Image 1 of 1: Saint Wolfgang, Albrecht Durer
Saints and feasts
St. Wolfgang
Bishop of Regensburg
St. Wolfgang is remembered as balanced and strong. He loved learning, prayer, reform, and solitude, but never used those loves as excuses to evade responsibility.
The reading
ⓘ Butler source
Butler's Lives of the Saints, Volume IV (October-November-December), October 31, St Wolfgang, Bishop of Regensburg, Christian Classics 1990, pp. 230-231.
Wolfgang's life has a rare balance. He is monk, teacher, missionary, reformer, and bishop, and each role deepens rather than swallows the others. This life follows him from Reichenau and Trier to Einsiedeln, then into missionary labor among the Magyars, and finally to Regensburg.
There he becomes the kind of bishop the Church always needs: reforming clergy, restoring monastic life, caring for the poor, and working hard without letting action devour recollection. A strong desire for hidden monastic quiet never leaves him, yet he never uses it to flee the duties laid upon him. The result is a life of discipline, prayer, and pastoral vigor that feels solid instead of theatrical.
Historical note
For October 31, this page uses St. Wolfgang because he gives the date a fuller and firmer historical life than the much weaker legendary material attached to some other entries.
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Act of Charity
Wolfgang's care for the poor invites us to pray for love that becomes service.
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Keep learning
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Read question 819 and its complete answer in the Baltimore Catechism.
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