VIBALDO (Wibaldus, GUIBALDO) di STAVELOT. — Benedictine Abbot of Stavelot, Malmedy, and Corvey, born near Stavelot (Stablo) in Belgium in 1097 or 1098 and died in Paphlagonia, at Bitolia, on 18 July 1158.
After studying in the monastic schools of Stavelot and Liège, he entered the Order of St. Benedict in 1117 at Waulsort, near Namur, and the following year moved from there to the monastery of Stavelot. On 16 November 1130 he was elected Abbot of Stavelot and Malmedy; in 1146 he also received the abbatial authority over Corvey, confirmed to him the following year by Eugene III, extending his jurisdiction also over the convents of Fischbeck and Kemnade, annexed to Corvey by Emperor Conrad III. He was among the most influential advisers of Lothair II and Conrad III, carried out various missions to the Holy See, served as tutor to Conrad’s son, Henry, during the Emperor’s expedition to Palestine (1147–49), brought the monastery of Stavelot to its greatest splendor, and restored monastic discipline at Corvey. In 1137, having accompanied Lothair II to Italy, he was elected, on 19 September, Abbot of Montecassino, in the presence of the Emperor and St. Bernard; but on 2 November of the same year he resigned the office in order to avert the threat posed by Roger of Sicily, who, hostile to V. as the Emperor’s protégé, wished to destroy the abbey.
Also held in favor by Frederick Barbarossa, he succeeded, throughout his lifetime, in preventing a rupture between him and the Pope. Barbarossa sent him on two missions to Constantinople, in 1154 and 1157; during the return journey from the latter embassy he died suddenly, arousing suspicion that he had been poisoned. More than 400 of V.’s letters survive, beginning in 1146, constituting a highly important source for the history of the Empire of Conrad III and the early years of that of Barbarossa, and also valuable for the information they provide about the transmission of classical authors during the Middle Ages.