Page "Lorsch Abbey" Paragraph 11

The abbey was founded in 764 by the Frankish Count Cancor and his widowed mother Williswinda as a proprietary church ( Eigenkirche ) and monastery on their estate, Laurissa.

They entrusted its government to Cancor's nephew Chrodegang, Archbishop of Metz, who dedicated the church and monastery to Saint Peter and became its first abbot.

The pious founders enriched the new abbey by further donations.

In 766 Chrodegang resigned the office of abbot, in favour of his other duties as Archbishop of Metz.

He then sent his brother Gundeland to Lorsch as his successor, with fourteen Benedictine monks.

To make the abbey popular as a shrine and a place of pilgrimage, Chrodegang obtained from Pope Paul I the body of Saint Nazarius, martyred at Rome with three companions under Diocletian.

On 11 July 765, the sacred relics arrived, and with great solemnity were deposited in the basilica of the monastery.

The abbey and basilica were then renamed in honour of Saint Nazarius: the main church of Saints Peter, Paul, and Nazarius was consecrated by the Archbishop of Mainz in 774, in the presence of Charlemagne.