Biography
Plechelm
About Plechelm
Plechelm, also called Plechelmus or Pleghelm, is remembered as a missionary and bishop associated with the Netherlands. An older biographical account distinguishes him from Plechtelmus, bishop of Candida Casa. It describes his preaching with Wiro and the deacon Otger in the lands between the Rhine, Waal and Meuse.
His medieval life connects him with a journey to Rome, episcopal consecration and a grant of land from Pepin. Adriaan Monna explains that these stories cannot supply a secure chronology. The pope is unnamed in the lives, and historians disagree about which Pepin was intended. Some regard the journey, episcopal appointments and land grant as conventional embellishments. The commonly printed death years 713 and 732 have no historical basis.
The Oldenzaal basilica presents another reconstruction, placing his continental mission around the middle of the eighth century, during Pepin III’s reign. It identifies Pleghelm in the Durham Liber Vitae and reports a Northumbrian connection. According to his later life, he died and was buried at Sint Odiliënberg, as were Wiro and Otger.
His veneration at Oldenzaal has a much clearer history. Jeroen van de Ven records the arrival of relics in 954 and the first certain evidence of pilgrims attending his local procession in 1450. During the Reformation the relics were moved to places of safety. Some returned to the church in 1825, after Catholics had regained the building. A late medieval silver and partly gilded bust continued to house the head relic.
The basilica expressly calls him the patron of both church and city. His traditional feast there is 15 July, although local celebrations have also been scheduled earlier in the summer.
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