ADALGERO (Adalgerus or Algerus; according to B. Pez: Adelher). - A Benedictine of the monastery, apparently, of Augusta in Bavaria and, according to some, also a bishop; he died in 964.
There remains of him the Admonitio ad Nonsvindam reclusum, a treatise on the virtues, therefore also called Liber de studio virtutum.
Nonsvinda must have been one of his spiritual daughters; at her request A. wrote his exhortations. He deals with charity, humility, obedience, continence, mortification, compunction, prayer, the struggle against the passions, suffering, and hope in God’s forgiveness. In particular, he recommends the reading of the Bible: « Quanto quisque in divinis Scripturis assiduus fuerit, tanto ex eis maiorem intelligentiam capiet: sicut terra quanto magis excolitur, tanto amplius fructificat » (ch. 13). He supported his counsels with passages drawn from the Regola of St Benedict, the Vitae Patrum, the Historia Tripartita, St Augustine, and St Isidore, showing himself to be a good theologian and full of discretion.
This ascetical treatise, notable for its order and learning and for its clear and elegant style, was published in 1721 by Bernardo Pez in Thesaurus Anecdotorum noviet, (II, part 2, pp. 17-50), and reproduced in PL 134, 915-38.