Albert of Vercelli

Saint Albert of Jerusalem
Statue of Albert in Madonna del Carmine, Milan.
Patriarch of Jerusalem
Born Gualtieri, Italy
Died 14 September 1214
Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem
Venerated in Carmelite Order

Saint Albert of Jerusalem (Albertus Hierosolymitanus, also Blessed Albert, Albert of Vercelli or Alberto Avogadro;[1] died 14 September 1214) was a canon lawyer. He was Bishop of Bobbio and Bishop of Vercelli, and served as mediator and diplomat under Pope Clement III. Innocent III appointed him Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1204 or 1205. In Jerusalem, he contributed the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert to the newly-founded Carmelite Order. He is honoured as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and commemorated by the Carmelites, on 8 April according to Campbell (1907),[2] but apparently his day has since been moved to 17 September.

Life

Born at Castel Gualtieri, Italy, Albert was educated in theology and law. He entered the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross at Mortara and was elected prior in 1180. He became Bishop of Bobbio in 1184, and a year later was appointed Bishop of Vercelli. He served the Papacy as a mediator and diplomat between Pope Clement III and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. He served as papal legate in 1199 and helped end the war between Parma and Piacenza.

In 1205 he was made Patriarch of Jerusalem by Pope Innocent III, whom he also served as papal legate in the Holy Land. As patriarch he helped found the Carmelite Order around 1209, in particular by his composition of what came to be called the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert. This order was based on Mount Carmel, across the Bay of Haifa from Acre where he resided as patriarch. Additionally he mediated in disputes between the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus and between the Knights Templar and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.

In 1214 he had been invited to the Fourth Lateran Council, but the Master of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, whom he had rebuked and deposed for immorality, stabbed him to death on 14 September while taking part in a procession on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. He was succeeded by Raoul of Merencourt.

See also

References

  1. ↑ the name "Avogadro" is based on one tradition tracing his origin to a family of that name. A competing tradition identifies him as Alberto dei Conti di Sabbioneta. Evaldo Xavier Gomes (ed.), The Carmelite Rule, 1207-2007: proceedings of the Lisieux Conference, 4–7 July 2005 (2008), p. 116. (Circa la famiglia di origine le ipotesi più seguite, sia che si protenda per Gualtieri o Gualtirolo, per alcuni, sarebbe da ascrivere alla famiglia degli Avogadro, per altri a quella dei Conti di Sabbioneta, ritenendo aperta la questione).
  2. ↑ Campbell, T. (1907). Blessed Albert, Catholic Encyclopedia "He is honoured among the saints by the Carmelites, on 8 April. The Bollandists call attention to this curious anomaly, that not at Vercelli, where he was Patriarch, not among the Canons Regular, to whom he properly belonged, but in the Order of the Carmelites, of which he was not a member, does he receive the honour of a saint."
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Soffredo		 Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
1204–1214		 Succeeded by
Raoul of Merencourt
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