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St. Anno of Cologne

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St. Anno of Cologne

Archbishop of Cologne, Confessor

Anno left military life for the Church and became archbishop of Cologne. Butler describes his personal service of the poor, reform of religious houses and responsibilities in imperial government.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Pastoral office: Archbishop of Cologne
The notice joins pastoral responsibilities to his work in imperial government.

Butler sourceAlban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 4, “Saint Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, Confessor,” pp. 93-94.

Butler’s Lives of the Saints (1846)Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 4, “Saint Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, Confessor,” pp. 93-94.

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 4, “Saint Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, Confessor,” pp. 93-94.

Anno came from a noble family and first served as a soldier. The counsel of an uncle, a canon at Bamberg, helped turn him toward an ecclesiastical vocation. His formation there led to service at the imperial court and eventually to the archbishopric of Cologne.

Butler remembers his concern for the poor in concrete terms: he sought them in their homes and carried necessities to them himself. His episcopal work included preaching, the reform of monasteries and the foundation of religious communities. Prayer and personal discipline remained central to his account.

Anno also bore responsibilities in imperial government during the minority of Henry IV. Butler describes his removal from that work and later recall amid complaints about the administration. The short notice joins his public duties to the pastoral life of a bishop who continued to care for those in need. He died on December 4, 1075.

Historical note

An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 source. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.

This is a condensed account of Butler’s notice, rather than a complete treatment of Anno’s political career.

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