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A shepherd who stayed with his people through hard times.

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May 4 · Bishop

St. Gothard of Hildesheim

St. Gothard of Hildesheim

A shepherd who stayed with his people through hard times.

Traditional feast

May 4
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Bishop

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 0 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Learn from the kind of life it was. A shepherd who stayed with his people through hard times.

Keep their day. Remember them on May 4 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 0 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: German Kalendars. May 5th, at Hildesheim, the day of his deposition. May 4th, of his death and translation. Also Prague, and Liege, and Benedictine Martyrologies. Authority: — A life by his disciple Wulfhere.] S, Gothard was born in Bavaria, and was first prior and then abbot of Altaich, where he kept such good discipline that he was chosen to restore the discipline in other abbeys which had become relaxed. He was sent for this purpose to Tegemsee, in the diocese of Freising, to Kremsmiinster, and elsewhere. In 1021 he was appointed by S. Henry, the emperor, to the see of Hildesheim. He died on the 4th May, 1038, and was canonized by Innocent II. in the year 1131. His life is singularly deficient in incidents awakening interest.

Feast days

Feast: May 4

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Gothard of Hildesheim's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on May 4
St. Judas or Quiriacus

St. Judas or Quiriacus

May 4 · Bishop
St. Pelagia

St. Pelagia

May 4 · Virgin, Martyr
S

St. Sylvanus of Gaza

May 4 · Bishop, Martyr
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.