Dietrich Man, known as Dietrich II, was
Bishop of Havelberg from 1370 to 1385.
Biography
The Man family, though not noble, were prominent in the
Prignitz
Prignitz () is a ''Kreis'' (district) in northwestern Brandenburg, in northeastern Germany. Neighboring districts, clockwise from the north, are Ludwigslust-Parchim (in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Ostprignitz-Ruppin (Brandenburg), Stendal (dist ...
, which lay within the
Diocese of Havelberg, and closely connected with the local nobility. Dietrich's grandfather Johann Man married, first, a widow of Ivan
von Below, and the children by this marriage inherited von Below estates. The second wife, Dietrich's grandmother, was a sister of Ruthger III
von Blumenthal
The Blumenthal family is a Lutheran and Roman Catholic German noble family, originally from Brandenburg-Prussia. Other (unrelated) families of this name exist in Switzerland and formerly in Russia, and many unrelated families (quite a few of them ...
, whose family remained close to the Man family. His father was Ruthger Man, mentioned in documents of 1313–18.
Man was appointed to the
Bishopric of Havelberg
The Bishopric of Havelberg () was a Roman Catholic diocese founded by King Otto I of Germany in 946, from 968 a suffragan to the Archbishops of Magedeburg. A Prince-bishopric (''Hochstift'') from 1151, Havelberg as a result of the Protestant Ref ...
in 1370. This was a lawless period in the history of the Prignitz, and the bishops had constant armed conflict with the local barons. One of these, Heinrich
von Bülow
The term () is used in German surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means or .
Nobility directories like the often abbreviate the noble term to ''v.'' I ...
, known as Big Head, burned down the diocesan village of
Wilsnack
Bad Wilsnack (until 1929 Wilsnack) is a small town in the Prignitz district, in Brandenburg, Germany. The former pilgrimage site of the Holy Blood of Wilsnack has been officially recognised as a spa town (''Bad'') since 1929. It is the administrati ...
. The parish priest found that, on the high altar of his ruined church, was a sacrarium containing three consecrated hosts, which not only had been unharmed by the fire, but now were spotted with blood. Bishop Dietrich came to consecrate the hosts so as to ensure that no unconsecrated host was accidentally being venerated idolatrously, but, so the story goes, the host overflowed with blood before he could say the
words of consecration. Miracles were soon attributed to the
Holy Blood of Wilsnack
The Holy Blood of Wilsnack was the name given to three hosts, which survived a fire in 1383 that burned the church and village to the ground. The hosts were thus seen as miraculous. The relics became the destination of medieval religious pilgri ...
, which soon became one of the most important places of pilgrimage in Europe, exceeding even Santiago, Rome and Jerusalem for numbers of pilgrims.
References
*Wentz, Gottfried: ''Die Bistümer der Kirchenprovinz Magdeburg: Das Bistum Havelberg'', part of ''Germania Sacra''. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1933. Reprinted 1963.
pp. 58–59
14th-century German Roman Catholic bishops
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