Wibald was born near Stavelot in 1098. Soon after he studied at the monastic schools at
Stavelot and the abbey of Saint-Laurent at
Liège, where one of his teachers was
Rupert of Deutz. He entered the
Benedictine monastery at
Waulsort near
Namur in 1117. After presiding for some time over the monastic school there he went to the monastery at Stavelot and in 1130 was elected
Abbot of Stavelot and Malmedy. On 22 October 1146, he was also elected Abbot of Corvey and four months later the convents at
Fischbeck and Kemnade were annexed to Corvey by
Conrad III. During the abbacy of Wibald, the monastery of Stavelot reached the period of its greatest fame, and at Corvey the monastic discipline which had been on the decline was again restored. Wibald was one of the most influential councillors of the
Holy Roman Emperor Lothaire II and
King Conrad III. Combining patriotism with a submissive devotion to the
Holy See, he used his great influence to preserve harmony between the emperors and the popes. In 1137 he accompanied Lothair on a military expedition to Italy and through the emperor's influence was elected Abbot of
Monte Cassino. When King
Roger II of Sicily threatened to destroy the monastery unless Wibald resigned the abbacy, he returned to Stavelot, having been Abbot of Monte Cassino for only forty days. All the emperor's negotiations with the Apostolic See were carried on by Wibald, and he visited Rome on eight occasions on imperial embassies. The emperor would enter upon no political undertaking without consulting the abbot. Hoping to acquire the island of
Rügen, he took part in the partly successful 1147
Wendish Crusade. During the absence of Conrad III in
Outremer (1147–49), Wibald was the
tutor of the king's young son
Henry Berengar, but seems to have had little to do with the political affairs of Germany during that period. Conrad's successor,
Frederick I Barbarossa, esteemed Wibald highly and sent the abbot on a mission to
Constantinople in 1154 and again in 1157. His sudden death at
Bitolia in
Paphlagonia in 1158 while returning from the second mission gave rise to the suspicion that he was poisoned by the
Byzantines. ==Writings==