Cunibert

The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 13, November, Pt. 1 · S. CUNIBERT, ABP. OF COLOGNE.

S. CUNIBERT, ABP. OF COLOGNE.

(about a.d. 663.)

[Roman and German Martyrologies. Ado, Usuardus, Wandelbert. Authority : — A Life written late, and therefore of little value, by an unknown hand, in Surius, Vit. SS. ftov. 12.]

Cunibert was born on the banks of the Moselle. He was at first archdeacon of the church of Trfeves ; afterwards, in 623, on the death of Remedius, elected to the bishopric of Cologne. He assisted at the council of Rheims in 625, which was attended by forty-one bishops, amongst them S. Modoatus of Trfeves, S. Sindulf of Vienne, and S. Donatus of Besangon. The 25th canon of this council decreed that “ no one should be elected bishop of a city who was not an inhabitant of that city ; that the election should be made by the suffrage of all the people, with the consent of the bishops of the province. If any one was elevated to the episcopate otherwise he was to be deposed, and those whom he had ordained were to be suspended from the exercise of their ministry for three years.” Cunibert was the first prelate of Cologne to exercise the office and fill the rank of arch- bishop. The title was accorded to him personally for his virtues, and was not attached to the see, which was then under that of Mainz.

Sigebert, king of Austrasia, was much under the influence of S. Cunibert. The saint founded at Cologne an institute called “ The Twelve Weepers,” one of the offices of which

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Biographical overview

Cunibert, Cunipert, or Kunibert (c. 600 – 12 November c. 663) was the ninth bishop of Cologne, from 623 to his death. Contemporary sources mention him between 627 and 643.

Martyrologium Romanum · Latin witness

Coloniae Agrippinae depositio sancti Cuniberti Episcopi.