- Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon: Lambert in the reign of Dagobert II (in German)
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 9 October 2008, at 14:19.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Lambert of Maastricht".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.