Adalgott I

ON ST. ADALGOTT I, ABBOT OF DISENTIS IN SWITZERLAND,

IN THE 11TH CENTURY.

Adalgott, abbot of Disentis in Switzerland. (S.)

C. D. S.

That Adalgott, from a monk of Einsiedeln abbot of Disentis, is commonly called a saint in the monuments both of Disentis and of Einsiedeln and that he died in the year 1031 is written by the author of the Chronicle of Einsiedeln [Chronique d'Einsidlen, ou Histoire de l'abbaye de Notre-Dame des Hermites … par un religieux capitulaire; part I, ch. VI, § II (p. 70).] . [Adalgott, from a monk of Einsiedeln abbot of Disentis, immediately after his death] The same also recites an epitaph composed by a contemporary poet and which he deservedly says is notable more for antiquity than for art, framed in these words:

Lector ades quisquis, sanctæ reverentia petræ

Te moveat, superos quod decet atque decus.

Vel sit Adalgottus fatorum lege peractus,

Noveris huic certum numen adesse loco.

Dote carens gressus, cæcus aut dæmone pressus,

Deprimit aut armis quem Libitina suis,

Appellent sanctum, meritis precibusque Tonanti

Gratum: supplicibus dona petita dabit.

Disertina rogans regeret qui limina divum

Conspicuum meritis, spectabile lumen,

[…] *

Einsidlensis qui luxit in orbe chori

Postulat; obtinuit votis conformia dona.

Regnabat sanctus, marmoris æde tacens.

Si tacet, at raptus se sæpe vocantibus offert;

Non tacet a nobis, excitat astra prece.

Huic positi teneat pia te veneratio saxi:

Posce, fidem spirans: recte petita feres.

[Reader, whoever you are who come near, let reverence for the holy stone move you, as befits the saints and their glory. Though Adalgott be finished by the law of the fates, know that a sure divine power is present in this place. Let him who lacks the gift of walking, the blind, or one pressed by a demon, or whom Libitina presses down with her arms, call upon the saint, pleasing to the Thunderer by his merits and prayers: he will give the gifts sought to suppliants. Disentis, asking for one who should rule the thresholds of the gods, conspicuous in merits, a distinguished light, […] * who shone in the world of the choir of Einsiedeln, demands him; she obtained gifts conformable to her vows. The saint reigned, silent in a house of marble. If he is silent, yet, snatched away, he often offers himself to those who call; he is not silent for us, he rouses the stars with prayer. Let pious veneration hold you to this stone here placed: ask, breathing faith: you will carry off what is rightly sought.]

[2] [celebrated as a saint, according to Murer he died on the 1st day of Nov., according to Eichhorn on the 24th day of June, in the year 1031.] If it is lawful, then, to believe the antiquity of this epitaph, his cult soon after the death of Adalgott was celebrated, confirmed by many notable miracles. Yet no martyrology, as far as I know, has retained his name, nor is any certain day found anywhere assigned to his cult, except in Heinrich Murer Helvetia Sancta, p. 181. , who says that he died on the 1st day of November of the year 1000. He is contradicted by Ambros Eichhorn, who Episcopatus Curiensis in Rhætia, part III, ch. I (p. 288). reports that Adalgott, whom he indicates to have been the seventeenth abbot of Disentis, died on the 9th day before the kalends of June in the year 1031, and that nothing apart from his name survives concerning him. Yet we have judged that a place should be given to him on this day among our Acts, lest he be altogether exiled from them.

[3] On the monastery of Disentis. On the monastery of Disentis, however, a place which is also customarily called Disetis, Desertum ubi cella est, Diserntis and Disentis J.-J. Scheuchzer, Iter Alpinum, vol. II, p. 267. , situated at the extreme eastern border of that part of Switzerland which they still call the Grey or Grisons canton, there would be place to discourse here a little more fully, had this not been amply done by the praised Amb. Eichhorn, weaving the history of the same monastery from the papers of a certain monk of Disentis Episcop. Curiens., p. 218 ff. : to whom, if it pleases, the curious reader may go.

* A hexameter verse is lacking here.