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Gotthard of Hildesheim

Saint Gotthard (or Godehard) (960 – May 5, 1038), also known as Gothard or Godehard the Bishop, is a Roman Catholic saint.
Saint Gotthard

Gotthard was born in 960 at Reichersdorf (Ritenbach) near Niederaltaich in the diocese of Passau. His father was Ratmund, a vassal of the canons of Niederaltaich Abbey. Gotthard was educated at this place, studying the humanities as well as theology, under the guidance of a teacher named Uodalgisus. Gotthard then resided at the archiepiscopal court of Salzburg, where he served as an ecclesiastical administrator. After traveling in various countries, including Italy, Gotthard completed his advanced studies under the guidance of Liutfrid in the cathedral school at Passau. He then joined the canons at Niederaltaich in 990, and became their provost in 996.

When Henry II of Bavaria decided to transform the chapter house of Niederaltaich into a Benedictine monastery, Gotthard remained, as a novice, and then became a monk in 990 under the abbot Ercanbert. In 993, he was ordained a priest, and also became a prior and rector of the monastic school. In 996, he was elected abbot and introduced the Cluniac reforms at Niederaltaich.

He helped revive the Rule of St. Benedict, which then provided abbots for the abbeys of Tegernsee, Hersfeld and Kremsmünster to restore Benedictine observance, under the patronage of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor.

He became bishop of Hildesheim on December 2, 1022, being consecrated by Aribo, Archbishop of Mainz. During the fifteen years of his episcopal government, he won the respect of his clergy. Gotthard ordered the construction of some thirty churches. Despite his advanced age, he defended vigorously the rights of his diocese. After a brief sickness, he died on May 4, 1038.

Gotthard's successors in the episcopate of Hildesheim, Bertold (1119–30) and Bernhard I (1130–53), pushed for his canonization.[2] This was accomplished during the episcopate of Bernard, in 1131, and it took place at a synod in Rheims. There, Pope Innocent II, in the presence of Bernard and Saint Norbert of Xanten, officially made Gotthard a saint.

On May 4, 1132, Bernard translated Gotthard’s relics from the abbatial church to the cathedral at Hildesheim. On May 5, the first liturgical festivity in honor of Gotthard was celebrated. Miracles were attributed to the relics. Veneration of the saint spread to Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Eastern Europe. Gotthard was invoked against fever, dropsy, childhood sicknesses, hailstones, the pain of childbirth, and gout.

Furthermore, Niederaltaich Abbey made its famous abbot the patron saint of the abbey's well-known grammar school, the St.-Gotthard-Gymnasium.

Gotthard also became the patron saint of traveling merchants, and thus many churches and chapels were dedicated to him in the Alps. His hospice for travellers near Hildesheim (the "Mauritiusstift"), became famous.

According to an ancient Ticinese tradition the little church in St. Gotthard Pass (San Gottardo) in the Swiss Alps was founded by Galdino, Archbishop of Milan (r. 1166-76). Goffredo da Bussero, however, attributes the founding of the church to Enrico di Settala, Bishop of Milan from 1213 to 1230.[2] The hospice was entrusted to the care of the Capuchin Order in 1685 by Federico II Visconti, and later passed under the control of a confraternity of Ticino.

Taken from wikipedia
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Curati e Parroci


Periodo 1921-1928
  • Costituzione del Beneficio Parrocchiale di Arten
  • Don Florindo Teso - 1° Parroco di Arten

Periodo 1928-1929
  • Don Secondo Spada

Periodo 1929-1936 (Ampliamento Chiesa nel 1932)
  • Don Settimo Levorato

Periodo 1936-1940
  • Don Giuseppe Chinello

Periodo 1940-1946
  • Don Luigi Spadarotto

Periodo 1947-1951
  • Don Mario Zanin

Periodo 1951-1963
  • Don Tarcisio Rosin

Periodo 1963-1984
  • Don Dante Zenato

Periodo 1984-1989
  • Don Danilo Bovo

Periodo 1989-1989
  • Don Olivo Sartori (supplente mesi Novembre e Dicembre)

Periodo 1990-1997
  • Don Aldo Manfrin

Periodo 1997-Oggi
  • Don Arnaldo Visentin
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Church of San Gotthard

A certain date of the construction of the church entitled to San Gotthard is not available; from the minutes of the pastoral visits of the Bishop of Padova, we can know that a chapel, entitled to San Gotthard, existed in the beginning of XVII century, with one altar and whose consecration was done around the end of 1674 (Cardinal Mons. Gregorio Barbarigo). In these minutes of the Parish of Fonzaso, we can read about a rustic church in the middle of Arten, on the slopes of mountain Aurin, and another rustic church (consacred in 1503) entitled to San Nicolò, on the slopes of mountain Avena.
Later, as written in various documentations and historical evidences, various works of expansion and adaptation to the new reality, changed the building. The church with a Dorico-Corinzio style, a nave of 150 square meters and the choir of 30 square meters, is not ancient, indeed it was built between 1810 and 1820 for a population of six hundred people, considering that in this period residents of Arten was around three hundred, and in the same time the bell tower was built, with the structure attacked to the old plant.
In following years, towards the end of 1800, residents grew until two thousand people and the church became inadequate to the exigencies of community, so there was the problem of the enlargement of this. Meanwhile the royal road driveway was built, it crossed the center of the village and it connected Feltre with Fonzaso, passing close to the bell tower.
In 1921, curia of Arten, became Parish, separated from the one of Fonzaso. After few years the enlargement of the church was ordered and around the end of 1930 drafts of project were made. Approvals and executive projects of the enlargement, made by architects Don Gennari dei Minori and Prof. Achille Vettorazzo di Preganziol, were definitely deposited in July 1931.
Chiesa di San Gottardo The new church has a cross shape plant, with the enlargement towards north-est, occupying a part of the square, with a shift of the Major Altar and with a variation of the main entrance on the side south-west, changing the original Presbytery and Choir, in a portico, lateral to the main road, in direction Feltre-Fonzaso, indeed of the first plant only side walls, a part of the main front and a flooring recently settled remain visible. From local news, the ceremony of laying the first stone took place on 31st March 1932, with work quickly done, with stone removed from mount Avena, so that on July of the same year the enlargement had already been done. During works, architects decided a variation, with the insertion of the central dome that soon was built by local workers, under the constant guidance of masters Pietro Dalla Giustina and Virgilio Toigo; towards the end of October the church with the dome had been completed and tested.
La Navata della Chiesa In spring 1933, the works was resumed and they completed plasters with frames inside and outside; old vestries were demolished and the new ones were built close to the new Presbytery; the Main Altar, the floor of the Choir, the balustrades, the chairs were added and the outside square was arranged. In 1934 other works on the exterior were done, like the lobby that reminds the old Choir (now portico), plasters of the walls of the old church to complete infills, accomodation of the cover, formation of covers on the lateral doors and a general painting inside and outside. Always in winter 1934, the glass window of Christ the King was added above the entrance of the main nave, then the floor of the enlargement was completed with the laying of marble plates of “Verdello”(light green) and “Rosso Asiago” (red from Asiago), and the eight columns of the dome were covered with “Rosso Asiago”, and to complete the work the Baptistery was added.
A new project for the bell tower was also proposed, expected on south-east of the enlarged church, with the demolishion of the existing one (attuale), but Royal Governament and Committee didn’t released approval. Due to war period and other economic problems, they approved only an inside painting of the church dating 1955.

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The Church of San Nicolò

At the cemetery of Arten

The church of Saint Nicolò was born as a capitel of prayer along the roman route Paolina, main street that connected the valley of Feltre with the one of Primiero.
This church was, with the church of Santa Giustina, a reference point of this street (street Pedesalto-Faller) for wayfarers.

Whole valley was a part of the empire of King Berengario that donated to Bishops of Padova the valley of Brenta and the mountainous lands, in which there was the capitel of San Nicolò and the surrounding lands, together with other churches and monasteries.
According to historical sources, this donation came from the fact that King Berengario, worried to create behind the Veneto plain a solid defense against the invasions from nord and not trusting aid that could come from Feltre, gave in donation to the powerful and loyal Bishop of Padova, the mouth of the valley of Cismon and the canal of Quero. Since that time the political jurisdiction was overlapping by the ecclesiastical one, with the borders of the Diocese of Padova still current.

The Capitel was given to friars that simply did secondary religious services and that used also a close building as stable, barn and dormitory (building close to cemetery).

It was embellished with a portico, under which wayfarers could take refreshment with some good dish offered by the friars, fruit of their harvest in the surrounding lands.

The Capitel was widened and used as small monastery, point of control of secular forces of Diocese of Padova. In that time it was provided with a bell tower.

The reporting news configure the existence of the Capitel even before XVIII century.