Otto of Bamberg

Saint Otto of Bamberg
St. Otto of Bamberg
Bishop and Confessor; Apostle of Pomerania
Born	1060 Mistelbach, Franconia
Died	30 June 1139 Pomerania (now in modern-day Poland)
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	1189, Rome by Pope Clement III
Major shrine	St. Michael's Church, Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany
Feast	2 July

Saint Otto of Bamberg (German: Otto von Bamberg, Polish: Otton z Bambergu; 1060 or 1061 – 30 June 1139) was a medieval German bishop and missionary who, as papal legate, converted much of Pomerania to Christianity.

Otto was born into a noble family in Mistelbach, Franconia. His elder brother inherited his father's property and Otto was sent to school. Serving initially in the household of Duke Władysław I Herman of Poland, he entered the service of the Emperor Henry IV in 1090 and was appointed Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1101.

In 1102, the Emperor appointed and invested him as Bishop of Bamberg in Franconia (now in the state of Bavaria), and Otto became one of the leading princes of medieval Germany. During his tenure as bishop, Bamberg rose to great prominence, while Otto achieved fame as a missionary and as a diplomat and politician, notably during the Investiture Controversy between Emperor Henry IV and the papacy during which he remained loyal to the emperor. As a consequence, he was suspended by a papal party at the Synod of Fritzlar in 1118. At the Congress of Würzburg in 1121 Otto successfully negotiated the peace treaty, the Concordat of Worms, which was signed in 1122 at Worms.