Emmeram of Regensburg

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Emmeram of Regensburg
St. Emmeram's Abbey, Regensburg, Germany
Feast22 September
Attributescarrying a ladder

Saint Emmeram of Regensburg (also Emeram(m)us, Emmeran, Emmerano, Emeran, Heimrammi, Haimeran, or Heimeran) was a Christian

Calendar of saints
is September 22.

Life

Ansoaldus
.

Having heard of idolatry in

Duke of Bavaria. He supposedly travelled up the Loire, crossed through the Black Forest and then followed the Danube to Regensburg. Theodo welcomed Emmeram to his court, where he laboured for three years carrying out missionary work. During this time, he gained a reputation as a pious man. He founded the monastery that later bore his name.[3]

He then went on a pilgrimage to Rome, but after a five days' journey, at a place now called Kleinhelfendorf, south of Munich, he was set upon by the Duke's son Lantpert of Bavaria, who tortured him cruelly. He died shortly afterwards at Aschheim, about fifteen miles distant. The cause of this attack and the circumstances attending his death are not known.[1]

Legend

As the story goes, Uta (or Ota), the daughter of the duke, confided to Emmeram that she was expecting a child out of wedlock. According to Arbeo, the father was one Sigipaldus from her father's own court. Moved with compassion, Emmeram advised her to name himself, whom everyone respected, as the father hoping to mitigate some of her shame.[1] Shortly thereafter, the legend goes, Emmeram abruptly went on a pilgrimage to Rome. At this point, Uta named Emmeram as the father.

When Duke Theodo and his son

Lantpert learned of Uta's pregnancy, Lantpert went after the bishop. Lantpert caught up with Emmeram in Helfendorf (now part of the Munich suburb of Aying) on the old Roman road between Salzburg and Augsburg on the Via Julia Augusta and greeted him as "bishop and brother-in-law". According to popular tradition, wanting to protect the real culprit, Emmeram did not defend himself, and received numerous wounds.[4]
Lantpert and his followers tied Emmeram to a ladder and proceeded to torture him; he was then beheaded.

His companions, Vitalis and Wolflete, found him still alive, lying in his own blood, and tried to bring him quickly back to Aschheim,[4] where a walled church of Apostle Peter stood.

The improbability of the tale, the details of the saint's martyrdom, which are certainly untrue, and the fantastic account of the prodigies attending his death show that the writer, infected by the pious mania of his time, simply added to the facts imaginary details supposed to redound to the glory of the martyr.[1]

Veneration

The Martyrdom of Saint Emmeram (Salzburg), from the Cathedral Treasury and Diocese Museum, Eichstätt

A text printed in Munich in 1743, Officium oder Tageszeiten des wunderthätigen Bayerischen Apostels und Blutzeugen Christi St. Emmerami, zu täglichen und andächtigen Gebrauch in allen Anliegen und Widerwärtigkeiten etc., states that the cart was accompanied by

men and women of two hundred persons with great

all four roads come together there) and other good-hearted Christians
had a church built, where even today many wonders still occur!

Arbeo of Freising depicted the place of his death as a "lovely, ever spring-green place, upon which a spring appeared and the local people later built a little church."

When the misunderstanding of Emmeram's relationship to Uta was revealed, he was entombed in Aschheim, whereupon legend states that it rained for forty days. Emmeram was exhumed and put upon a raft in the

St. George.[4](A somewhat similar tale is told of Lubentius of Dietkirchen.)[5]

His remains were later moved to a church dedicated to the martyr. This church burned down in 1642. Emmeram's bones were found under the altar in 1645 and moved to

St. Emmeram's Abbey. The church, now a basilica minor, houses his leg bones in a silver reliquary in the eastern portion under the altar.[1][6]

At the spot Saint Emmeram died in the year 652, a small chapel was erected in the year 1842. The church of

Paul in Aschheim, a plaque
memorializes the first grave of Emmeram with an inscription.

The day of his

martyrdom
is also his feast day, 22 September.

See also

  • Saint Emmeram of Regensburg, patron saint archive

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Clugnet, Léon. "St. Emmeram." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 14 April 2019Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. ^ Butler, Alban. "Saint Emmeran, Bishop of Poitiers, Martyr". Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints 1866. CatholicSaints.Info. 23 September 2013Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ^ Kyle, Joseph D. "The Monastery Library at St. Emmeram (Regensburg)." The Journal of Library History (1974-1987), vol. 15, no. 1, University of Texas Press, 1980, pp. 1–21]
  4. ^ a b c "Sant' Emmerano di Ratisbona su santiebeati.it". Santiebeati.it. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  5. ^ "Internet History Sourcebooks: Medieval Sourcebook". sourcebooks.fordham.edu.
  6. PMID 7034635
    .

Sources

External links

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