ON BL. MERBODUS OR MARBEDO, PRIEST AND MARTYR,
IN THE VILLAGE OF ALBERSCHWENDE NEAR BREGENZ IN GERMANY.
About the year 1120.
COLLECTION
Concerning his cult, deeds, death and miracles.
Merbodus or Marbedo, priest and martyr, in the village of Alberschwende near Bregenz in Germany (Bl.)
BY J. S.
Notice of Bl. Merbodus was already brought to our predecessors from the year 1640, [the Blessed one is announced on this day, and therefore is now to be given, although he died on another;] but with the name somewhat altered: for in the letter by which he first became known to us he is called Marbedo or Marbetto, in later notices Merbodus or Merbotto. With these latter I shall name him Merbodus, because in this matter I trust more the author of them, inasmuch as he was at that time Prior of the same abbey of which Merbodus was a Religious. The martyrologists have generally all passed over S. Merbodus. Among those whose Martyrologies we have, Castellanus alone is the one who at this day mentions our Blessed one thus: In the diocese of Constance on the Rhine, S. Marbedo, monk, killed by wicked men. There was no particular reason why Castellanus should announce Bl. Merbodus on this day rather than on another, unless perhaps he wished to substitute him in the place of Marbodus, bishop of Rennes, whom Saussay commemorates today, and whom, on account of the lack of cult, he was unwilling to commemorate, as I have observed today in the Prætermissi. Certainly our Papebroch placed the notice received concerning Bl. Merbodus at this day, because Marbodus of Rennes was announced on that day, thinking that on his occasion it would be possible to treat of the Blessed one of the same name, whose feast is fixed to no day, and whose day of death he then did not know. Hence I conjecture that the notice of that Blessed one was communicated hence to Castellanus. Whatever be the case, I shall follow Castellanus, although Merbodus died on another day, and shall give today, the order of time being preserved, whatever concerning the Blessed one has become known to us.
[2] Daniel Peldner, a priest of the Society of Jesus, wrote the earlier notice concerning the Blessed one from Constance to our Bolland in the year 1640. he is said to have sprung from an illustrious family, The other, agreeing with the former in most things, was sent in the year 1731 to our Sollier by the very Reverend Father Apronianus Hueber, Prior of the monastery of Mehrerau at Bregenz, in which Bl. Merbodus professed the monastic life. The said Father Prior begins thus concerning the Blessed one's birth: Bl. Merbodus, or Merbotto, sprung from the most illustrious and most ancient family of the counts of Bregenz, in the very flower of his age professes the Benedictine monastic life in the monastery of Mehrerau at Bregenz. Peldner makes no mention of his stock, but has it thus: About the year of Christ our Savior 1130 there lived at Bregenz Augia, a monastery of the Order of S. Benedict on Lake Constance, S. Marbedo or Marbetto, monk and priest, earnestly devoted to prayer and to the other holy exercises of the solitary life. Franciscus Petrus in Suevia ecclesiastica, treating of the monastery of Bregenz, p. 199, agrees concerning the illustrious lineage of Merbodus, writing thus: In the year 1098, while Udalric, count of Bregenz, brought into this monastery of Bregenz a new colony of religious men taken from the monastery of Petershausen, Bl. Marbotto or Marbottus, priest, monk of this monastery, and own brother of the said count Udalric, shone forth singularly among the monks of Bregenz by a rare sanctity of life.
[3] For it is established by the tradition of our forefathers that there once lived at one and the same time three holy persons, and he had a brother and sister eminent in sanctity of life: begotten of the same father and the same mother, namely Diedo, Marbottus and Hietta: who, that they might serve God more freely, being separated from one another, removed into three different parts of the forest of Bregenz, Diedo to Andelsbuch, Hietta to Schwarzenberg, and Marbottus, with the leave of his abbot, to Alberschwende. Concerning the brother and sister here mentioned both our helpers just mentioned agree. But
Peldner slightly alters the names, speaking of them thus: This Marbetto had a brother in the flesh, Bl. Dietus, who rests in the greater church of the village of Andelsbuch in the forest of Bregenz; and a sister, Bl. Hitta the hermitess, who lies buried in the parish church of Schwarzenberg in the aforesaid forest. In which churches they once shone with many miracles. Hueber the Prior mentions the same persons in these words: Bl. Merbodus had as full brother and sister, Bl. Diedo the hermit, who rests in Andelsbuch, and Bl. Hilta the virgin, who rests in Schwarzenberg, parish churches incorporated to the monastery of Bregenz, both illustrious as much for the fame of their sanctity as for the glory of their miracles. These things therefore concerning the Blessed one's brother and sister seem sufficiently certain, especially since I shall also adduce below another witness older than these. But I should not dare to assert that the things handed down about his stock are equally certain: for neither did the anonymous writer to be cited below hand down anything about his stock. As to his age, the cited writers do not altogether agree; but neither do they disagree so far that it cannot be said that our Blessed one flourished in the twelfth century before its middle.
[4] afterward a monk and an excellent parish priest Concerning the later life and blessed death of Merbodus Franciscus Petrus continues thus: Where (at Alberschwende), while he applied himself to pious works and holy exercises, he obtained so great a grace from the Lord that, being at length ennobled also with the little laurel of martyrdom, and buried in that same place, he shines adorned with miracles even to our times. Our Peldner writes a little more of these things in this manner: While he dwells there (namely in the monastery), he began to burn with the desire of gaining many souls to God. Leave being obtained, he undertook the cultivation of the village of Alberschwende in the forest of Bregenz; where also by word and example he formed many men in a Christian manner for the kingdom of heaven. Rudolph, son of Udalric, count of the Rhaetians and of Bregenz, being admonished by Bl. Marbedo the priest to promote divine worship, gladly and willingly gave to the monastery of Bregenz Alberschwende, a most powerful parish of the forest of Bregenz, with all the rights, estates and goods belonging to it (as Bruschius also has it in Monasteria Germaniæ, fol. 3, whence these things have been transcribed). With whom Marbedo stood in great esteem on account of the integrity and sanctity of his manners and life, and his zeal for souls.
[5] he is killed by assassins: his burial, This Marbetto, while he acts as an upright parish priest and gains many souls to God, was cruelly slaughtered by impious robbers. Being honorably buried by the faithful in his own parish of Alberschwende, he began to work many miracles: he restored sight to the blind, walking to the paralytic, and health to other sick persons visiting his sepulchre. Even in our times he is illustrious for miracles which are wrought at his sepulchre. By the Apostolic See indeed he has not been placed in the canon of the Saints, yet he has always been held by the people of Alberschwende and their neighbors for a Blessed one, and is still so held: and they religiously venerate him as a blessed Martyr. Hueber, mentioning the rest more briefly, has more concerning his cult, writing thus: Thence made a Priest, at Alberschwende, a village of the hither forest of Bregenz, he acts as a most holy and at the same time most vigilant parish priest, until, being most cruelly slain with a knotted club about the year of Christ 1120 by impious men who could not bear his divine zeal, with which he thundered against crimes and criminals, he falls a martyr on the tenth of the Kalends of April, on which day he is read of in the very ancient Necrology of the monastery of Bregenz.
[6] his cult, miracles, His sacred body, buried in a chapel near the parish church, which takes its name from Bl. Merbodus, is honored by the daily devotion of the faithful, coming even from elsewhere and in procession. Over the sepulchre, which is built somewhat raised in the middle of the chapel out of stones, there hangs a club (with which he was slain, I suppose) enclosed in a metal plate. And the glorious Martyr himself shines with very frequent miracles even to this day, as the votive offerings hung here and there make plain. On the right side of the burial place there is read on a larger tablet the following inscription: “In this tomb rests the glorious body of S. Merbodus, martyr and monk, of the monastery of Bregenz, who about the year of Christ 1120 was parish priest in this place of Alberschwende, and to this day is made illustrious by the Lord God with great miracles garbled: miraculs for miraculis. 1 The blind see. 2 Captives among the Turks are ransomed. 3 The lame walk. 4 To a certain widow her oats are preserved from hail through the intercession of S. Merbodus. 5 At the death of a certain shoemaker, singularly devoted to S. Merbodus, all the bells sounded together, no one moving them. 6 Paralytics are healed at the touch of the club. 7 Pains of the head are relieved by the application of earth taken from the sepulchre of S. Marbodus. 7 Crops and cattle are freed from the most grievous infirmities.”
[7] The said helper then added the most recent things concerning Bl. Merbodus the martyr, and even more recent ones: the title of Blessed is due to him; by whose intercession, he says, besides several others, most recently the Reverend Lord Jacob Atterich, chaplain and beneficiary at Dornbirn, was miraculously freed from an impending blindness, and one of the servants of the most illustrious lord baron von Deuring at Neuhausen and Mittelweiherburg from his deafness. Thus far Hueber, from whose words it is abundantly established that Merbodus has a cult of some sort, to whom the title of Blessed can be attributed without scruple, and indeed also that of martyr, since he is believed to have been killed out of hatred of that religious liberty with which he strove to deter his subjects from sins. Further, that the cult of Bl. Merbodus was not too recent we learn from the Catalogue of the Saints of the diocese of Windonissa and Constance, published in Pistorius, vol. 6 of the Writers of German Affairs, from p. 719 to 722, where it is said to have been completed in the year 1519. For there these things are read of our Blessed one: S. Marbetto, otherwise Merbott, conventual priest of the monastery of Bregenz, whose body is held in the highest honor at Alberschwende in the forest of Bregenz, where he shines with miracles.
[8] but this we do not yet dare to attribute to his brother and sister. There is added there concerning the brother and sister of our Blessed one: S. Dietus, brother in the flesh of the aforesaid Marbetto, lies in body in the greater church of Andelsbuch in the said forest. S. Hilta the hermitess, sister of the said brothers, in the parish church of Schwarzenberg of the aforesaid forest. Nevertheless, since I have not found sufficient indications concerning the cult of these two, I have thought that the title of Blessed should hitherto be abstained from for them, until someone shall suggest more evident arguments of a sufficient cult. I have wondered that I could find nothing concerning this Blessed one of the Benedictine Order in the Benedictine Annals of Mabillon.