Richard of Verdun

Who was Richard of Verdun?

Richard of Verdun was the abbot of the influential northeastern French Monastery of St. Vanne from 1004 to 1046. Richard entered the monastery of St. Vanne as a young man, and upon his arrival he was shocked and dismayed by the relatively poor state of the monastery . So great were his feelings that he had attempted to be transferred from St. Vanne, but was eventually talked out of it by Odilo of Cluny.

Richard succeeded Fergenius as abbot of St. Vanne in 1004. Due to his intimate connections with the local nobility, notably Gerard of Florennes, Bishop of Cambrai and Poppo of Stavelot, Richard was able to transform the simple monastery into a truly monumental repository of a variety of relics. His network of connections and contributors even included William the Conqueror and Robert II, Duke of Normandy. Modeling St. Vanne after Cluny Abbey, Richard undertook a number of building projects which some felt were overeager at best and needlessly wasteful and extravagant at worst. Peter Damian commented "...he had expended almost all his efforts constructing useless buildings and had wasted much of the Church's resources in such frivolities".