Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel

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Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel OSB (c. 770 – c. 840) was a

homilies
and commentaries.

Life

Of

diocese of Verdun
.

Charlemagne employed him to write the letter to

Moyenmoutier Abbey
, and his monks. Smaragdus died about 840.

Works

His writings show diligence and piety. His published works in prose are:

  • Collections of Comments on the Epistle and Gospel for each holy day in the year, (Collectiones in epistolas et evangelia de tempore et de sanctis. Migne, CII. col 13-552. an uncritical but comprehensive compilation from numerous ecclesiastical writers, prepared for the use of preachers, and described by the author as a liber comitis.
  • Diadema monachorum (The Crown of Monks), a collection in one hundred chapters of ascetic rules and reflections concerning the principal duties and virtues of the monastic life. It is for the most part a compilation. The sources are the Collectiones patrum of
    Gregory the Great. Smaragdus made it after his elevation to the abbotship and enjoined its daily evening reading upon his monks (PL 102:693). It proved to be a very popular work, was widely circulated during the Middle Age, and was repeatedly published in the early modern period.[2][3]
  • Commentaria in regulam Sancti Benedicti. A commentary upon the
    Council of Aachen. It is characterised by great strictness.[4]
  • The Royal way (Via regia, ibid. col 933–970) dedicated to Louis the Pious while king of Aquitania. So Ebert, l.c. p. III, it consists of thirty-two chapters of moral and spiritual counsels, which if faithfully followed will conduct an earthly king into the heavenly kingdom. The work is really only an adaptation of the Diadem to the wants of the secular life.
  • Acts of the Roman conference (Acta collationis Romanae) Migne, CII. col. 971–976, the protocol already mentioned.
  • Epistle of Charles the Great to Leo the Pope upon the procession of the Holy Spirit (Epistola Caroli Magni ad Leonem Papam de processione Spiritus Sancti), Migne, XCVIII. col. 923–929. the letter mentioned above.
  • Epistle of Frotharius and Smaragdus to the Emperor Louis (Epistola Frotharii et Smaragdi ad Ludovicum Imperatorem), Migne, CVI. col, 865–866. the report of the arbitrators.
  • Liberin partibus Donati. A larger grammar or a commentary upon
    Mabillon
    , Vetera analectam, Nov. ed. (Paris, 1723) pp. 357, 358.

There remain in manuscript a Commentary on the Prophets, and a History of the Monastery of St. Michael (cf. Mabillon, l.c.) Smaragdus also wrote poetry. Besides a hymn to Christ (Ebert, l.c. p. 112) there have been preserved his metrical introductions to his Collections and Commentary on the rule of St. Benedict, of which the first has twenty-nine lines in

distichs
.

References

  • Text taken from Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590–1073, which is in the public domain; source at CCEL
  1. ^ Francis X. Gumerlock, Carolingian Commentaries on the Apocalypse by Theodulf and Smaragdus (Medieval Institute Publications, 2019), p. 11. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature allows the possibility that Smaragdus was "perhaps Irish" but gives no further information for this.
  2. ^ Paris, 1532, 1640; Antwerp, 1540; Bibliotheca Maxima, Lyons, 1677, Tom. XVI. pp. 1305–1342.
  3. ^ The text is printed in Migne, PL 102:593–690. A translation is David Barry, The Crown of Monks, CS245, (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications)
  4. ^ Migne, PL, 102:689–932. A more recent Latin edition appeared in the 1970s. An English translation is David Barry, Commentary on the Rule of St Benedict, CS 212, (Kalamazoo, MI, 2007)

Further reading

  • B. Lofstedt, L. Holtz, A. Kibre (1986), Liber in partibus Donati by Smaragdus
  • Terrence Kardong, Jean Leclercq, Daniel M. LaCorte, David Barry (2008) Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel: Commentary on the Rule of Saint Benedict (translation)
  • Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel, The Crown of Monks, trans David Barry OSB. Cistercian Studies no. 245. (2013) [translation of Diadema Monachorum]
  • Jean Leclercq. La voie royale/le diadème des moines. La Pierre-qui-Vire, 1949 (French translation).
  • Smaragdus, abbas monasterii Sancti Michaelis Virdunensis: Opera omnia in
    Pitra
    's notes, cols. 1111–1132.
  • His Carmina are in Dümmler, Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, I. 605–619.
  • Hauréau: Singularités historiques et littéraires. Paris, 1861 (pp. 100 sqq.)
  • H. Keil: De grammaticis quibusdam latinis infimae aetatis (Program) . Erlangen, 1868.
  • Hist. Lit. de la France, IV. 439–447.
  • Ceillier
    , XII. 254–257.
  • Bähr, 362–364.
  • Ebert, II. 108-12
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