ON ST. GUNTHILD, HANDMAID AND VIRGIN,
WHO IS HONORED AT PIBERBACH IN THE BISHOPRIC OF EICHSTÄTT
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY
On her cult and deeds.
Gunthild, handmaid and virgin, who is honored at Piberbach in the bishopric of Eichstätt (S.)
BY C. S.
[The Saint's veneration is set forth in the filial church of Piberbach of the abbey of Plankstetten,] Into a knowledge of this holy Virgin, unknown to all the martyrologists whom I have consulted, we were led by the Rev. Fr. Maurice Chardon, priest of the Society of Jesus, most devoted, while he lived, to our Museum. For by his procuring, the most ample and most reverend lord Maurus Xaverius Hoërbst, abbot of Plankstetten of the Order of St. Benedict, sent to us in the year 1751 certain things concerning her life and cult, signed with his own hand and secured with his seal, without which we should have known her only by name. The praised abbot therefore writes that his monastery was founded by the counts of Hirschberg, Ernest, Gebhard II bishop of Eichstätt, and Hertwic, in the district of Plankstetten, and was dedicated in the year 1129 to the holy Virgin Mary assumed into heaven and to John the Evangelist and to all the holy angels. Brusch ascribes that foundation to Ernest alone, speaking thus: He (Gebhard II) had a brother, Ernest count of Hirschberg, who in the year of the Lord MCXXIX by the zeal of Christian piety built and founded the notable Benedictine abbey of Blankstetten.
[2] in the filial church of Piberbach, As for what concerns the situation of the place, Matthäus Seutter in his Map of the Upper Palatinate of Bavaria displays it in the bishopric of Eichstätt, where it adjoins Bavaria, on the river called the Sulz, at an equal distance between the towns of Berching and Berngries, near which the aforesaid river mingles with the Alemannus, commonly the Altmühl. Not far from the said abbey, namely at half an hour's distance, says the praised abbot, is situated the parish of Piberpach, which is numbered among the churches of the same which they call filial. Seutter in the Map just mentioned has placed the village of Biberbach on the same river Sulz about a quarter of a German mile from the monastery of Plankstetten toward Berngries, which agrees well enough with the words of the most reverend abbot. Further, that in this village St. Gunthild the virgin was both anciently honored and is honored at this present time the same abbot affirms; and to prove this for the time past he produces the Rev. Fr. Johann Winckler, Prior of the same monastery of his about the middle of the seventeenth century, from whose manuscript he recounts the following to our purpose: There therefore a most ancient church still stands, solemnly dedicated to St. Michael the archangel, to the holy virgin Gunthild and to St. Sigismund the king, and adorned with three altars.
[3] On the first indeed are seen most ancient and rather large wooden statues, still very beautifully gilded, of St. Michael the chief patron; where on the Sunday before the Dedication of St. Michael and of St. Gunthild, holding a little milk-vessel in her hand, the secondary patroness; on the second a statue of the blessed Virgin Mary with her Son Jesus, and on the third of St. Sigismund, all most venerable for their antiquity. Again, after other things, the most reverend abbot thus goes on from the same Winckler: The community of Piberbach (and likewise that of Schambach near Arensberg), moved by the sanctity and miracles of St. Gunthild, chose the Virgin many centuries ago as their patroness, and to this present day has venerated her yearly with great solemnity and a concourse of the people on the very dedication of the filial church of Piberbach, falling on the Sunday next before the feast of St. Michael, chiefly as the patroness of cattle, with copious gifts brought from every side of money, butter, eggs, meat, candles, Masses, &c., and even now venerates her with most constant piety. Thus far the praised abbot from Winckler, whose words he himself also confirms from the present-day cult of the Saint in that place, thus: And this (piety toward St. Gunthild) the most notable city of Greding (of the bishopric of Eichstätt) emulates yearly beyond the other neighboring places, making pilgrimage thither most devoutly, leaving offerings abundantly, and other most illustrious works of inward piety and confidence in the holy Virgin.
[4] she is honored with a great concourse of the people. The city or town of Greding Seutter displays in the above-mentioned Map in the same bishopric of Eichstätt, distant not yet one and a half German miles toward the west from Piberbach. The parish of Schambach I have not found in the geographical maps; but Arensberg, near which it is said to be situated, I suspect to be that town which Seutter likewise places on the very border of the bishopric of Eichstätt, where it extends northward into the margraviate of Ansbach, about seven German miles from Piberbach. This suspicion is moved in me by the nearness of the places; for Arensberga, commonly Arensberg, a small city of Westphalia, is further distant from thence. Further, the lawful cult of St. Gunthild, and the things which he had related concerning her life, and which we shall presently report from him, Winckler confirms in the same place with these words: All these things are proved both
from the continuous and immemorial tradition of the inhabitants and the solemnity of the feast, and from the most ancient pictures painted on the wall of the church of Piberbach and hanging there, with German verses clearly added to each of the images, by which the life of St. Gunthild is sufficiently expressed. These images, which I present to the reader engraved on copper, we shall presently examine; meanwhile it will have been useful to observe that in them the Saint is displayed with rays, and that in the ninth, which is the last, she is displayed upon an altar amid votive offerings and the vows of the wretched; with this verse added in German: Here at St. Gunthild's God works great miracles.
[5] Another argument for the cult of the same Gunthild, and indeed for a more ancient one, the praised abbot draws from Gundekar, The antiquity of her cult is proved. the second of that name, but the eighteenth in order among the bishops of Eichstätt, in whose book, in which he had the patrons and bishops of that same see depicted, under the image of St. Gunthild this verse is read subscribed: Be present, kindly Gunthild, with prayer worthy of thee. The deeds of this Bl. Gundekar or Gundechar our Bosch illustrated with a historical Commentary in vol. 1 of August at the 2nd day, where he shows that he presided over the bishopric of Eichstätt from the year of Christ 1057 to 1075. In the same Commentary §3, from the Pontifical book which the Blessed himself dictated or caused to be written, the altars consecrated by him are enumerated, and among these at num. 21 one of St. Gunthild occurs, in these words: Over the altar of St. Ulric, confessor of Christ, and of St. Gunthild virgin. In the same place num. 33, in an instrument of the same Bl. Gundechar, among the relics of holy virgins which he deposited in the altar of St. Willibald, there are also reckoned the relics of St. Gundhild. Perhaps in the same Pontifical, from which Bosch had received only some extracts from Eichstätt, mention is made of her still more often; but these things meanwhile suffice for asserting the immemorial cult of St. Gunthild, since it was already flourishing in the eleventh century.
[6] Further, although the cult of this Saint at this time flourishes chiefly at Piberbach, Her body is believed to rest at Suffersheim, her body nevertheless is believed to rest not here, but at Suffersheim among the heterodox, or at least to have rested there also in the century just past, on the testimony of Winckler, whose words I subjoin from the report of the praised abbot Maurus. That the entire bones of the Virgin of this place, he says, are even now kept in the church of Suffersheim, though without honor (as is the manner of heretics), and are shown to the people, the most reverend Dominic Plato, our fortieth abbot of Blankstetten, a man well deserving of all … in the year MDCLI affirmed as an eyewitness. Now Suffersheim is a village which Frederick de Wit in his geographical map of Franconia places in the bishopric of Eichstätt; but that it is now of the Ansbach jurisdiction the manuscript notices of Plankstetten which I use teach. But that the holy Virgin's body, set upon a wagon, was drawn of its own accord by two oxen to that village and was buried there the seventh picture indicates; and in the eighth it is added that a sacred chapel also was built over it.
[7] But I cannot sufficiently wonder why the Saint's cult should have been famous at Piberbach rather than at Suffersheim, or at least is said to have rested there in the last century. if her sacred body always rested here and not there; unless perhaps it began to grow more illustrious at Piberbach, after Suffersheim passed to the heretics, on account of the altar which she had erected there as secondary patroness of the church. Perhaps also some relics of the same Saint were anciently honored there; for whatever be the case concerning the body which abbot Dominic Plato says he saw at Suffersheim, from the things which we said at num. 5 it is likely that some relics were separated from the Saint's body. Now as concerns the day of her cult, we noted above that no mention of her is made in the Martyrologies. From what was said at num. 3 also it is clear that no fixed day of the month is assigned to her yearly festivity except the day of the dedication of the church of Piberbach, which is celebrated on the Sunday next before the feast of St. Michael in the month of September. Wherefore, since this Sunday must always fall on the twenty-second of September, or on one of the six following days, it has seemed good to us to treat of her here on the first of these.
[8] Her Life, exhibited in painted panels, We have no Life of St. Gunthild except that which the oft-praised abbot sent to us from the manuscript of Winckler the Prior. But he, as was said above, lived after the middle of the seventeenth century, and therefore wrote some centuries, and perhaps even many centuries, after the Saint's death, who is clearly not later than the eleventh century, from num. 5. But neither does Winckler mention older manuscripts from which he might have received his materials; nay he sufficiently insinuates that no such things lighted his way, since to gain credit for his statements he praises nothing but tradition and the images of the church of Piberbach. These, which we received from the oft-mentioned abbot, we have had engraved on copper, and for the convenience of the reader who is not versed in the German tongue we here subjoin in Latin the inscriptions of each, sent by the praised father Chardon. The inscription of the first: Here St. Gunthild was watched by her master, and the milk was turned into lye. Of the second: Here St. Gunthild distributes milk to the poor. Of the third: Here St. Gunthild obtained from God that a spring should rise out of a willow. Of the fourth: Here again a spring leaped forth, that both she and her cattle might drink. Of the fifth: Here a leper plunged himself into the spring, and was made clean. Of the sixth: Here St. Gunthild commends herself to God for her last agony, and her body also. Of the seventh: The corpse was drawn by oxen, which endured no yoke, to Suffersheim, to the hill. Of the eighth: Here she was buried, and a chapel erected over her. Of the ninth: Here at St. Gunthild's God works great miracles.
[9] and composed by Winckler, Prior of Plankstetten From these therefore and from tradition Winckler put together the following eulogy of the Saint: St. Gunthild the virgin, the cattle-maid (commonly ein vieh magd) of a certain noble lord of Suffersheim, a place situated on the forest of Weissenburg (Vissenburgum or Weissenburg on the Nordgau is an imperial city within the bishopric of Eichstätt), once led a most holy life among the cattle and rustic labors: namely, that to rustic maidservants also an immortal example of holiness might be furnished. This Virgin, although she was most devoted to the other works of Christian piety, yet delighted most of all in the almsgiving that was to be bestowed on the poor. To this end she obtained from God by her prayers two most limpid and most wholesome springs, the one leaping forth in an aged willow, the other bubbling out of the earth (in which afterwards a leper was washed and restored to his former health). By these springs both the land and the cattle were made fruitful in a wonderful manner, and brought forth most abundant produce, so that Bl. Gunthild could abundantly relieve the poor without loss to her master.
[10] in the seventeenth century out of painted panels Moreover, among other things it is handed down as beyond doubt that when St. Gunthild on a certain occasion was laden with a jar of milk (namely that she might bestow the milk on the needy), and by chance met her master, and was asked what she was carrying, she answered most humbly that she was carrying lye, and the milk was suddenly turned into lye by divine power. By which miracle God demonstrated the innocence and holiness of the holy Virgin. At length St. Gunthild, full of good works and conspicuous for holiness, commending her soul and her body to God, met a blessed death. Her holy corpse, set upon a wagon perhaps by divine instinct, was drawn most peacefully by untamed oxen as far as the hill of the castle of Suffersheim (now of the Ansbach jurisdiction), was there committed to the earth, and a little afterwards, on account of the frequent miracles wrought there, was honored with a chapel built over it. Thus far he; then he adds those things concerning the body preserved at Suffersheim and concerning the cult of the same Saint which we have already recited above, and finally for all these he praises tradition and the images, in the words recited at num. 4. But let us now see what is to be judged of this eulogy of St. Gunthild.
[11] How ancient that tradition may be which he himself calls continuous and immemorial, and out of tradition, and which he followed in writing, I have not learned from elsewhere; but as regards the images, they are wrongly called most ancient by him, if these are the same as those which we present, received from the most reverend abbot of Plankstetten. For from the eighth panel, to which the year of Christ 1630 is subscribed, it is clear that at this time in which I write they are only 125 years old. Perhaps however these present panels were painted in the said year 1630 from older ones which he praises, and hung in the same church in place of the earlier ones worn out by age. There is a reason for doubting, first, that since Winckler lived in the middle of the seventeenth century, it is not likely that he would have called images painted in his own age most ancient. The second reason is that the present images are painted on one and the same panel, on the testimony of Fr. Maurice Chardon in his manuscript notices, in which he says that they are painted on a very old wooden panel, which still stands entire in the church of Biberbach; whereas Winckler not obscurely insinuates that his were painted partly on the wall, partly on small panels; since he confirms his statements from the most ancient pictures painted on the wall of the church of Piberbach and hanging there. The third reason, finally, is that although the German inscriptions are as to substance the same as those which are read on our panel, and which the praised abbot recites from Winckler, yet they differ in a word here and there: but this too could have happened from the carelessness of the copyists.
[12] From what has been said, gather that that whole eulogy of St. Gunthild can be of but slight and very doubtful authority; it is of slight authority. since it rests on so uncertain a tradition, and on panels perhaps first painted in the century just past, or 125 years ago; whereas St. Gunthild flourished at least five or six centuries earlier. But such as they are, since we had no others, we judged that they ought to be given, both because the Saint's cult is proved from them, and because from them it is clear what the estimation of the people of Piberbach concerning her is, and what sort of tradition they have. In what age St. Gunthild lived I have been able to gather neither from the said eulogy nor from elsewhere. This one thing is certain, that she is not later than the eleventh century, after the middle of which an altar was dedicated to her by Bl. Gundechar, as we proved at num. 5; but how long, or in what century before that time she died, is altogether unexplored.
[13] Jacob Gretser, priest and theologian of the Society of Jesus, Chunihild, abbess in Thuringia, famous for his learned writings and the integrity of his life, in bk. 2 of his Observations on the Life of St. Willibald written by Philip bishop of Eichstätt, chap. 3, believed that St. Gunthild, whom Bl. Gundechar reckoned among the patrons of Eichstätt and invoked in the verse which we gave at num. 5, is Chunihild or Cunihild, whom Othlo in the Life of St. Boniface archbishop of Mainz writes to have been summoned from England by that Saint and given as mistress to the nuns in Thuringia. Let us hear Gretser. The other (who came from England to St. Boniface
came) was Chunihild or Cunihildis, with her daughter Beragith, … whom St. Boniface gave to the Thuringian monasteries as mistresses and governesses. In the book of Gundackar, second bishop of Eichstätt of this name, in which the patrons and bishops of the same church are depicted with an ancient and old-fashioned brush, among the patrons St. Chunihild also is set and painted, with this little verse added:
Be present, kindly Gunthild, with prayer worthy of thee.
Nor is there any reason for anyone to suspect that Gunthild is different from Othlo's Chunihild because of the difference of spelling, since to no one even a little versed in ancient monuments is it obscure how variously such barbarous names are wont to be written. Wherefore neither have I thought that the same manner of writing should be followed everywhere.
[14] whom some believed to have been anciently honored in the diocese of Eichstätt But Cunigildis or Gunthildis seems to be placed among the patrons of Eichstätt because she made rather frequent excursions from Thuringia into these parts; for St. Wunibald also spent three years in Bavaria teaching, preaching, tirelessly instructing the ignorant, and rooting out evil morals and depraved customs, while Utilo then ruled, before he transferred his seat from Thuringia to Heidenheim, as is in the History of Wunibald's life. For those men in the beginning did not lead a stationary life, but wherever necessity urgently demanded help, they presented themselves. So it could happen that the necessity of the convents in which the nuns lived summoned Cunigildis rather often into Bavaria; and by this means she found a place among the patrons of Eichstätt; unless you prefer that it happened because in Thuringia she presided over the monasteries of virgins established under the tutelage of St. Wunibald. Thus far Gretser, with whom agree the author of Thuringia Sacra in the Monuments of the monastery of Ohrdruf §13, Georg Christian Joannis in Serarius's Moguntiaca enlarged and reprinted, bk. 3, note 24, Ménard bk. 2 of Observations on the Benedictine Martyrology at the eighth of December, Arthur in the Gynæceum Sacrum, and Mayhew in the Benedictine Saints of England at the same day.
[15] is a far different person I do not know whether that image of St. Gunthild in the praised book of Bl. Gundechar still appears painted so clearly that it can certainly be discerned whether it represents a handmaid or an abbess. I likewise do not know whether Father Chardon inspected it correctly, who in the manuscript notices given to us expressly wrote: It seems to be certain, or at least it is more likely, that in the book of Gundekar … there is placed and painted among the patrons rather St. Gunthild the cattle-maid than that other governess of the monasteries in Thuringia, and therefore that the little verse added, Tu prece condigna &c., fits not the latter but the former. For my part, if that be doubtful, I do not doubt that it represents the St. Gunthild honored at Piberbach, for reasons which I set before the reader to weigh. It is certain that in the eleventh century some St. Gunthild virgin was honored in the diocese of Eichstätt, as is clear from the altar of St. Ulric confessor of Christ and of St. Gunthild virgin, which we showed at num. 5 to have been consecrated by Bl. Gundechar. Nor are the relics of St. Gundhild, which are said in the passage cited to have been deposited by the same bishop among the relics of holy virgins in another altar, to be judged those of any other than this one. The people of Piberbach likewise call their Patroness Gunthild, and both call her a Virgin, and assert from their tradition that she has been honored in the diocese of Eichstätt now for many centuries.
[16] from St. Gunthild the virgin, who in the eleventh century On the contrary the Thuringian abbess, on the testimony of Othlo himself, from whom she is known, was called Chunihildis, and was not a virgin, but the mother of Beratgit. Let us hear him himself speaking in the Life of St. Boniface archbishop of Mainz and martyr, in Mabillon, Benedictine Century III part 2, p. 42. But the religious women (they were the ones summoned by St. Boniface from Britain into Germany), he says, were namely the maternal aunt of St. Lull, by name Chunihilt, and her daughter Berathgit. And a little after: But Chunihilt and her daughter Berathgit, very learned in liberal knowledge, were established as mistresses in the region of the Thuringians. Whether this Chunihildis ever obtained a cult in the bishopric of Eichstätt is thus far not established for me. Gretser himself inquires only from conjectures for what cause he says she was honored there; and Mabillon, just now praised, reckoned her, as known only from the Acts of St. Boniface, merely among the Pretermitted; but whether she is rightly inscribed in the Martyrologies cited at num. 14 will have to be examined at the eighth of December assigned to her there. We have therefore, first, the name Chunihildis different from Gunthildis: for although barbarous names of this kind are often written variously, yet that this was done here needed to be proved, where the other circumstances of the persons are different. We have, secondly, Chunihildis the mother of Berathgit, not a virgin. We have, thirdly, the ancient cult of St. Gunthild the Virgin in the diocese of Eichstätt certain, but that of Chunihildis the abbess doubtful.
[17] From all these things, further, it is allowable to conclude, first, that Chunihildis the Thuringian abbess is a different person from St. Gunthild the virgin, to whom Bl. Gundechar dedicated an altar, and whose sacred relics he deposited in another altar. was honored there, and is honored to this day. Secondly, that this St. Gunthild is the same as she whom Bl. Gundechar had painted among the patrons of his diocese and called Gunthild. Thirdly and finally, that it is most likely that no other than this one is honored by the people of Piberbach as Gunthild; since her name, her virginity and her cult in the diocese of Eichstätt all persuade it. Wherefore for my part I believe that the learned Gretser would never have thought otherwise, had he been informed of the things we have reported concerning the ancient cult of St. Gunthild the virgin, of whom he seems to have been ignorant. For the rest, I have found that in the Breviary of Eichstätt neither an Office nor any commemoration is made of either of them, nor have I more to say concerning this holy Virgin.