Biography
Theodard of Maastricht
About Theodard of Maastricht
Theodard was a seventh-century bishop of Maastricht and the teacher of Lambert, who succeeded him. An early life of Lambert places their relationship at the royal court, where Theodard taught Christian doctrine and monastic discipline. It describes his affection for Lambert and his wish to make him his successor, while acknowledging the limits imposed by church law.
The later tradition explains his death through a dispute over church property. It says that he set out to complain to King Childeric II about powerful men taking possessions from his diocese, but was killed on the journey near Speyer. The suggestion that those landholders commissioned the killing remains an interpretation of the tradition, rather than an independently demonstrated motive.
Rudolf Kern distinguishes the earlier evidence from Sigebert of Gembloux’s much later additions. Details such as a prolonged dispute over the estates and Theodard’s foreknowledge of his death cannot simply be accepted because the later narrative is fuller. The bishop’s murder and his relationship with Lambert have firmer support than every circumstance attached to them.
Sigebert’s biography, written centuries after Theodard, also describes the transfer of his remains from their first burial place at Rülzheim to Liège. This account helped connect the memory of the bishop with places beyond his episcopal city.
The Dieterskirchel near Rülzheim is a chapel dedicated to his memory. An older church on the site was demolished in 1824; the present chapel was completed and consecrated in 1957. The building preserves a local tradition of remembrance, rather than surviving from Theodard’s lifetime.
The diocese of Speyer commemorates him on September 10.
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