Arn

Who was Arn?

Saint Arn or Arno von Endsee was the Bishop of Würzburg from 855 until his death. He was a pupil of Bishop Gozbald, who died on 20 September 855; Arn was elected bishop in his place. Arn was a warrior-prelate, recorded fighting against almost every external foe of the Germans at one point in his career or another.

In his first year in office, the cathedral of Würzburg was destroyed by lightning and Arn had to rebuild it. He was an active participator in the East Frankish government of Louis the German, Charles the Fat, and Arnulf of Carinthia.

In 871, Louis the German held an assembly at Frankfurt and from there sent Arn and Ruodolt, Margrave of the Nordgau, to defend the border between the Duchy of Bavaria and Great Moravia because he had heard that the Moravians were planning an invasion. The Moravians had constructed a very large, circular wall to force the Germans through a very narrow opening and thus cut them off from fleeing. Arn, however, aware of the trap, caught a Moravian army leading back a Bohemian bride offguard and forced it into the trap. The Moravian were forced to abandon their horses and flee on foot.