Saint Conrad of Constance

Also known as
Konrad of Konstanz
Memorial
26 November
Profile
Second son of Count Heinrich von Altdorf, part of the Guelf family. Educated at the cathedral school at Constance, Switzerland. Priest. Provost of the cathedral. Bishop of Constance from 934 to 975. Made three pilgrimages to the Holy Lands. Accompanied Emperor Otto I to Rome. Renovated churches in his diocese, and built three new ones on lands he inherited. Known for his charity to the poor, and his lack of concern over the power politics that occupied so many other bishops of the day.

During Mass one day a spider dropped into the chalice of Precious Blood; though Conrad believed all spiders were poisonous, his love of communion overcame his fear, and he drank the Blood, spider and all. He did, of course, survive.

On 14 September 948 Conrad was witness to the miraculous consecration of the Chapel of Mary, Einsiedeln, Switzerland by Christ and some angels.
Died
975 of natural causes
Canonized
1123 by Pope Callistus II
Patronage
Constance, Switzerland, diocese of
Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, archdiocese of
Representation
asperges
bishop holding a chalice with a spider above or in it
performing an exorcism
Additional Information
Courtly Lives of German Saints, by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewski
For All The Saints, by Katherine Rabenstein
Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
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