ADALBERTO, archbishop of MAGDEBURGO. - A Benedictine, of Lorrainer origin. Sent in 961 by William, archbishop of Mainz and son of Otto I, as a missionary bishop to the Russian people, he returned the following year, having failed in the task entrusted to him. In 966 he was elected abbot of Weissenburg in Alsace, and in 968 first archbishop of Magdeburg, when Otto made this see the centre of the German eastern mission among the Slavs beyond the Elbe. A learned man and exemplary pastor, he laboured greatly for the conversion of the Wends. He died on 20 June 981 during a pastoral visitation at Zscherben near Merseburg, and was buried in the cathedral of Magde-
burg. He had no public cult, and is absent from the Martyr. Romanum, but many authors number him among the saints.
A. is the author of the continuation of the Chronicle of Regino of Prüm, for the years 907–67 (MGH, Script., I, pp. 613–20).