OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish saints in Europe

  • The Three Scoto-Irish Hermits of Griesstetten

    On June 12, 1689 the relics of three reputedly twelfth-century Irish hermits, Marinus, Vimius and Zimius, were translated to a new chapel at Griesstetten in Bavaria, where they continue to be held in reverence to this day. The trio may have been connected with the Irish monastery network of Ratisbon (Regensburg), the history of which can be read in a paper at the blog here. These monasteries, originally founded by and staffed by Irishmen, are known as Schottenklöster, literally ‘Scottish monasteries’ and it is here that the confusion begins. For in the Middle Ages Ireland was described in Latin sources as Scotia and it was not until later that this label was applied to the country we now know as Scotland. As the memory of this distinction faded the Irish were written out of the history of the foundations they had made in Germany and both the credit for their achievements and the compensation granted for their closure went to Scottish churchmen. The memory of our three hermits also appears to have been lost along the way as Irish Benedictine Dom Patrick Nolan, O.S.B. explains:

    THE THREE SCOTO-IRISH HERMITS OF GRIESSTETTEN 

    BY DOM PATRICK NOLAN, O.S.B., M.A.

    IN the following pages an attempt is made to rescue from oblivion the memory of three Scotic, i.e., Irish or Scoto-Irish, hermits who lived and died some eight hundred years ago in an obscure corner of Bavaria. Like so many of their countrymen, to use the words of an ancient Irish monk of Ratisbon, they ‘left behind dear friends and possessions, and, spurning temporal things for things eternal, they passed over so many seas, so many trackless wastes, to follow Christ.’ It had been their wish to pass their lives unknown to the outer world, wrapt up in God and heavenly contemplation, and, if their wishes had been consulted, their very names would have been forgotten. But it was the will of God that the light of their saintly lives, which they would have hidden under a bushel, should be raised aloft, and exposed to the admiring gaze of men.

     So obscure, indeed, was the memory of these holy men for many centuries, that it even escaped the observation of the all-scrutinizing gaze of the Bollandists, who, from their hagiological observatory in Brussels, pass in review the lives of holy men and holy women throughout the whole Catholic world. And, if we may be permitted to push our astronomical metaphor a little farther, it was only when their bodies, long at rest, were set in motion that their existence was once more revealed to the world just as the presence of some obscure planetoid or comet becomes known when its motion has made a faint streak on the sensitive film of the photographer.

     In other words, the bodies of our three saints were solemnly translated on the 12th of June, 1689, by the Right Rev. Coadjutor-Bishop of Ratisbon, Albert Ernest Count von Wartenberg, who drew up a narrative of the translation and sent it to the Bollandists. The latter have printed it in their bulky tomes, under the date mentioned, and preface it with the remark that they had never before heard of the saints, and that they had even escaped the observation of the learned Matthaeus Raderus, who has written a monumental work on the Saints of Bavaria.

    What little information I have been able to put before the reader in the following pages, I have obtained chiefly from four sources: (1) From the above mentioned documents, published by the Bollandists. (2) From a historical sketch of the lives and cultus of the hermits, drawn up in the year 1850 by Dom Anselm Robertson, O.S.B., from documents in the archives of the Scotic monastery at Ratisbon, and published in the Spicilegium Benedictinum (Dec., 1899), from an authenticated copy in the archives of the monastery of St. Paul’s, Rome. (3) From a petition drawn up in 1848 by the then Bishop of Ratisbon (J. B. Weigl), concerning the cultus of the hermits. This document is to be found likewise in the Spicilegium (March,1900). (4) From a little German brochure, Die drei Elenden Heiligen zu Griesstetten, by a Franciscan, published at Ingolstadt, 1906.

    As Dom Anselm’s sketch gives a concise and connected account of the lives of the three hermits, as far as the facts can be ascertained, I shall give a translation, from the original Latin, of the principal portions merely premising that all his statements are not to be accepted as historically accurate. I need hardly remark that he and his Scottish brethren were not of the same nationality as the ‘Scoti ‘ or Irish, who originally founded the monastery of Ratisbon. The latter were pure Celts from ancient ‘ Scotia ‘ or Ireland, with perhaps a sprinkling of members from the Irish colony in Scotland. Dom Anselm Robertson and his brethren were modern Scots, by which we mean a nationality which had its origin somewhere about the time of the Norman Conquest and in which a predominant element was Saxon.

    And here it may not be out of place to say a few words as to the proper signification, in medieval Latin, of the words ‘Scotia’ and ‘Scoti,’ which are still frequently misunderstood by foreigners, and even by many of us nearer home. Most of my readers are aware that the latinized name ‘Scoti’ was originally applied to the last of the ancient colonizers of Ireland, in other words, to the progenitors of the Irish race. It seems to be derived from the Celtic ‘Scotraide,’ which was the name of the predominant tribe. From them Ireland was called ‘Scotia ‘ (by Latin writers) from about the sixth till the thirteenth centuries.

    These Scoti or Irish made a permanent settlement in the north of Britain about the year 500 A.D., when Fergus Mac Ere, chief of the Dalriads of Antrim, with Lorne and Angus, led a colony into the modern Argyle and the Isles, and thus began the long line of Irish kings who held sway in Scotland from the reign of Aedhan Mac Gabhran (crowned by St. Columba in the year 574) till that of Donald Bain, who was deprived of his kingdom, and of his eyes, by the Saxon, Edgar Atheling, in the year 1097. From these Irish, or ‘ Scoti,’ the north of Britain began to be called Scotia, somewhere about the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century. Ireland, the home of the Scots, was for some two centuries longer still called Scotia, and by some writers Scotia Major, or Greater Scotia, to distinguish it from the new Scotia, which the Irish were building up in the north of Britain.

    It cannot be too clearly realized [says Mr. Plummer, in his scholarly edition of St. Bede] that at the time when Bede wrote [his Ecclesiastical History, about the year 781], and for more than two centuries after, the term ‘Scottia ‘ refers to Ireland, and to Ireland alone. It was only towards the end of the tenth century that it began to be used of any part of Britain; and even then it was applied to a very limited district, and only gradually during two more centuries was the application extended to the whole of the northern kingdom. … Of course the tribe name ‘Scotti ‘ would apply to any member of the Irish race, whether living in Ireland or in Britain.

    The same author quotes the following passage from The Chronicles of the Picts and Scots (ed. Skene): ‘Scotois . . . lour propre pays est Ireland, lour coustoum et patoys acordaunt, qi puis furount mellez od Pices,’ i.e., ‘The Scots . . . their proper country is Ireland, their customs and language agreeing thereto, though they afterwards became mingled with the Picts.’ ‘It is not safe to count,’ says Burton,  ‘that the word Scot must mean a native of present Scotland, when the period dealt with is earlier than the middle of the twelfth century.’

    And now that my readers have got a clearer idea of the meaning of the expressions ‘Scotia’ and ‘Scoti,’ I shall venture to quote some passages from the Bollandists, which will leave no doubt as to the nationality of the founders of the Scotic Benedictine congregation in Germany, and will at the same time settle the question as to the nationality of our three hermits, who, we are told, were fellow-countrymen of the monks at Ratisbon.

     To begin with, the charter granted to the Scotic monks of Ratisbon by the Emperor Frederick II, in the year 1212, states that ‘Scots only and none others dwelt in these monasteries.’ This is further explained by the confirmatory charter of the Emperor Sigismund, where we read the following words: ‘A humble petition on behalf of the Abbot, Prior, and community of Scots and Irish from greater Scotland‘ etc. And Matthaeus Raderus, in his work on the Saints of Bavaria, speaking of the hermit Murchertach (who was the first of the Irish pilgrims to settle at Ratisbon), says: ‘Muricherodachus, an Irishman from ancient Scotia, preceded his countryman Marianus, and was the first of all those who came from that country to Ratisbon.’ And of Marianus, the founder of the Scotic monastery at Ratisbon, he says: ‘Marianus, therefore, was a born Scot or Irishman, for ancient Scotia is the same as Ireland . . . the other [Scotia] of which we do not speak here is a corner of Britain.’

    From this we may gather that our three hermits were, like the founders of the famous Scotic Benedictine congregation of Germany, Scots or Irish from ancient Scotia or Ireland. It is very probable, at the same time, that these Irish monks were joined, later on, by numbers of their fellow-countrymen across the Channel, the Celtic Scots or Irish of North Britain, with whom, owing to their near relationship and close proximity, they had always been on the most intimate terms. This is rendered still more probable by the fact that about the time that the Irish monks were founding their congregation in Germany, momentous changes were taking place in the ancient Irish kingdom of Scotland, which would make it a less desirable place of residence for its Scoto-Irish inhabitants.

     I allude to the rapid anglicization of the country, which began with the reign of Malcolm Canmore (1058-1093), who, himself only half a Celt, was married to the Saxon Queen Margaret, better known as St. Margaret. Malcolm had been brought up at the Court of Edward the Confessor, where he would probably have been imbued with Saxon and Norman ideas. Moreover, it was during his reign that the Norman Conquest took place, which drove many Saxon refugees to the Court of Scotland, among them Edgar Atheling, whose sister Margaret became Malcolm’s consort. During the brief reign of his brother and successor Donald Bane (1093-1097) a Celtic reaction took place, but the Saxon and Norman influence, which first began to make itself felt in the reigns of Malcolm and Margaret, made rapid headway under their three sons, Edgar, Alexander, and David, who successively ascended the throne of Scotland.

    In the reign of Edgar (1097-1107) the seat of government was removed from Scone (the ancient Celtic capital) to Edinburgh a Saxon city. His brother Alexander I (1107-1124) continued the process of anglicization. He founded a monastery for Canons of St. Augustine at Scone, while Fothad, the last Celtic Bishop of St. Andrews, was succeeded in turn by a monk of Durham and a monk of Canterbury. His protection was asked by Anselm of Canterbury for monks sent to Scotland at the request of his brother Edgar.

     In the reign of his brother David I (1124-1153) the Celtic Culdees at St. Andrews and Dunkeld were ejected and bishoprics established in their places, while at Melrose and elsewhere Cistercian monks were introduced. It was in this reign that the feudal system took firm root in opposition to the Celtic clan system, at least in the still limited territory which submitted to the new Scottish dynasty. And thus, as the Irish monks had been obliged to retire from their foundations in the north of England from Ripon and Lindisfarne and many other spots, so now their monastic strongholds north of the Tweed were invaded. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that numbers of the Scoto-Irish of North Britain, both monks and laymen, should have preferred to quit the country, and we may reasonably suppose that many of them joined their Irish or Scotic brethren, who flocked to the Continent in such numbers in this and succeeding centuries.

    Having premised this much, let us now hear Dom Anselm’s account of the three Scoto-Irish hermits, after we have first given the reader a few biographical notes about this, the last, monk of the Scoto-Irish monastery of Ratisbon. Dom Anselm Robertson was born in Fochabers, Scotland, in 1824, was professed in the monastery of St. James, Ratisbon, in 1845, and was ordained priest in 1851.

    When the Bavarian religious houses were suppressed by Napoleon in 1806, Ratisbon was allowed to linger on and die a natural death, no novice being allowed to be received. This, however, did not prevent the profession of Dom Anselm, but in 1850 the monastery was finally suppressed. As he was the only monk left he sought admission into the English congregation of St. Benedict’s Order, and in 1878 was aggregated to the community of Fort Augustus, which had been founded by Lord Lovat in that year. Thither Dom Anselm brought with him some chalices and other belongings of Ratisbon, and eventually died in retirement at Fochabers. It is interesting to note that the late octogenarian Scottish baronet, Sir Everard Gordon, who gave the country house of Buckie in Banff to the Fort Augustus monks, was once a student or novice at Ratisbon.

    Nobody will deny [says Dom Anselm Robertson] that Scotic monks acquired, in times past, very great renown for holiness, and that they rendered illustrious by their sanctity the diocese of Ratisbon. This is acknowledged by all the hagiographers who have written the Lives of Blessed Marinus, Abbot of St. Peter’s [Ratisbon], and of Blessed Murecherodachi,  a hermit in the Upper Monastery, as we are informed by Matthaeus Raderus in his Bavaria Sancta.

    Wherefore, being inspired thereto by the spotless lives of these good monks, the most distinguished members of the first nobility in Ratisbon erected two monasteries, one being dedicated to St. Peter, chief of the Apostles, the other to the Apostle St. James the Greater, wherein Scotic monks for many years served God, in strict monastic discipline, according to the rule of St. Benedict.

    Although the first mentioned monastery has been reduced to ashes, the second one, dedicated to St. James, is still, after many eventful changes, occupied to this day by Benedictine monks of the same nationality, to the great edification of the neighbourhood. From out of it came the Blessed Marinus, or Martinus, distinguished for the sanctity of his life and for his observance of the strict monastic discipline, on account of which he was made Prior of the monastery instead of the Blessed Macharius, who was appointed as first Abbot of Wiirzburg. For, about the year 1186, Blessed Macharius, the Prior of Ratisbon, was sent with twelve companions to Wiirzburg to occupy the monastery erected for the Scotic monks by Bishop Embricho, as Trithemius declares.

     Now, it happened that while the Blessed Marinus was faithfully fulfilling his duties as Prior, two holy pilgrims of the Scotic race, having visited the shrines of the Holy Apostles, and other celebrated places of pilgrimage, arrived at Bavaria on their journey homewards. But while they were passing the night in a wood close to a certain unoccupied farm, at that time called Wide, not far from the river Altmil, they were inspired by Heaven, during their sleep, to lead a solitary life in that spot, and consecrate the rest of their days to divine contemplation. So when they awoke and began to look about for a spot suitable for their retreat, they decided to settle down in that very solitude, especially when they learned that the place belonged to the Scotic monks of Ratisbon.

    Accordingly they hasten to their fellow-countrymen at Ratisbon, by whom they were hospitably received, and from whom they easily obtained not only permission to settle down there, but also all the assistance necessary to enable them to lead the eremitical life. Moreover, Blessed Marinus, at that time Prior of the monastery, being greatly impressed by the holiness of our pilgrims, obtained his Abbot’s permission to join them; and so the perfect number of three was made up, and there issued forth the triad of Scotic saints, afterwards renowned at Gristett, Marinus above-mentioned being the leader of the band.

    Now, Blessed Zimius was already a professed monk and priest of the celebrated monastery of Dunfermline of the Order of St. Benedict, in modern Scotland; and as he was about to make a pilgrimage to the shrines of the Apostles, he took along with him as his companion the Blessed Vimius (at that time a layman), of the noble house of the Vimii, and a true Benedictine monk by his holiness of life.

    These three most holy men, one in heart and one in soul in their desire to serve God perfectly, entered upon the solitary life in the aforesaid place, the Abbot of Ratisbon being Dermitius (second), whom Hundius wrongly calls Mauritius, and makes him the first abbot. For, about the year 1150,  a most holy man named Christianus was elected third abbot of the said monastery, and it was during his term of office that these three holy hermits were called to their heavenly reward.

    Their remains were placed in the parish church of Gristett, and the place was thenceforward called, from the hermits, ‘Einsidl’ in the vernacular, Le., Hermitage. It is now a rural property inhabited by two farmers, and it belongs still to the above-mentioned monastery by prescriptive right, as is witnessed by the charter of the Emperor Frederick II, confirming the possessions of the monastery, which expressly names the place Einsidl, or Hermitage.

     Our annals assign the year 1154 as the date of the erection of the church of Gristett, which the aforesaid Abbot Christian caused to be built in honour of St. Martin, Bishop, and he had the holy bodies of the three saints translated there, one after the other, for they did not pay the debt of nature in one and the same year. The obit of Blessed Marinus is assigned to the year 1153, and he was consequently buried in the little oratory of the hermitage until the church of Griestet was roofed in. I have found the following reasons for building the church mentioned in an ancient register: firstly, that the original burial-place in the hermitage was too narrow and inconvenient for the reception of the crowds who flocked every day to visit the sacred relics; and secondly it was desirable that the heavenly quiet and retirement of the two remaining companions should not suffer from such frequent visits of the faithful.

    The deaths of Blessed Zimius and Vimius are assigned to the year 1150,  but the exact date cannot be fixed on which Blessed Marinus or the other two saints ended their earthly course and entered upon their eternal reward. As, however, for many centuries past the faithful have been wont to flock to the holy tomb of the three saints, early in the month of November, we may fairly presume that it was about that time of the year that Blessed Marinus went to Heaven, especially as it was in honour of his relics that the church was built, and dedicated to the great St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, whose feast is celebrated on the 11th of that month. And, in fact, I have seen it stated in an ancient register that it was on the very feast of St. Martin that the body of Blessed Marinus was translated, with great solemnity, from the little
    chapel of the hermitage to the hew church it being the anniversary of his death. The record adds, moreover, that,  from the very first day on which the church of Griestett was roofed in and the relics of Blessed Marinus translated thither, the daily concourse of the faithful was so great that even the church was not sufficiently large to receive the people coming from the neighbourhood.’

    Our author then goes on to mention the manner in which they were buried, as described in the same register.

    Blessed Marinus was buried before the high altar on the Gospel side; BB. Zimius and Vimius on the Epistle side, at the steps of the choir, being placed next under each other, but in separate coffins. . . . The first two were buried in sacerdotal vestments and Benedictine habit while B. Vimius, not being in orders, was buried in the habit of a Hermit of St. Benedict. Blessed Marinus spent thirteen years in all in the hermitage (1140-1153), the other two fifteen (1140-1155).

    He then describes the situation of Griesstetten, and alludes to the solemn translation of the relics, made by order of the Ordinary of Ratisbon,  on the 12th day of June, 1689, when the holy bodies were transferred to a more suitable
    position behind the high altar.

    The reader will find in the Bollandists, under date 12th June, a full account of this last translation, in a document drawn up by the Coadjutor-Bishop of Ratisbon, and transmitted by him to the Bollandists. This document is interesting, as it contains a brief notice of the history of the three hermits. The same Right Rev. Prelate also drew up a narrative of two miracles worked through the intercession of our saints, not long after the solemn translation. He also drew up a prayer and antiphon in their honour. Both these documents he transmitted likewise to the Bollandists, where they may be seen, so that it is not necessary to give them here.

    The third document dealing with our saints, to which I have alluded in the beginning of this article, consists of an instant supplication to the Holy See, by the Bishop of Ratisbon, for advice as to what attitude he should observe with regard to the cultus of the three hermits. It was drawn up at Ratisbon in the year 1848, and may be summarized as follows:

     He begins by remarking that the veneration and cultus of the three Scotic saints (whom the people call die elenden drei Heiligen, i.e., the three foreign saints) increases among the faithful daily, and that he has seen two books compiled in German containing narratives of the miracles worked by the intercession of these saints. He has accordingly been asked by the priest and people of Griesstetten to approve of their placing the bodies in costly shrines under separate altars for the veneration of the faithful a pious couple having volunteered to pay all the expenses. To this pious request he was about to accede, had not his attention been drawn to the decree of Urban VIII, 1634, forbidding the public veneration of saints not canonized by the Holy See, unless such cultus had been practised already before the year 1534. He was consequently advised to consult the Apostolic See, especially as the people desire to have Masses said in honour of these saints, as has been done from time immemorial, if we are to trust the books containing their miracles, but no authentic documents exist concerning their cultus before 1534.

    While awaiting the decision of Rome he begs to add the following remarks to what the Bollandists have published. It is not surprising that these saints should have escaped the notice of Matthaeus Raderus, as he would not be likely to suspect that an out-of-the-way hamlet in Bavaria, not even marked on the map, should possess such a great treasure. Moreover, the disorders consequent on the so-called Reformation are largely responsible for the oblivion into which their memory had fallen. Not to mention the Bohemian disturbances and the Thirty Years’ War, the town of Ratisbon was occupied by the Swedes in 1635, when priests and religious were obliged to fly for their lives, while the Lutherans ruthlessly destroyed all the most valuable books and documents in the archives, especially those dealing with lives of the saints. In Bavaria alone 3,000 villages are said to have been devastated by the Swedes, and Griesstetten did not escape their ravages.

    The Bishop then gives, from the archives of the Scotic monastery of St. James and of the city of Ratisbon, a resume of the history of Marianus, and of the foundation of the monastery at Ratisbon and of the hermitage of Griesstetten. It does not add many new details to what we already know, but differs in a few particulars. He begins by stating that Marianus, with some of his countrymen, came to Ratisbon in the year 1064, during the pontificate of Alexander II. He was at first supported by the bounty of the abbesses of the Upper and Lower monasteries, and later occupied a little monastery, which a certain Sebastian Beer erected for him near the chapel of St. Peter outside the walls. But as Marianus and his companions rendered great educational services, especially by learnedly expounding the Holy Scriptures for the benefit of young clerics, and as his community was increased by new arrivals from Scotia, some of the first citizens of Ratisbon erected the large monastery of St. James of the Scots, together with its celebrated church, which was dedicated by Hartwic, Bishop of Ratisbon.

    Among the principal benefactors was Otto von Ricthenburg, Burgrave of Ratisbon, who endowed the monastery richly with money and lands, including the property of Grienstett, where the hermits settled down. This probably took place under the first abbot, Domnellus,  who is stated in the necrology of the monastery to have died in the year 1121. The year of their death cannot be fixed with certainty, but their translation to the chapel in Griesstetten was carried out by Christian, the third abbot, who died in 1172, having ruled as abbot for twenty-three years.

     Bishop Weigl concludes by giving a sketch of the modern history of Griesstetten, which may have interest for some readers. Its church and presbytery were all but burned to the ground by the Swedes in the year 1633, the parish priest being obliged to flee for his life. It was, as far as possible, restored by Placid Fleming, who was elected Abbot in 1672, and received the abbatial blessing in 1692, from the Coadjutor of Ratisbon [the same who carried out the translation of the relics in 1689].

     From 1651 to 1714 the parish was administered by the parish priests of Mulbach, Dietfurt, or Zell, as the case might be. In the year 1714 Abbot Placid Fleming exercised jurisdiction there through his vicar, Father Maurus Stuart, and established a small seminary for Scotch youths, which was placed under the direction of Father Bernard Baillie. It was afterwards removed to Ratisbon.

     The church which at present exists at Griesstetten is circular in form, and adorned with frescoes. It was built, or rather transformed, by the aforesaid Bernard Baillie (at that time abbot) and his successor Bernard Stuart, and consecrated by Bishop Schwabl in 1836. At the present day the parish is administered by the Franciscans of Dietfurt, in the name of the parish priest of Altmuhlmunster, to whom the ordinary jurisdiction has been assigned since 1806.

    PATRICK NOLAN, O.S.B.

      The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Vol XVI, July to December 1920, 441-452.

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  • The Irish Monasteries of Ratisbon

    February 9 is the day on which we commemorate an eleventh-century Irish monastic who achieved fame in Germany, Blessed Marianus of Ratisbon. Behind this Latin name lies a Donegal man, Muiredach MacRobertagh, who left his homeland in 1067 on pilgrimage to Rome but ended up settling in Ratisbon. The monasteries of Ratisbon were among the most prominent of the so-called Schottenklöster, those monasteries of Germany founded and staffed by Irishmen. It is important to remember that in the early middle ages Ireland was often described in Latin writings as Scotia and that the term was only later applied to the country we know as Scotland. Marianus Scotus, as the founder is known is thus not Marianus the Scot but Marianus the Irishman. The later exclusive use of Scotia to denote Scotland was to have consequences for the Irish which went well beyond semantics.  For in the sixteenth century they would be dispossessed of the foundations they had made in Germany in favour of Scottish churchmen. Below is an 1894 paper by Father J. F. Hogan on the Irish monasteries of Ratisbon. In it the Irish Ecclesiastical Record’s German specialist describes the history of the Irish monasteries of Ratisbon and their famous founder:

    THE IRISH MONASTERIES OF RATISBON

    THE corporation of Irish monasteries in Germany that owed its origin to the blessed Marianus Scotus of Ratisbon, is well worthy of attention, not only on account of the great influence it exercised on the religious and artistic history of Germany, but also on account of the rapidity of its development and the extensive proportions which it attained. From the great foundation of St. James at Ratisbon (1090), branches were established in 1136 at Würzburg, in 1142 at Vienna, in 1160 at Memmingen, in 1166 at Constance, in 1172 at Nüremburg, in 1194 at Eichstatt, and at some intermediate or approximate periods at Erfurt in Saxony, at Oels in Silesia, and at Kehlheim in Bavaria. Other smaller foundations were also made; so that when the Abbot of St. James’s attended the Council of Lateran, in 1213, and obtained from Pope Innocent III. The acknowledgment of his brotherhood as a religious union or congregation exempt from episcopal control and directly subject to the Holy See, he could count at least fifteen well established, and flourishing houses, all acknowledging him as their ruler and head. The founder of the original house at Ratisbon, from which all these establishments emanated and grew was Marianus Scotus, an Irish monk, who should be carefully distinguished from his illustrious namesake ” Marianus the Chronicler,” who died at Mayence in 1082. Both were, we believe, natives of Tyrconnell in Ulster. They were practically contemporaries, and had both emigrated to Germany, each on a mission of his own. The Irish name of Marianus of Ratisbon, was Muiredach MacRobertagh, a name which still flourishes in a modern disguise in the county Donegal. We are indebted to a manuscript composed by an Irish monk of Ratisbon, and happily preserved in the Carthusian monastery of Gaming, in Lower Austria, for the most detailed account of the life of Marianus. In this and other less complete biographies we find the substance of the following facts relating to the saint. Marianus Scotus, who is described by the chronicler as having been very handsome in appearance and most attractive in his manners, was carefully instructed whilst still young, in sacred and secular literature. In due course he assumed the monastic habit, and prepared for the expedition which was evidently the ambition of his life. In the year 1067 he left Ireland forever, accompanied, according to some, by two companions, Joannes and Candidus; and according to others, by seven, viz., Johannes, Candidus, Donatus, Dominus, Mordacus, Isaac, and Magnaldus.

    Their chief object on setting out was to make a pilgrimage to Rome, breaking their journey, as was the custom, at the hospitable monasteries on the way. On this errand, they reached Ratisbon, where they were first received by Otto, the Bishop, who had been formerly a Canon of Bamberg, and who received them into the Benedictine Order, and gave them the clerical habit of that great brotherhood. After a short sojourn at the monastery of St. Michelsberg, they were allowed by their superiors to proceed on their way. Arriving at Ratisbon for the second time, they met with a friendly reception from Emma, the Abbess of the Convent of Obermünster, who employed Marianus in the transcription of some books. A cell was arranged for him at the Niedermünster, in which he diligently carried on his writing, his companions preparing the parchment for his use. Before resuming his journey southwards, he resolved to pay a visit to an Irish recluse named Murchertach, who lived the life of a hermit in the immediate neighbourhood. Murchertach had left Ireland long before Marianus, and had now spent many years in the practice of the most austere penances.

    On this account, Marianus was deeply impressed when the hermit urged him to submit to the guidance of Heaven as to whether he should continue his journey to Rome, or settle at once and for ever in Germany. He passed the night in considerable anxiety in Murchertach’s cell, and in the hours of darkness it was intimated to him that where on the next day he should behold the rising sun, there he should remain and fix his abode. Starting early on the following morning, he entered the Church of St. Peter outside the walls of the city, to implore the blessing of heaven on his journey. On coming forth, he beheld the sun stealing above the distant horizon. “Here, then,” he said, “I shall rest, and here shall be my resurrection.” His resolution was hailed with joy by the people. Emma, the Abbess of Obermünster, granted him the Church of St. Peter, for the use of himself and his brethren; and a wealthy citizen of Ratisbon, named Bezelin, built for them, at his own expense, a small monastery, which the Emperor Henry IV. soon after took under his protection, at the solicitation of the Abbess Hazecha.

    The fame of Marianus and the news of his prosperity soon reached Ireland, and numbers of his countrymen hastened to join him. They were chiefly from the province of Ulster like Marianus himself. They became so numerous that it was found necessary, in 1090, to build another monastery to receive them. This was called the monastery of St. James, and it became in the course of years one of the richest establishments of the kind in Europe. Of Marianus the founder, little further is recorded except his great skill and industry as a scribe:

    “Such [says his biographer] was the grace of writing which Providence bestowed on the blessed Marianus, that he wrote many lengthy volumes both in the upper and lower monasteries. For,  to tell the truth, without any colouring of language, among all the acts which divine Providence deigned to perform through this wonderful man, I deem this most worthy of praise and admiration,  that the holy man wrote from beginning to end with his own hand the Old and New Testament with explanatory comments on the books ; and that not once or twice, but over and over again, with a view to an eternal reward, all the while clad in sorry garb and living on slender diet. Besides, he also wrote many smaller books and manual psalters for distressed widows and poor clerics of the city, towards the health of his soul, without any prospect of earthly gain. Furthermore, through the mercy of God, many congregations of the monastic order which in faith and charity and imitation of the blessed Marianus, have come from the aforesaid Ireland, and inhabit Bavaria and Franconia, are sustained by the writings of the blessed Marianus.”

    In his glosses and commentaries on the sacred text he made use of the writings of St. Jerome, St. Augustine, Cassiodorus, Arnobius, St. Gregory, Fulgentius, Cassius, Leo, and Alcuin. His death is recorded on the 9th of February 1038.

    There are several manuscripts written by Marianus still extant: but the most important is the Codex in the Imperial Library of Vienna, which, as Dr. Reeves remarks, interests us not only on account of the beauty of his execution, but also as supplying the Irish name of the writer. The existence of this manuscript was revealed to the public only in 1679, when Lambecius published his famous catalogue of the Library of Vienna. It was from this catalogue that Cave, Harris, Lanigan, Oudin, and Zeuss obtained their information.

    A more detailed account of the manuscript was given later on by the learned and laborious Father Denis, whom Dr. Reeves describes as “one of those highly cultivated and gifted men whom the dispersion of the old society of the Jesuits threw upon the world, and who in these circumstances was made chief librarian in Vienna in the latter part of the last century.” The Codex contains all the epistles of St. Paul, according to the text of the Vulgate, and in the same order in which they are found in our Bibles, except that between the Epistle to the Colossians and those addressed to the Thessalonians, the apocryphal Epistle to the Laodicacians is introduced; not, however, without the marginal observation, “Laodicensium epistola ab alio, sub nomine Pauli, putatur edita.” The last folio of the work concludes with the words which are all written in vermillion:

    IN HONORS INDIVIDUAE TRINITATIS
    MARIANUS SCOTTUS SCRIPSIT HUNG
    LIBRUM SUIS FRATRIBUS PEREGRINIS.
    ANIMA EIUS REQUIESCAT IN PACE.
    PROPTER DEUM DEVOTE DICITE. AMEN.

    and between the two first lines, over ” Marianus Scottus,” in the same hand, is written the Irish name of the scribe.

    But to return to the monastic foundations of Marianus, we have already seen that the first house established in connection with the Church of Weich St. Peter soon became too small to hold the numbers of Irishmen who flocked to join him in his pious retreat. They accordingly purchased from the Count of Frontenhausen, for the sum of thirty pounds, a piece of ground which was situated at the opposite town gate, now called the Stadt-am-Hof. The ancient chronicle, which was kept by an Irish monk of St. James’s, gives an interesting account of the progress of the new foundation. It tells us that two Irishmen of noble birth, named Isaac and Gervase, were sent, with several other companions, by Domnus, abbot of St. Peter’s, to collect funds in Ireland for the building of the new monastery. They were well received by Conchobhar O’Brien, King of Munster, and returned to Ratisbon loaded with rich presents. With the money thus brought from Ireland the site was purchased, and a good part of the new monastery erected. “Now, be it known,” writes the chronicler, ” that neither before nor since was there a monastery equal to this in the beauty of its towers, columns, and vaultings, erected and completed in so short a time, because the plenteousness of riches and of money bestowed by the king and princes of Ireland was almost unbounded.”

    Yet, notwithstanding their copiousness, the treasures sent from Ireland were soon exhausted, and Christian, abbot of St. James, a descendant of the great family of the MacCarthys, at the request of his brethren, undertook a journey to Ireland to seek the aid of Donnchadh O’Brien, the brother of Conchobhar, who was now dead. He was most successful in his mission, and was preparing to return with a large supply of gold and valuables when he fell sick and died, and was buried before St. Patrick’s altar in the Cathedral of Cashel. His successor, Abbot Gregory, was consecrated in Rome by Pope Adrian IV., and afterwards proceeded to Ireland, where he received the money that had been collected by Christianus, with considerable additions. With this he repaired the church, roofed it with lead, renewed its floor, and added cloisters around it, devoting the greater portion, however, to investments, which were necessary in order to ensure the future.

    Wattenbach reminds us how enterprising and successful the monks were in providing funds to carry out their building projects:

    ” Whilst the building of the monastery of St. James was in progress, one of the monks pursued his journey, accompanied only by a boy, till he reached Kiev, then the residence of the King of Russia. Here the King and his nobles made him rich presents, so that he loaded several waggons with valuable furs, to the amount of a hundred silver marks; and arrived at home in safety, accompanied by some merchants of Regensburg. For at that time Russia was not so isolated as she is now; and  Regensburg in particular kept up a very lively commercial intercourse with Kiev, a city whose splendour Thietmar, Bishop of Merseburg, described, in the beginning of the eleventh century, in vivid colours.”

    It was with such treasures, aided by the privileges and exemptions conferred upon the monastery by emperors and popes, that the foundations were laid of the princely estate with which the famous “Monasteriurn Scottorum” of Ratisbon was ever afterwards endowed. It soon became the parent house of many flourishing colonies, always retaining authority over them, and exercising it when the occasion required. Paritius, in a work from which both Wattenbach and Reeves have chiefly drawn their information, gives the fullest account which we possess to-day of its history and progress. We give below the list of abbots who ruled it, according to him, from 1070 to 1720.

    [Marianus Scotus, the founder, 1070-1098; Dominions, discipulus Marianus, 1008-1121; Dermitius, 1121-1133; Christian, 1133-1164; Domninus, 1164-1172; Georgius, 1172-1204; Johannes, 1205-1212; Matthaeus, 1212-1214 ; Georgius II., 1214-1223; Jacobus, 1223-1266; Paulinus, 1266-1279; Macrobius, 1279-1290 ; Matthaeus II., 1290-1293 ; Mauritius, 1293-1295; Marianus, 1295-1301; Donatus, 1301-1310; Johannes, 1310-1326 ; Nicholas, 1326-1333 ; Johannes, 1333-1341 ; Gilbert, 1341-1348; Nicholaus, 1348-1354; Eugene, 1355-1370; Matthaeus, 1370-1382; Gelatins, 1382-1383; Matthaeus, 1383-1396; Philip I, 1396-1402; Philip II., 1402-1421; Donatus, 1431-1436; Alexander Bog, 1548-1555; Balthazar Dixon, 1555-1567 ; Thomas Anderson, 1557-1576; Ninian Winzet, 1576-1592; Alexander Bailie, Maurus Dixon, Placidus Fleming, 1672-1720; Maurus Stuart, and Bernard Baillie. Abbot Placidus Fleming completely renovated the church in 1678.]

    The most important events of its history were the foundations of new monasteries, which took place from time to time. Before we proceed to deal with these seriatim, it may be as well to state briefly the vicissitudes through which St. James’s passed.

    During the course of its history it received many proofs of paternal solicitude from the Roman Pontiffs. In the year 1120 it received a letter of protection from Pope Callixtus II. Innocent II., Eugene III., and Adrian IV. issued Bulls to its abbots, commending and encouraging their work. Innocent III., on the occasion of the Fourth Council of Lateran, 1213, at the request of the abbot, George II., took the establishment, with all its branches, under the direct protection of the Holy See, and confirmed the Abbot of St. James of Ratisbon as general or president of the whole congregation or union of Irish monasteries. Nor was civil patronage less generous in its assistance to these exiled monks. Cut away from the strife and contention of political life, devoted wholly to the service of God, preaching His word and inculcating His precepts by lives of perfect sanctity, these strangers became universally popular. The fame of their simplicity and zeal reached the courts of the great, as well as the homes of the poor. For all they had the same welcome, the same remedies, the same helpful sympathy. Their charity was unbounded. Their presence was regarded as a blessing to the whole country. Hence donations and legacies came to them fast and abundantly. We get an idea of the extent to which their possessions had accumulated, from a charter of the Emperor Sigismund, granted in 1422, renewing and confirming a previous charter of Frederick II., dated 1212. This latter document mentions, as Bishop Reeves has computed them, “seventy denominations of land, seven mills, ten vineyards, three fisheries, four chapels, eight manses, besides woods, pasturages, and gardens, all belonging to St. James’s monastery. The deed is attested by one archbishop, six bishops, one king, one landgrave, two dukes, one marquis, and two earls.” The record of these various donations was carefully kept in the monastery, as we gather from the fragments that have remained to us. Thus Bertha, “the gentle and artless dove ” (simplex sine felle columba), daughter of the pious Margrave Leopold, and wife of the Burgrave Henry of Ratisbon, makes over on the monastery two vineyards and seven acres of land in Austria, in return for which she is buried in the chapter-house and never forgotten in the prayers of the monks. Another pious lady, named Linchardis, is equally generous, and is buried near Bertha “in Capitulo nostro.” Noblemen like Werner von Laaber, Berthold von Schwartzenburg, Otto von Riedenburg, are especially commemorated in the Necrologium for their, large donations. Nor should Count Albert de Mitterzil be forgotten, for he was amongst their earliest benefactors, giving them the ground alongside their church on which their monastery was almost entirely constructed. His name is recorded in the Necrologium on the 17th January. Other names equally generous abound on the register.

    And yet the vastness of that great estate did not prevent the institution that possessed it from one day falling into decay, and, what is worse, into disrepute. It even possibly helped its downfall, and made its days of decline more unfortunate than they might otherwise have been. We do not refer here to the frequent fires that consumed the material buildings, and compelled the monks to start from the foundations and begin their work anew. The final overthrow of the monastery was due to influences not less destructive than fire, but more fatal and far-reaching in their effects. Chief amongst these, as Wattenbach observes, was the subjugation of Ireland by the English. The incessant troubles that overwhelmed the mother country ever since the Anglo-Normans landed on our shores, made themselves felt in the Irish religious establishments on the Continent. The firmer and more extensive English domination became in Ireland, the more baneful were its results abroad as well as at home. Few monks went out from Ireland from the fourteenth century onwards. Those that did go were chiefly such as their superiors wanted to get rid of, or who were discontented with the strict rules and severe discipline that prevailed at home. It was not the zeal of the missionary that urged them forward. They sought rather a life of luxury and ease. Hence the duties of religious life are gradually neglected. The new monks are not able to fulfil their task. They fail to become acquainted with the language of the people around them. They cannot preach nor hear confessions. Their conduct leaves much to be desired. The good people whose forefathers lavished riches and wealth on the monks of St. James in the early times, shake their heads in sorrow and almost in shame. The property of the establishment is frittered away and squandered. The buildings fall into ruin. Manuscripts that had been laboriously written out were burnt or cast away. Books were sold or pawned or neglected. Church ornaments and vestments were allowed to become squalid and unfit for use. The monks themselves dwindled in number till they were threatened with extinction. Then it was that the monastery and what remained of the property fell an easy prey to the Scotchmen or “Scoti” of Scotland. They asserted ” that these foundations originally belonged to their nation; that the Irish had unjustly thrust themselves in, and for that very reason had brought about the decline of the colonies.”

    On the 31st of July, 1515, Pope Leo IV. did actually make over the monastery of St. James on the Scotch, and appointed John Thomson superior. Thomson had just then paid a visit to Rome, where he had been a daily guest of the Pope at his dinner-table. This abbot drove out the remnant of Irish monks who still remained, and introduced countrymen of his own from the Abbey of Dunfermline. He was warmly supported by King James of Scotland. In 1653 an Irish Benedictine monk made vigorous efforts to recover possession of the monastery for his countrymen. Several Austrian cardinals supported his claims; but Pope Innocent X. decided against him. The newcomers were, all the same, not much superior to the degenerate Irishmen whom they replaced. They squandered what remained of the property till, under Abbot Alexander Bog, from 1548 to 1556, there was not a single monk remaining at St. James’s. In his time also the old parent monastery of Weyh-St.-Peter was lost, having been burned to the ground on the evening of the 25th of May, 1552, during the progress of the Smalcaldic war. An old Ratisbon chronicler, Leonhard Wildman, thus relates the occurrence:

    ” On Wednesday, in the week of the Holy Cross, they began to destroy the church of Weyh-St. -Peter. In the evening they set it on fire, and burned it to the ground. On the 28th of July I went out, for the first time, by the gate of Weyh-St. -Peter, to see how the dear little monastery had been broken to pieces ; and the scene which this ancient house of God presented made me full sore at heart. Verily, if our forefathers had not built so many chapels, there would not now have been stones enough for the bastions of Prebrunn, and for the Ostengate.”

    St. James’s had a short return of prosperity under the pontificate of Gregory XIII., who appointed as its abbot Ninian Winzet, a zealous opponent of the movement towards Protestantism. He had been driven out of Scotland on account of his orthodoxy and firmness, and now gathered around him at Ratisbon all the Catholic fugitives from his own country. He immediately set about seizing on the other Scotic monasteries that had been subject to St. James, and was successful in the cases of Erzfürt and Würzburg. In the others he failed. He was assisted in his intrigues by a remarkable man, named John Leslie, Bishop of Boss, and formerly plenipotentiary of Queen Mary Stuart in London. This ecclesiastic was high in the favour of the Roman Court. He was the author of a work entitled, De Origine Scotorum. He was appointed Assistant Bishop and Vicar-General of Rouen, in 1579 ; and in 1593 he was nominated to the see of Constance. He was, therefore, in a favourable position to press the claims of his countrymen to the scattered monasteries of the “Scoti.” He made particularly adroit attempts in reference to the old monasteries of Nuremburg and Vienna, but failed in both. Under the Abbot Placidus Fleming (1672-1720), St. James’s again enjoyed comparative prosperity. In 1718 he established there a college for young men of the Scottish nobility. When Paritius wrote his account of it, in 1723, the Scottish monks then at the monastery were Joseph Falconer, Augustus Morrison, Marian Brochie, Boniface Leslie, Kilian Grant, Placidus Hamilton, Erhard, and Columban Grant. According, however, as religious persecution became less oppressive at home, the necessity for a foreign secular college gradually ceased. A few monks lingered on till 1862, when the old monastery was secularized, or rather when, by an understanding between the Holy See and the Bavarian Government, it was handed over to the Bishop of Ratisbon as partial endowment of the ecclesiastical seminary of the diocese.

    In that part of the city of Ratisbon now called the “Stadt-am-Hof,” on the western bank of the Danube, the old ‘Schottenkirche,” or Church of St. James, still stands. Notwithstanding the number of times it was burnt and restored, there are still many traces around it of its Irish origin. One of its doorways in particular exhibits the genuine characteristics of Celtic art, the interlaced ornamentation and serpentine shapes of crocodiles and monsters which represent the triumph of Christianity over heathenism; the mermaid that symbolizes the distant sea crossed by the missionaries, and the peculiar shape and features, as far as they can still be distinguished, of three monks, whose origin could never be mistaken by anyone acquainted with the ancient carved stonework of Ireland, and their prototypes in the illuminated manuscripts of a still earlier period.

    Such was the great monastery of St. James. We have been able to give but a brief sketch of its rise, its decline, and its extinction. Something must still be heard of it, however, as we follow the history of its numerous branches.

    J. F. HOGAN.

    Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 15 (1894), 1015-1020.

     

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  • St. Cathaldus of Taranto, May 10

    May 10 is the feast of Saint Cathaldus (Cataldus, Cathal), an Irish saint who flourished in Italy. His life and career is still the subject of debate, an 1896 paper can be found here but below is a rather succinct summary from 1909, courtesy of The New Zealand Tablet:

    St. Cataldus, Bishop and Confessor.

    St. Cataldus,  the second apostle and patron saint of Taranto, was born in Ireland about the year 615, and whilst a youth was sent to study at the great monastic school of Lismore. Whilst returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in which he was accompanied by some of his disciples, the vessel was wrecked in the Gulf of Taranto, not far from the city of that name. When the Irish Bishop saw this beautiful city given over to pleasure and vice his spirit was moved within him, and in burning language he implored the inhabitants to return to the service of God, Whom they had forgotten. It happened at this time that there was no bishop in the city, so the people besought Cataldus to remain with them, to which request he reluctantly acceded. The saint succeeded in bringing back the inhabitants to the service of God, and Taranto became a Christian city in reality, as well as in name. St. Cataldus died towards the close of the seventh century, and his remains were buried in a marble tomb, which up to this day is preserved in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Taranto.

    St. Cataldus, Bishop and Confessor.,New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 9, 4 March 1909

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