Meinrad

ON S. MEINRAD, OR MEGINRAD, HERMIT AND MARTYR IN SWITZERLAND.

Year 863.

Meinrad, Hermit and Martyr in Germany (S.)

From various sources.

[1] The Hermitage of the Mother of God, commonly called Einsiedeln, is a most celebrated monastery among the Swiss, between the lakes of Zurich and Lucerne, in the Black, or Dark, Forest; first consecrated by the anchoritic habitation and then by the martyrdom of S. Meinrad, Einsiedeln, the monastery of S. Meinrad, afterwards adorned with a distinguished church and ample buildings, but especially ennobled by heavenly prodigies: so that Christopher Hartmann, a monk there, who published its annals compiled with singular care, freely declares in his prologue to Abbot Augustine: For either the love of the work I have undertaken and my profession lead me astray, or there is no other place anywhere in the Christian world either more religious by the presence of the Queen of Heaven, Celebrated or more illustrious by the nobility and succession of its bishops, or more honored by the privileges and benefits of Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Princes, or finally more frequented by the pilgrimages of almost all nations, and more distinguished by miracles. So much so that the supreme architect of all things seems in other places to have accepted and approved the sacred buildings established by others; And devout. but this one, as a perpetual monument of His love and honor toward His Mother, and at the same time a refuge and consolation for the human race, He seems to have placed as it were with His own hand, to have cherished and enriched with stupendous signs and unusual growth, and to have willed it to be celebrated by the worship, religion, and gathering of almost all provinces and peoples. Carolus Stengelius has described the same from Hartmann in his Monasteriologia. Martin Crusius, Gaspar Bruschius, and Sebastian Munster also proclaim its fame, although they are adversaries of monastic devotion. But concerning the dedication of the church, or at least the chapel of the Mother of God, divinely performed by Christ Himself, and concerning the monastery itself, more must be said in the life of B. Benno, or Benedict, the first restorer of the Cell of S. Meinrad, on 3 August; of B. Eberhard, the first Abbot, on 14 August; of S. Conrad, Bishop of Constance, on 26 November; and of S. Ulric, Bishop of Augsburg, on 4 July.

[2] The memory of S. Meinrad is recorded in the Roman Martyrology on 21 January in these words: The feast of S. Meinrad, In Gaul, in the monastery of Reichenau, S. Meinrad the Hermit, slain by robbers. He is also recorded on this day by others, Menardus, Dorganius, Wion, the Carthusians of Cologne, and Molanus in their additions to Usuard, Canisius, Galesinius, Felicius, and Saussaius. He is variously called Meinradus, Meynradus, Meginradus; by some Meinardus; Meinrardus by Galesinius; by Saussaius Meinhardus. In the manuscript Calendar of Saints of the Order of S. Benedict he is inscribed on 20 January. In the year 1599 the name of S. Meinrad was inserted in the new Breviary of the Church of Constance, with the office decreed as is customary for Martyrs, with the double rite; but on 23 January, on account of the feast of S. Agnes, which is observed on the 21st. Hugo Menardus makes two persons of Meinrad and Megimad, and of the former indeed on 21 January: In the monastery of Reichenau, S. Meinrad the Hermit, who in the hermitage adjacent to the lake of Zurich was slain by certain robbers on the 12th before the Kalends of February; after death he was illustrious for his virtues, and was buried at Reichenau: from whom up to this day the Hermitage itself, cultivated by holy and religious men, has grown into a noble monastery. In the earlier edition only this is found: Meginrad the Hermit is martyred; which Marianus Scotus also has at the same year. The Excerpt of the Austrian Chronicle by Matthaeus Mareschalcus of Pappenheim, at the year 860: Maginhardus the hermit is martyred. Sigebert of Gembloux has the same at the year 856. Francis Guillimann also treats of him in his book on the Bishops of Strasbourg, and very many more recent writers.

[3] The dedication of his oratory. The same Menardus better records on 14 September: At the lake of Zurich in Germany, the dedication of the oratory of S. Meginrad the Martyr. Different from him is Meginhardus, or Meginherus, Abbot of Hersfeld, whom the same Menardus records on 26 September and also calls Meginradus. But the Translation of our Anchorite and Martyr is celebrated on 6 October, as we shall say below.

[4] His Life; The life of S. Meinrad was published from the most ancient parchments of the monastery of Einsiedeln, or the Hermitage, by Christopher Hartmann; which Surius had published before, but differing somewhat in wording, perhaps slightly polished. The same Hartmann considers the author of that life to be Berno, yet does not explain who this Berno was. Perhaps he meant to write Benno, the second inhabitant of the Hermitage; which is made probable from the fact that no mention of Benno, or of the building begun there, is made in it, so that it seems to have been written at least not after Benno's time. The same life was written and published in the German language in the year of Christ 1603, together with the origins of the monastery, which Hartmann afterwards pursued more fully. We received this life and other materials concerning S. Meinrad from Constance, from Daniel Feldner, a priest of our Society, a man especially learned and humane.

[5] Very many others also mention S. Meinrad: Hermann the Lame, a member of the same monastery of Reichenau of which S. Meinrad himself was a pupil, in the Urstisius edition, at the year 861: Meginrad, a monk of Reichenau, Other writings about him: and the first inhabitant of the hermitage adjacent to the lake of Zurich, was slain there by certain robbers on the 12th before the Kalends of February, and after death was illustrious for his virtues, and was buried at Reichenau: from whom to this day the Hermitage itself, cultivated by holy and religious men, has grown into a noble monastery. In the earlier edition only this is found: Meginrad the Hermit is martyred; which Marianus Scotus also records at the same year. The Excerpt of the Austrian Chronicle by Matthaeus Mareschalcus of Pappenheim, at the year 860: Maginhardus the hermit is martyred. Sigebert of Gembloux has the same at the year 856. Francis Guillimann also treats of him in his book on the Bishops of Strasbourg, and very many more recent writers.

[6] Concerning the time of his death, Hartmann discusses thus: In the year eight hundred and sixty-three, nearly all the records of the Hermitage report that Meginrad was put to death. Time of death, Others record it variously: for Sigebert reports it happened in the year 856, Trithemius, Surius, and Baronius in 860. Hermann the Lame in the year eight hundred and sixty-one. Conrad of Lichtenau, Abbot of Ursperg, in the year 862. Nearly all our records, I say, affirm he was killed in the year eight hundred and sixty-three, on the 12th before the Kalends of February, in the 6th year of Pope Nicholas the Great, the 8th of Emperor Louis II, the 32nd of Solomon I, Bishop of Constance, and the 6th of Walther, Abbot of Reichenau. And rightly: for since the writer of his life records that he lived 26 years in the Hermitage of the Dark Forest, and Hermann the Lame notes the year eight hundred and thirty-eight as the one in which he passed into it, the reckoning of 26 years from that date will produce the year sixty-three. We do not find this at the year 838 in the copies of Hermann the Lame that we possess.

[7] Concerning the relics of S. Meginrad and the solemn honors which are accorded to the Saints and which were decreed for him by the Supreme Pontiff Benedict IX, the same Hartmann writes thus under Embricus, the sixth Abbot: Now when our temple was completed, with never-ceasing care and expense, and those things that seemed necessary for use had been arranged, Embricus invited and summoned Bishop Eberhard (of Constance) with Hartmann of Chur and many other most distinguished men of both orders for the consecration. Eberhard with great solemnity and congratulation dedicated that temple, as it had been before, to the Virgin Mother of God, S. Maurice, and the most sacred Theban Legion, on the 3rd before the Ides of October. The veneration of the place and the common joy were increased by the sacred relics of the body of S. Meginrad, Martyr and first guardian of the Hermitage, returned by the monks of Reichenau a little before, namely on the day before the Nones of the same month, with great pomp; whom, already celebrated by many miracles, His canonization; at the same time Pope Benedict had enrolled in the number of the Saints and judged worthy of altars and temples for his illustrious merits, in the one hundred and seventy-eighth year after he had fallen. And from the restoration of their patron, Translated to the Hermitage increased honor, fame, and attendance came to the Hermitage. I find in our records that the monks of Reichenau, afflicted and worn down by many and continual disasters, were long uncertain what the remedy of their ills could be. Finally the plan of returning the body of S. Meginrad, which they had obstinately refused until then, occurred to them. From that point an end to disasters and calamities followed; and the monastery, as before, so henceforth began to flourish. The relics of S. Meginrad were deposited at the altar of S. Maurice. So he writes.

[8] Not all the relics of the holy Martyr, however, were carried back to the Hermitage. For besides those which we shall say below were deposited on Mount Etzel, the monks of Reichenau assert that some still remain with them. And the author of the German Life of the Saint confesses: The head and other relics In the year 1039, he says, when the relics of S. Meinrad had been elevated at the monastery of Reichenau, his head and the principal parts of his body were carried with great honor to the Hermitage; where they are still preserved and shine with great miracles. This occurred on 6 October. And on the same day the German Martyrology records: Likewise the Elevation of the holy Hermit and Martyr Meinrad, 6 October 1039. when his head and relics were carried from Reichenau to the Hermitage, where they are still held in great veneration. His feast is observed on 21 January. The year 1039 is written in the margin.

LIFE BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR,

published from ancient manuscripts by Christopher Hartmann.

Meinrad, Hermit and Martyr in Germany (S.)

BHL Number: 5878

By an anonymous author, from Christopher Hartmann.

CHAPTER I.

S. Meinrad's education, monastic life, and love of solitude.

[1] Being about to relate the passion and death of the venerable man Meginrad, hermit and martyr, I may be permitted briefly to turn my pen back a little, and to touch briefly upon the time when he was taught, where, and whence, to whom he was first entrusted for learning letters, under what Abbot he undertook the monastic life to be observed, and how also from the fraternal battle line he entered the solitary combat of the desert. I shall therefore return to resolve more fully each of the things I have proposed.

[2] In the time of Charles, most glorious Emperor of the Franks, who was the first among them to receive the name of Caesar, S. Meinrad born of noble stock, the aforesaid man was born in Alemannia, in the district which antiquity called Sulichgeuwe, from its chief village. His parents were Alemannians, more conspicuous for the nobility of their character than for perishable riches. When he had reached the age at which he could be suited to the pursuit of letters, he was led by his father to the island which the ancients called Sindlochesaugia, from the name of a certain priest Educated at Reichenau who was called Sindloch, who first built habitations for monks upon it and brought Pirminius with his companions to dwell there, by the command of Berchtold, most noble Duke of the Alemannians, in the time of Pippin, King of the Franks, and gave the island a name from his own. Here therefore the aforesaid boy, led by his father, was entrusted to the monk Erlebald, a man most honorable in every way, By Erlebald: who was also related by carnal descent to the aforesaid little boy. When he perceived the child to be of good disposition, he gladly undertook to nourish him, diligently taught him, and so advanced him by instruction that he instilled in him the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. For the boy from his earliest age avoided the jests and errors in which the tender age is usually entangled; and he occupied his mind with receiving those things that his Master had taught.

[3] When he reached the twenty-fifth year of his age, through the agency of his same master, he was raised to the office of the diaconate, and not long after to the rank of the priesthood, He becomes a Deacon, then a Priest, In that same island at that time, when Emperor Louis, the son of Charles, was reigning, there was an Abbot named Hatto, a man greatly shining in learning and good works and nobility of character, who was also the Bishop of the Church of Basel. When he, spurning the affairs of the active life, transferred himself to the beauty of the contemplative life, the aforesaid Erlebald, elected by all with the permission of Emperor Louis, was placed over the aforesaid island and brothers and substituted in the office of Abbot. Who, immediately upon receiving this authority, Then a monk, persuaded the already oft-mentioned venerable man Meginrad to take up the yoke and submit to the rule of monastic life to be observed. He consented therefore to the salutary counsel and made his profession, Most devoutly religious: and with all intentness he strove to keep what he had promised, always prompt to obey, strict in fasting, assiduous in prayer, generous in works of mercy, and most of all prostrate before all in humility.

[4] While he was flourishing in these virtues, he was assigned by the aforesaid Abbot to a certain cell, He is placed in charge of a school: belonging to the aforesaid monastery, situated near the lake of Zurich, which the river Linth flows through, so that he might preside over a school there and disperse among many the talent with which he himself was enriched, for the Lord's profit. Some time had passed while he was occupied with these duties: one day he took with him the scholars he had nourished, and crossing the aforesaid lake, he entered the wilderness that lies adjacent to the shore of the lake and extends to the Pennine Alps, and to the village of Cham, for the purpose of fishing and viewing the places of the wilderness. They came therefore to a certain river that runs through that solitude: and there the blessed man occupied his companions with fishing; He surveys the wilderness: but he himself walked alone in contemplation of the solitude: for he was exceedingly inflamed with love of a solitary dwelling. While he long nourished his mind with this contemplation, he returned to his companions and found them laden with no small catch of fish, whom he addressed thus: Thanks be to the Giver, who has mercifully enriched us with His gifts. Now, my sons, if it pleases you, we must return to visit our own hearths. They return and arrive at a village situated not far from the shore.

[5] He reveals his desire to dwell there to a pious matron, There, entering the lodging of a certain matron, they rested a little, refreshing themselves with food and drink. But the man of God, perceiving the aforesaid matron to be full of the fear of God and most ready to serve her guests, opened to her the hidden ardor of his heart, beginning with these words: Dear woman of Christ, if you would hear, I would make known to you the secret of my heart: but before I do so, I ask that you conceal my words and my desire, until you see whether what I believe I have conceived with a devout mind can be accomplished in deed. I delight in dwelling in this wilderness beyond all riches, and I would wish now to set up my little dwelling in it, so that I might more intimately devote myself to prayers, if I could find someone Who pledges what is necessary for sustenance: who would be willing to minister the necessities of the body to me for the love of God. But because I am still deprived of this consolation, I ask that in the meantime what I desire be kept hidden. She, inspired by God (as I believe), answered: I shall reveal your secret to no one, unless you will it: but know that if you wish to persist in your undertaking, I shall minister what is necessary for the Lord's sake, and shall satisfy your wish as much as I can.

[6] He, giving thanks for the promises, returned to the cell from which he had departed, and there by continuous fasts and prayers he asked God to deign to confirm in his heart whatever pleased Him concerning this matter. At length, strengthened by divine inspiration, he left the cell and the school over which he presided, He dwells on Mount Etzel, and revisited his hostess, wishing to find out whether she wished to persist in her promise or not. When he perceived that she had persevered in providing the promised consolation to him, not far from that village in which the same woman lived, he built for himself a dwelling in the wilderness: and there, tireless in fasts and prayers, he served his Creator, with the aforesaid matron providing him with necessities, as well as other religious men.

p Hartmann and the German Life add that he obtained the grace and permission of Abbot Erlebald for this purpose. Hartmann says this retirement occurred about the year of Christ 832.

q The pious widow also caused a modest cell to be built for his use, and beside it a chapel, which still preserves the name of the Chapel of S. Meginrad on Mount Etzel. Hermann and the German Life.

CHAPTER II.

Solitary life in the Black Forest.

[7] Weary of crowds, he withdraws into the Black Forest: While he had spent seven years there waging the warfare of the Heavenly King, unable to bear the multitude of people coming to him, he changed his place, and found a plain four miles distant from the shore of the aforesaid lake, amid mountains of very difficult access. There, with the help of religious men and especially a certain Abbess named Heilwig, he constructed the habitations necessary for his purpose, and remained in that place for the rest of his life, wearing himself down with the greatest fasts, and praying without ceasing, as far as human frailty permitted. Whatever was sent to him by faithful men and women, he distributed as alms to all who came to him.

[8] It happened, moreover, amid these things that on a certain day, while he was praying, so great a multitude of demons was poured around him on every side that he could not even discern the light of day, since those ministers of darkness were darkening it. He is harassed by demons; While they wearied him with terrible threats and excessive horror, prostrate in prayer, as the matter demanded, he commended himself with all zeal to his merciful Lord. When this had gone on for a long time, he perceived a light from the East; which light an Angel followed, and reaching him where he lay in prayer in the midst of the malign spirits, he commanded the wicked host with great authority to depart, When they are driven out, he is refreshed by an Angel: and to dare no longer to inflict any temptation or terror upon him. When the enemies had departed, the aforesaid Angel consoled him in a friendly manner and departed: and from that day (as the venerable man used to relate) he sustained no further terror from the malign spirits.

[9] It happened also afterwards that a certain brother from the aforesaid monastery visited him out of kindness. Receiving him benignly, together with the companions who had come with him, he generously provided all things befitting guests, as far as possibility allowed. When evening had come and the shining stars invited sleep, they refreshed themselves with sweet conversations of the conferences, and after Compline went to sleep, Hospitable, the brother who had come in a separate place, his companions also apart; and the venerable man himself in his own little cell. Resting his little body a short while with sleep, the man of God rose, and watchful, applied himself to his accustomed prayers. The aforesaid brother, too, although he was resting in his bed, passed the night nearly sleepless. With an Angel attending, he prays at night. While he turned his eyes curiously this way and that, he saw a boy in white garments proceeding from the very place of the oratory, of wondrous beauty, apparently about seven years of age, who entered the presence of the man of God himself, and prayed with him as he prayed, and spoke various things with him. Although the aforesaid brother heard the voice of this conversation, he did not perceive the meaning of the voice. This boy also stood before the brother, who was fully awake, and admonished him about certain things which the brother said were entirely forbidden to him to bring forth publicly. I suppress many things, striving for brevity, which the certain account of many people demonstrates to be wonderful about him.

CHAPTER III.

The murder of S. Meinrad.

[10] When, therefore, he was spending his twenty-sixth year in that same wilderness, serving the Lord in fasting and abstinence from all worldly things, Two robbers conspire to murder him: it happened, at the instigation of him who entered the serpent and through its mouth deceived the first parents and expelled them from paradise, that two men hastened to his cell for the purpose of killing him. When they had come to a certain village situated on the shore of the lake of Zurich, they asked to be shown which passable route led to his cell. When it was shown to them, rising early by night, they undertook the route indicated to them, driven by the most foul spirit who had filled them. For a long time, however, they wandered from the right path leading to the cell itself, and at last, vexed by a demon, they arrived where they wished, They wander through the forest: with the greater part of the day already elapsed.

[11] He himself, applying himself to his accustomed prayers, was devoutly offering the solemn rites of Mass to his Creator. But before the wicked men had entered the cell itself (one of whom was called Richard, They are struck by a marvelous omen. and was Alemannian by race; the other was Peter, who was born of the Rhaetian nation), the chickens, which the venerable man had nourished in the same place, seeing them approach, fled through the wilderness as if being pursued by a fox, with unusual clamor and unheard-of commotion, filling the forest with resounding echo, so that even the robbers themselves were greatly amazed and astonished at this, and determined by the judgment of their own minds that this pertained to a prodigy.

[12] Yet not diverted from their undertaking, they approached the chapel in which the man of God, as has been said, S. Meinrad piously prepares himself for death: was appeasing the Lord with outpoured prayers, and had received the Lord's body as viaticum for his death, with a pure heart and devout mind, as if foreknowing the future. And now the man of God, when he sensed that his murderers were present, did not immediately present himself to them; but delaying a little while, he did not open the closed door of the chapel, so that he might linger a little longer in prayer. He therefore strenuously completed his prayer, and taking up in his hand and kissing each individual casket of relics, he commended his struggle to the Lord and to the Saints whose relics he reverently embraced. The wicked men who had come were watching him do this through a certain opening in the wall. And now the strong athlete, strengthened by God, about to fight, went forth and did not deny his presence to his slayers. He kindly receives the robbers, And first, speaking words of greeting to them, he then added: O companions, why have you come so late? Why did you not hasten to come to hear my humble Mass, so that I might entreat the common Lord on your behalf? But even now enter, and ask the Lord to be merciful to us, and His Saints, and afterwards return to me, so that whatever blessing I am able to offer you by God's gift, I may impart for His love, and so complete the work for which you have come. Entering the oratory, therefore, not intent on what they were advised, but on the evil that they had come to perpetrate, they immediately returned to him. To them the man of God gave his tunic and cowl, and added bread and drink as well, saying: Receive these things from my hands, and after you have completed what you have come to do, you may take for yourselves from what is here whatever you desire. For I know that you have entered to kill me, but I ask one favor of you: when you have ended the course of this present life in me, place the candles that you see, which I have also fashioned for this very purpose, one burning at my head He counsels them wisely: and the other at my feet, and depart quickly afterwards from this place, lest you be seized by those who usually come to visit me, and suffer punishment for your crime.

[13] Immediately therefore the aforesaid Richard seized the blessed man in the middle with his polluted hands and tightly gripped his little body, wasted by fasts, in his arms, and threateningly ordered his companion to strike the Saint with a club. He is killed by them, When he had long weakened him by striking him on the side and shins, while the Saint extended his hands to the Lord, the other said: O sluggard, why do you not strike him on the head so that he may receive a mortal blow? If you delay to inflict it, I shall do so most swiftly. And immediately, seizing the club, he aimed a most violent blow at his head. The holy man, thus wounded, fell half-dead to the earth; and they, immediately rushing upon him, strangled his throat with their hands until he had breathed forth his spirit. A sweet fragrance divinely diffused. As the soul was departing, in the very moment of the final breath, a fragrance of such sweetness poured forth and filled the entire space of the cell, as if the scents of all spices had been diffused and were fragrant there.

CHAPTER IV.

The punishment inflicted on the murderers.

[14] Afterwards they stripped him of the garment with which he was clothed, and carrying him, they placed him on the bed on which the man of God was accustomed to rest. Under his naked body they placed a piece of felt; placing also some fragments beneath, and, as the living man of God had asked, they took the candles, placing one at his head; and ran with the other to the chapel to bring thence a light which burned perpetually in that same oratory. A candle divinely lit, But returning to the little body of the deceased, they found the candle they had placed burning brightly, though it had been extinguished. So great a terror immediately invaded them that they dared not touch anything belonging to the appointments of the altar. The terrified murderers flee, Taking the garments and some bedding from his bed, they hastily retraced their steps to whence they had come.

[15] As they fled from there, the ravens, which had been accustomed in their usual manner to come to the servant of God while alive and to receive their food from his hands, With the ravens, the Saint's pets, pursuing them, as if desiring to avenge the dead man, followed the robbers, and with booming voices filled the forests, and flying as close as they could to their heads, they betrayed the crime perpetrated. Not long after, the wicked men were apprehended, They are punished. and the crime that they had perpetrated in secret was made known, since God did not wish the punishment of the sin to be deferred, which they had earned by the killing of His servant. For with the judges and the Christian people decreeing this under Count Adalbert, they were burned alive.

[16] The candle which they had placed at the head of the man of God, and which was lit from heaven, burned down to the bedding that had been placed over the deceased little body. S. Meinrad becomes illustrious for miracles: The fire also invaded part of them and reached the limbs of the deceased. But when it had touched them, just as it had been divinely lit, so also by God's will it was extinguished. Immediately thereafter the news of his death was spread abroad. When this was learned, the venerable Abbot Walther and the brothers dwelling under him, He is carried back to Reichenau. taking the body of the man of God from that wilderness and carrying it to the monastery of Reichenau, buried it there with due honor. The holy Martyr suffered on the twelfth before the Kalends of February, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord eight hundred and sixty-three, when King Louis was reigning in East Francia, in the twenty-eighth year of his reign.