Fulda

After having begun to missionarize in Germany, St. Boniface founded Fulda as a outpost for missions towards the northern part of the country, especially Saxons. St. Sturmius, a Boniface's pupil, built Fulda since 744 A.D.. The monastery was based on a grant of land by Carloman - one of the two sons of Charles Martel, whom the country belonged. Sturmius became the first abbot of Fulda and he applied the Benedictine rule he had especially travelled in Italy in 748 to learn. Monastery was granted by Pope Zachary a privilege in 751 which placed it directly under papal jurisdiction thus granting its autonomy. That privilege was confirmed by Pepin in 753, and Fulda became immediate to the Empire in 774. In 968 A.D., the abbot of Fulda eventually became primate of all Benedictine monasteries in Germany and Gaul

Development of Fulda came when it became the burying place of St. Boniface, after the later met martyr in Friesland in 754. Fulda became then a place of pilgrimage and a 'national sanctuary' of sort for Germany. Villages settled around, Fulda became mother-house to smaller monasteries, and the monastery became landlord of important and remote German estates, which had been given by princes, nobles and individuals. A aqueduc was bringing into the abbey the water of the Fulda river. To more appropriately harbour Boniface relics, a large basilica was built, on the plan of Saint Peter's of Rome, between 791 and 819. St. Boniface had become the Apostle of Germany. The crypt and relics still exist. That Fulda of 794 A.D., referring to St-Pierre-de-Rome, took its inspiration from the revival in Rome, at the time, of the paleo-Christian basilica model, a fashion that lasted until the middle of the 9th century and was a sign of the rebirth of a Church architecture specifically Roman

Fulda monastic school developped from the original school, aim of which was to form missionaries to Saxons. It began to flourish at the time of Charlemagne and Alcuin. It was developped by Rabanus Maurus (776-856), monk at Fulda, after he attended lectures of Alcuin in Tours about the beginning of the 9th century A.D.. Maurus having become abbot in 822, Fulda school became the center of civilization and learning for Germany, and known throughout Europe. Fulda school was welcoming students in theology as well as students aiming at secular careers. Walafried Strabo or Servatus Lupus were pupils of Fulda. School's library had been founded to bring to Germans the religious and classical literature. At its peak it held about 2,000 manuscripts (Tacitus' Annales were kept there, for example), and Fulda became the birthplace of Old High German literature