ON SS. CHUNIALDUS AND GISILARIUS, PRESBYTERS,
AT SALZBURG IN GERMANY.
About the middle of the eighth century.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION
On their cult, translations and deeds.
Chunialdus, presbyter, at Salzburg in Germany (S.)
Gisilarius, presbyter, at Salzburg in Germany (S.)
BY C. S.
Among the disciples or companions whom St. Rupert, the apostle of the Bavarians, employed for bringing that nation to Christ and to the orthodox faith, These Saints are set down by some in another month two holy presbyters, Chunialdus and Gisilarius, occur to be commemorated today; not because they are believed to have died on this day, but because, having then been translated, they began already anciently to be venerated, since their birthdays, or days of death, were unknown. Yet few martyrologists set them down today; others announcing either both or one of them on other days. Of these the author of our manuscript Florarium Sanctorum at the day VIII of February has thus in the last place: Of Cunibaldus the confessor and Gislarius the bishop. As to the day Greven agrees, in the Supplements to Usuard in our Sollier, where, better omitting the title of bishop, but also wrongly inserting a soldier between the two, he says: Of Chunibaldus the confessor. Of Mengoldus the soldier. Of Gislarius the presbyter. Whence these men learned of the cult of SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius at this day, I do not know; but among us in the same place, among the Prætermissi, it has already been said that they belong to the present day of September.
[2] David Chalmers, book 3 On the Piety of the Scots, reviewed St. Chunialdus alone at the day XXI of February, and are set down in the Martyrologies on other days, because, as he says, he was venerated on that day in Scotland. Take his words: St. Chunialdus, presbyter and confessor. He was a companion of the pilgrimage and of the merit of that great Rupert, bishop of the church of Salzburg, on whose day of translation, which falls on the eighth of the Kalends of October, the pious memory of Chunialdus also is then celebrated, although in Scotland he was venerated on this day. See also what is said in the Prætermissi at the cited day XXI of February. Henry Fitzsimon in the Catalogue of the Saints of Ireland, printed in the year 1619, likewise announced St. Gisilarius the presbyter alone on the X day of September, praising the Subiaco Martyrology, unknown to me. Thomas Dempster agrees in the Scottish Menology, in which, calling him Gisibarius, he says these words: In Bavaria, of Gisibarius the presbyter, who, sent by St. Rudbert into Britain, returned with a supply of holy men to labor in the Lord's vineyard. And he cites the Carthusian Martyrology, or Canisius', that of Adam Walasser; but what these are, or what they have about him, I do not know; for in the twofold edition of the German Martyrology published under Canisius' name I find nothing about him here. Perhaps he meant to designate Henry Canisius' Ancient Lessons, among which stands the Life of St. Rupert.
[3] and wrongly held to be Scots or Irish, are more correctly announced on this day The same Dempster, from the Scottish or Aberdeen Martyrology, as he notes, reviews the same man again as though another, under another name, on the XII day of the said month of September, in these words: The deposition of Kunialdus, apostle of the Avars, at Salzburg. At last at the XXIV day of the same month he again says: Among the Bavarians, of Gisibarius, apostle of the Avars, disciple of St. Rudbert. Yet it is certain that on all these days none but one and the same St. Gisilarius, presbyter and disciple or companion of St. Rupert, is designated; and when they make him a Scot or Irishman by nation, they rest on the fabulous Life of the same St. Rupert, as we shall say below. Wherefore, if he was ever venerated in Scotland and Ireland as a native Saint, this seems to have arisen from the same or a like source. Filippo Ferrari in the General Catalogue of Saints, following Dempster, likewise mentions him on this day XXIV thus: In Bavaria, of St. Gisibarius, apostle of the Avars. More correctly Ménard and Bucelin announced both together, also on this day, at Salzburg. The first of these has thus in the Benedictine Martyrology: At Salzburg, the Translation of St. Rupert the abbot. On the same day, the solemnity of SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius, presbyters.
[4] But the other, namely Bucelin, in the Menology of his Order celebrates them there with this eulogy: by others, At Salzburg, of SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius, confessors. These were the choicest disciples of that great apostle of the Bavarians, Rupert, and most deserving companions of his apostolic labor, whose Acts have perished; but their memory is kept on this day. That these things are really so, we are taught from various ancient monuments, in which a twofold translation of those Saints made on that day, and the cult then decreed them, and the veneration of their bodies, is asserted. First of all, in the Little Book on the Donations of the Church of Salzburg, published by Henry Canisius, tom. 6 of the Ancient Lessons, pag. 1170, chapter 24 — or, as Marcus Hansiz observes, tom. 2 of Germania sacra, pag. 12, an appendix to the little book, written later than the little book — it has thus: On the eighth of the Kalends of October, the Translation of holy Rudbert the bishop, which was made by bishop Virgilius, who was the eighth from him, with whom he translated
also two of his presbyters, holy Chunialdus and Gisilarius, whose festivity, because it is kept at no other time or day in the year, it was ordained should be celebrated by name on that same day at that very church to which they were translated.
[5] Whose translation was afterward renewed on the same day. On the same day, after the ruin, both when the church had been consecrated and the altars changed, it was repeated by the most blessed and most holy Hartwic, the XXII bishop and XII archbishop; and their bodies were then placed beside the body of their sometime fellow-countryman, the holy father Rudbert. on which they were twice translated The same, with a few words changed, may be read in the History of Salzburg, written and published by Joseph Mezger and his own brothers Franz and Paul, book 6, pag. 1094, where they are noted as taken from manuscript H., fol. 10, at the year 1186, by which perhaps the year in which the codex was written is designated; for either translation is certainly much more ancient. Further, from these it is clear that a twofold translation of the Saints' bodies was made: the first by St. Virgilius, bishop of Salzburg, the second by St. Hartwic, archbishop of the same see. To the former the new cathedral church gave occasion, which, when St. Virgilius had built it to God under the invocation of St. Rupert, he translated the body of that same Saint, or a great part of it, together with the bodies of SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius, to it from the church of St. Peter, in which these, as also the episcopal chair, had hitherto been.
[6] The time of this translation is indicated by a fragment of an old Chronicle in Canisius, tom. 6, the first in the year 773 by St. Virgilius, pag. 1171, where it is read: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation DCCLXXIII the church of holy Rudbert was first dedicated by holy Virgilius the bishop, in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of duke Tassilo. In the same year the same bishop translated holy Rudbert and his two chaplains, blessed Kunialdus and Gisilarius. Papebroch at the day XXVII of March, in St. Rupert, §2, suspected that for the XXVI year of Tassilo perhaps the XVI should be read, and that this coincided with the year of Christ 780; if, as he had premised, Aventinus rightly reckoned up the years of the dukes of the Bavarians; according to whom the death of Odilo, whom Tassilo II succeeded, would have fallen in the year of Christ 765. But Hansiz, tom. 1 of Germania sacra, pag. 132 and following, shows that Odilo, or Utilo, died in the year 748; to which if you add 25 years, there will come out the year of Christ 773, in whose month of September, on the XXIV day, therefore, Tassilo could already have begun the XXVI year of his dukedom. And that that translation happened in the said month and on the said day, we have seen above. Further, since in Canisius, praised at num. 4, it is added that on the same day the dedication of that same church is celebrated, it is likely that this day was chosen for performing the translation, that the dedication of the church might be made more famous by that solemnity also.
[7] then by St. Hartwic, in the year 993; another elevation of St. Gisilarius Hansiz, tom. 2, pag. 164, fixes the restoration of the church, and the second translation of the sacred bodies, undertaken by St. Hartwic as we have said, in the year of Christ 993, praising the disciple of St. Gebhard, from whom he recites the following: He translated also the bodies of the holy Chunialdus and Gisilarius, and laid them beside the body of their sometime fellow-countryman, the holy father Rudbert, on the eighth day of the Kalends of October in the year DCCCCXCIII. But where that writer has these words with the year added, Hansiz did not indicate, nor do I so find it in the Lives of SS. Rupert and Hartwic, of which he is held the author. Another translation again, or deposition, of SS. Rupert, Gisilarius and others, made within the same church in the year 1315 by Weichard, archbishop of Salzburg, the said Hansiz mentions at pag. 445. The words which he there produces from manuscript Chronographers I subjoin. In the year MCCCXV, on the Kalends of August, Weichard opened the tomb of St. Rudbert, and found first the relics of St. Rudbert with the head: likewise of blessed Martin in great quantity: likewise of Vincent, of Hermes the martyr, of Chrysanthus and Daria and Gislarius; which relics on the feast-day of the Nativity of Mary he showed to the people, and on the next following feast of blessed Rudbert, namely of the translation, he dedicated a new altar to blessed Rudbert, and there laid back and hid the aforesaid relics.
[8] in the year 1315 under Weichard, when Plainly the same things, though sometimes in other words, and with Vincent omitted, are read from the ancient manuscript K. in the Mezgers in the History of Salzburg, pag. 1094. But Hansiz besides writes these things: The stone laid over it received this inscription: In the year MCCCXV, on the VIII of the Kalends of October, these relics were laid up here by the lord Wichard, archbishop of Salzburg. On the flat of the stone were cut the names of the Saints whose relics lay beneath: in the middle St. Rupert and St. Martin. In the first corner St. Vincent, in the second St. Hermes, in the third St. Chrysanthus, in the fourth St. Daria. It is not the place here to examine what is to be determined about these relics of the said Saints; yet I observe in passing that the body of that great bishop of Tours, Martin, was not there, as has been proved against the rest in our Work, tom. VI of June, part 1, from pag. 132, where the matter has been treated at length on occasion of St. Hartwic, whose Acts Janning illustrated in the same place in the Supplement of that month. These matters therefore I pass over, and return to our Saints.
[9] the relics of St. Chunialdus were not found or recognized. In the manuscript Chronicle adduced, and in the stone set over the tomb, no mention, as is plain, is made of St. Chunialdus, just as if his body had not been found in St. Rupert's tomb in the aforecited year 1315, while nevertheless the relics of St. Gisilarius were found in it — although, from what was said at num. 7, the bodies of both were laid together beside the body of their sometime fellow-countryman, the holy father Rudbert, on the VIII day of the Kalends of October in the year DCCCCXCIII by St. Hartwic. Hence it seems it must be said that the bones of St. Chunialdus were either confounded with the relics of other Saints enclosed in that same tomb, or taken out of it on an occasion and in a year unknown to us, but yet within that space of time which flowed between the year 993 and the year 1315. Let me here declare my own suspicion. If the people of Salzburg ever obtained any relics of St. Martin of Tours, they were certainly not many. Hence it may be doubted whether those bones which, found in great quantity in the aforesaid tomb, are said to have been St. Martin's of Tours, as they will have it, were not in reality St. Chunialdus', whose sacred relics were laid there before, as is established from what was said above, and which the people of Salzburg afterward too believed rested there. Indeed Johann Stainhauser, in Hansiz, in the archbishop Wolf Dietrich, num. 27, asserts that St. Chunialdus' name was written on a tablet drawn up under Gregory, who held the archbishopric at the end of the XIV century and the beginning of the XV, and hung at the right of St. Rupert's altar, in which were reviewed the names of the Saints whose relics certainly rested there. These things notwithstanding, however, they were not found, or at any rate not recognized, in the finding of the rest, of which I shall presently treat. Yet the body of St. Gisilarius was found, although his name too is not in the stone's inscription reported at num. 8.
[10] Thus far we have treated of the translations of SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius to the church of St. Rupert In the year 1601, the church being destroyed, the body of St. Gisilarius founded by St. Virgilius, and made in it, in which either one of them or both lay until the beginning of the XVII century; when St. Gisilarius was carried thence to another church, on the occasion which I shall now set forth. In the year of Christ 1598 the metropolitan church of St. Rupert at Salzburg was burned by an accidental fire; and when archbishop Wolf Dietrich was planning to substitute a new one for it, he first indeed lightly restored it, but afterward demolished it. On these matters Hansiz may be consulted, in the said archbishop, num. 20 and following, from whom I shall report here only those things which concern today's Saints. At the demolition of the altars Johann Stainhauser was diligently present, from whose relation the said Hansiz borrowed much here, and at num. 26, at the year of Christ 1601, the day XXVI of March, writes these things to our purpose: In the same altar of St. Rupert there was uncovered a peculiar hollow built of squared stones, with a stone fixed before it on which was inscribed: Thou shalt find seven. Which being removed, there appeared seven square leaden chests, four feet wide, which contained the remains of as many Saints: of Rupert, Martin, Vincent, Chrysanthus, Hermes, Daria and Gisilarius. Again six other little chests, not exceeding the size of an inkstand, of which one was of gold, two of silver, three of lead: in them were relics, but no indication at all of what Saints.
[11] Careful search was made, he continues after a little, for the remaining bodies of the Saints was found there, but not that of St. Chunialdus. in the possession of which the church of Salzburg had hitherto gloried; but nothing was found. Johann Stainhauser, who was present at all this business and gave much labor that the hidden things of the crypt beneath the choir might be dug out to the bottom, so that all the bodies of the Saints buried there might come to light, grieves and groans that in this matter his wish was not sufficiently complied with: for of so many sacred bodies which had hitherto been kept at Salzburg, on the witness of the tablet written under archbishop Gregory, from which the same Stainhauser had transcribed, in this destruction of the basilica, besides those seven discovered in the chamber of St. Rupert, the remaining five (among which St. Chunialdus' is said to have been) remained in obscurity. Again at num. 27 Stainhauser confesses that, the church being now taken down, among others the body of St. Chunialdus was by no means found, all parts of the basilica and its monuments having been searched in vain, as he adds; except that in the crypt they left off a little from further searching, which if it had perhaps been employed, there was hope of finding the treasure that was sought… But indeed all hoped that they would be found in St. Rupert's vault, in which hope however we were frustrated. Thus far Stainhauser; whence we learn that Chunialdus' sacred body lies hidden, or at any rate was not recognized.
[12] The body of St. Gisilarius, not of Chunialdus, to the chapel of St. Magdalen, Of St. Gisilarius' relics, and of the others found together with them, Hansiz had premised at num. 26: The seven larger urns (about which see above at num. 10), being opened and recognized, were translated to the most elegant chapel of St. Magdalen in the palace. Mezger, book 1, chapter XI of the History of Salzburg, refers the destruction of the said church to the year 1602, and speaks as though the body of St. Chunialdus, as well as the relics of the rest, had been found there. It is established, he says, that their sacred bones also, of those whom we have named, together with several relics of SS. Martin, Chrysanthus, Daria, Vincent and Hermes, rested in the same tomb, until archbishop Wolf Dietrich at the beginning of this century — namely in the year MDCII, when the metropolitan church had been laid waste by fire — transferred them from the sacred body of Rupert
laid them in separate caskets, and placed them in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen. Thus he; who, besides that he numbers St. Chunialdus' body among those found, seems also to have believed that the bodies of SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius, and the other bodies of the Saints whom he reviewed, lay not only in the same tomb or monument, but also in the same shrine with St. Rupert's relics in the metropolitan church until Dietrich's times; which last is plainly false from Stainhauser, whose credit, as of an eyewitness, is much the stronger.
[13] and was afterward translated to the palace oratory among the Franciscans. What was afterward done with those same sacred bodies, the cited Mezger subjoined after the words just recited: Whence (from the chapel of St. Magdalen) they were again translated into the palace oratory, which adjoins the parish church, now of the Franciscan Fathers, and there to this day they are laid up beneath an altar skilfully fashioned of ebony and silver. Mezger wrote these things at the end of the XVII century, and I do not know whether they were afterward removed hence. That among these, however, the body of St. Chunialdus was not, is manifestly gathered from the same History. For in book 6, among the Collectanea, pag. 1093, it is again read: There is kept today the body of St. Gisilarius in a copper casket beneath the altar of the palace oratory among the Franciscan Fathers; but of St. Chunialdus' relics not a word. At pag. 1128 also, and the two following, are reviewed the more notable relics which are kept in the metropolitan church of Salzburg built by the said Wolf Dietrich, and those which are kept beneath the altar of the palace oratory among the Reverend Franciscan Fathers; and in the list of the latter there stands in the first place: In a copper tomb is contained the body of St. Gisilarius the levite, translated by Wolf Dietrich, the cathedral church being destroyed, in the year MDCII; and neither here nor elsewhere do I find any further mention made in the Mezgers of St. Chunialdus' body after the ruin of the aforesaid old metropolitan church.
[14] The relics of both Saints enclosed in various altars; At pag. 1096 however he mentions various altars in which some relics of both Saints were enclosed, both before and after the demolition of that same old church. This catalogue it has seemed good to append here in the same words. It has thus:
The relics of SS. Gislarius and Chunialdus were laid in the following altars.
In the high altar of St. Peter in the year MCXLIII. So manuscript T. under num. 11.
In the altar at the Holy Cross in the year MCCXXXIV. So manuscript T. under num. 23.
Relics of St. Gislarius only.
In the altar of St. Paul beside the abbey in the year MCCCIV. Ms. T. n. 3.
In the altar of the Holy Trinity, now the Carmelite one, in the year MCCCXXVI. Ms. T. n. 5.
In the altar of St. Catherine in the year MCCXXVII. Ms. T. n. 7.
In the altar of St. Vincent in the year MCCLXXI. Ms. T. n. 10.
In the high altar in the year MDCVII. Ms. T. n. 27.
Relics of St. Chunialdus only.
In the altar of the Holy Spirit in the year MCCXLIV. Ms. T. n. 8.
In the altar of the Holy Cross in the cemetery in the year MCLXX. Ms. T. n. 20.
In the altar of the Holy Spirit in the year MDVI. Ms. T. n. 22.
In the altar of St. Rupert in the year MDCLXV. Ms. T. n. 44.
In the old cathedral Church.
In the year MCCLXXIV the relics of both were laid in the high altar. Ms. E. fol. 84.
In the year MCCCXCI in the altar of St. Nicholas. Ms. E. fol. 144.
In the year MCCCXXXIV the relics of St. Gislarius are laid in the altar of All Saints. Ms. E. fol. 110.
[15] So much for the relics of SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius held in honor at Salzburg; and their memory in the Ecclesiastical Office, of their memory in the ecclesiastical Office the following may be read in the same place, pag. 1095: From an ancient manuscript Breviary. Likewise from the Breviary printed under archbishop Leonard. At the first Vespers of the translation of St. Rupert, a commemoration of SS. Chunialdus and Gislarius.
Antiphon. The just shall shine forth, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds; they shall judge the nations, and shall reign for ever.
℣. Let thy priests be clothed with justice.
℞. And let thy Saints rejoice.
Collect. O God, the glory of thy priests, grant, we beseech thee, that we who venerate the birthdays of thy blessed confessors Chunialdus and Gislarius may feel their help. Through our Lord, etc.
Antiphon at Lauds. The bodies of the Saints are buried in peace, and their names shall live for ever.
Versicle and collect as above. Then there is subjoined, from an ancient Missal printed at Salzburg in the year MDXV: On the same day (that is, says the editor, of the Translation of St. Rupert) of Kunialdus and Gislarius. Collect: Of thy holy Confessors, etc., from the common of several confessors.
[16] So there: but I do not know whether, after St. Gisilarius' body was translated to the Franciscan Fathers, the memory of those Saints is still celebrated in the metropolitan church. which is not found in the more recent ones. Their deeds are obscure. Certainly in the Propers of the Saints of that same archdiocese of Salzburg, published at Salzburg in the years 1647 and 1728, which I have in hand, I find no commemoration of them, nor have I learned from elsewhere whether this is made in the said oratory of the Franciscan Fathers, where we have said St. Gisilarius' body was laid. Nevertheless what I have produced hitherto makes their ancient as well as their more recent cult beyond doubt, which I have judged should be set forth the more at length in proportion as their deeds are the more unknown — which, if ever they were committed to writing, Bucelin rightly said above have perished. This one thing we know about them, that they were presbyters, companions and helpers of St. Rupert in the conversion of the Bavarians. So we learn from the ancient Life of the same St. Rupert, published both by others and by our Papebroch from a Florentine manuscript and from Canisius' ancient Lessons at the day XXVII of March, with which in this part the constant tradition of the people of Salzburg agrees, and the more recent writers who have made mention of them.
[17] Brought by St. Rupert into Bavaria, That anonymous author, after he had narrated that Theodo, duke of the Bavarians, together with his nobles and a great multitude of the people, was cleansed by the saving baptism from St. Rupert, that the bishopric of Juvavum was erected by him, and that other illustrious things were done; after relating the death of the same Theodo, and the goodwill of Theodebert his successor toward his holy apostle, proceeds thus to our purpose, chapter 2, num. 9: These things being so done, the man of God (St. Rupert), seeing that the summit of the Bavarian dignity had subjected itself to Christ's yoke, but that many were left entangled in the error of heathenism, went back to his own country, and thence, with twelve companions chosen by him for preaching (among whom were the eminent Kunialdus and St. Gisilarius, both presbyters, both holy men), and bringing with him the virgin of Christ Erendruda, his niece, returns as it were with so many lights to the city of Juvavum. But in the Annotations there Papebroch observes that for Kunialdus and Gisilarius there is read in the Florentine manuscript Chryso and Ciselarius. Hansiz, in St. Rupert, pag. 45, adds besides that in manuscripts there stands blessed Chumaldus and holy Chisilarius; but in the Lombard ones Crisantus, Cisilarius. Yet there is no doubt that the published reading is the better, which is also found in manuscript U. in the ancient Lessons which were formerly said on the feast of St. Rupert, on Mezger's witness, book 6, pag. 1094.
[18] in the converting of the Noricans Returning with these into Bavaria, St. Rupert set Erendruda, whose deeds have been illustrated among us at the day XXX of June, over the nuns as abbess, and employed the rest as companions in undertaking his apostolic labors. These things therefore being accomplished, (the said biographer continues at num. 10) that blessed man, striving with the help of the supreme Pontiff to bring the begun work of great preaching to perfection, resolved to go about the realms of Noricum, with a band of his disciples accompanying him, and going forth from the city of Juvavum, and visiting the nations upon whom the light of faith had not yet shone, he sowed among them the wheat of belief, the cockle perishing. For when the barbarian guests of diabolic deception had been put to flight from their hearts, he brought in thither faith, charity, mercy, humility, through which Christ, the bestower and origin of all goods, is wont peacefully to enter the dwelling of the human mind. And when he thus went about the borders of the Bavarians and had converted all to the faith of Christ, he admonished them to remain steadfast in the faith; and leaving there presbyters and men full of God, who should accustom the people to the divine mysteries, he strove himself to return to the city of Juvavum; because, filled with a prophetic spirit, he foreknew that the day of his calling was at hand, which he foretold to his disciples, etc.
[19] they give vigorous labor with happy success. From these things it may be gathered that these two holy Presbyters, who are said to have been eminent among those twelve helpers of St. Rupert, vigorously fulfilled their part in bringing the Noricans to Christ, and that it is to be regretted that their illustrious deeds were committed to writing by none of the ancients, or, if they were committed, have not come down to us. Nor do the modern writers produce more about them, among whom Matthäus Rader, tom. 3 of Bavaria sacra, celebrated their apostolic labors in these verses:
You who joined your help to Rupert, two stars of the Godhead, And together filled the realms of Noricum with God; For in the whole nation the colossi of Jove fell, And there fell likewise the very messenger of Jove: Alcides lost his club, Gradivus his spear, And the remaining gods turned their backs on you; You conquered Tartarus, you overcame the walls of heaven, Your labor could go no further.
Since therefore we have nothing else about those Saints, it only remains that we observe some things concerning the few matters we have recited.
[20] In the shorter Life of St. Rupert, on which Hansiz commented as though on the original, They were by nation Franks or Germans, the companions' names are indeed not expressed, but nevertheless these too are said to have been twelve in number, and brought by St. Rupert from his own country. Then the aforesaid teacher Rodbert, (says the writer of that Life) desiring to obtain some companions for the doctrine of the Gospel truth, sought again his own country; and returning again with twelve disciples, and bringing with him the virgin of Christ, by name Erendruda, etc. The disciple of St. Gebhard also, reported at num. 7, calls St. Rupert the compatriot, or fellow-countryman, of SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius; so that they must altogether be said to have had a common country with St. Rupert. Now this Saint was, on the witness of the same Life, and with two others published by Papebroch agreeing, sprung from the royal stock of the Franks; and he held the bishopric at Worms in the present Lower Palatinate before, invited by Theodo II, he came into Bavaria. Hence his country must be believed to have been nowhere else than in Germany, or Eastern France. It is also most likely that the holy bishop sought the aforesaid succor of apostolic men from nowhere else than from the diocese of Worms, in which, while he held the bishopric, he could have known those whom he afterward chose as his companions.
[21] That Rupert however was born in Ireland, John Colgan in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland for the month of March, not Scots or Irish, as has pleased some. and Charles Le Cointe, tom. 2 of the Annals
at the year of Christ 582, num. 16, and others have judged. Consequently upon this they have also related that SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius were Irishmen and were brought from Ireland into Bavaria by the same holy bishop; and the Scottish and Irish martyrologists produced at num. 2 and 3 have each ascribed them to their own native Saints. Matthäus Rader, tom. 1 of Bavaria sancta, pag. 40, had said that the country of the said holy bishop was Gaul; but afterward in the Animadversions added to tom. 1 after tom. 3, he advised that there should be substituted old… Scotia, which is also called the island of Ibernia. Hence in the same tom. 3, pag. 32, he indeed acknowledges that SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius were summoned by St. Rupert from Eastern France to convert the Noricans, but yet says they were born in old Scotia, or Ibernia. All these men, as I noted above, rest on the more recent and fabulous Life of St. Rupert, published by Canisius, tom. 6 of the Ancient Lessons, pag. 1107, in which he is said not only to have been born in Ireland but even, by a monstrous anachronism, to have been baptized by St. Patrick. Go to Papebroch at the day XXVII of March in the preliminary Commentary to the Life of the same St. Rupert, §1, where he deservedly rejected that Life as fabulous, and claimed a German or Frankish country for the holy Apostles of the Bavarians of whom we are treating. I add only this here, that that Life must be held the more fabulous in proportion as it is now established, by the opinion of the learned, that Rupert's age is more remote from Patrick's. To Papebroch's censure Hansiz assents, who judged that the same Life should be called fabulous.
[22] From what has been said above it is likewise established that both, namely Chunialdus and Gisilarius, Their Benedictine monasticism is not proved, nor St. Chunialdus' were presbyters, and probably summoned from the diocese of Worms. But I do not know by what argument Ménard and Bucelin wished to claim them for their own Order, when they inscribed them in the Benedictine Martyrologies. Perhaps because they held it for certain that St. Rupert was a Benedictine monk; but this itself is plainly doubtful, nor, if it were certain, would it follow that all whom he, being already bishop, took as companions in his apostolic labors were also monks and of the same Order. Hansiz, pag. 45, supposes that Chunialdus at one time lived in matrimony, because in the Brief Notices, or in the Little Book of the donations of the church of Juvavum, chapter 7, published in the same author in the Prolegomena, pag. 23, in the suit of St. Virgilius, bishop of the same see, against Ursus the presbyter, there is read among the witnesses Isinhardus, a noble man and the little son (filiolus) of the blessed old man Chunialdus the presbyter. It is not to be doubted that by the blessed old man Chunialdus the presbyter our Saint is designated: but I would not dare from this to infer his marriage with certainty; since Isinhardus could be called his filiolus because he had been baptized by him, or lifted by him from the sacred font.
[23] marriage: they came into Bavaria Indeed both the word itself and the sentence of the instrument readily admit this interpretation. For thus it is read there: And certain of those who said these things to him were disciples of St. Rudbert and of his juniors; certain were godsons, among whom was Isinhardus, a noble man and the godson of the blessed old man Chunialdus the presbyter, and Maternus, and Dignolus also, a disciple of St. Rudbert. If however that same word must be taken of natural procreation, it will consequently have to be said that St. Chunialdus was born of a noble family, and that he begot more children than one before he was initiated into holy Orders, or that not he alone of St. Rupert's disciples was at one time married. The time in which these Saints flourished is clear from the age of St. Rupert, whose death our Papebroch, from the common error of his own time, referred to the XXIII or XXVIII year of the VII century, whereas it must be tied to the VIII century when young or full-grown, as at the day VIII of this month of September, in St. Corbinian, §4, we have shown after others. Further, the coming of SS. Chunialdus, Gisilarius, Erendruda and their companions into Bavaria the biographer of St. Rupert, praised at num. 17, expressly places after the death of Theodo and under his son and successor Theodebert; and with him agree the Annotation of Arno, num. 15, in Hansiz, pag. 17, and the other little book of donations, chapter 3, in the same place, pag. 21, because they asseverate that the monastery over which St. Rupert set the St. Erendruda whom he had brought was founded by the munificence and counsel of duke Theodebert.
[24] about the year 717; The death of Theodo II we have in the cited Commentary on St. Corbinian more probably referred to the year of Christ 717, before which accordingly the coming of the same Saints cannot be placed. Of St. Rupert's year of death Hansiz discourses at length, and holds that it fell in the year of Christ 718, on the day XXVII of March, on which Easter was then celebrated; because in the original Life the Saint is said to have died on the day of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the day XXVII of March is held from the Salzburg tradition as his day of death. Which if it be so, our Saints lived so short a time with their holy bishop Rupert among the Noricans that it seems scarcely, or not even scarcely, to suffice for accomplishing those things which St. Rupert is narrated in the Lives to have illustriously done after their coming. But these matters may be examined in the Supplement of our Work at the day XXVII of March, where what was ill asserted among us about that Saint's date, from the common error of his time, must be brought to the file.
[25] Further, how long SS. Chunialdus and Gisilarius survived their bishop, but when they met death is not known. or in what year they died, cannot even by conjecture be approximately determined. For I have seen no mention anywhere made of their death before the times of the episcopate of St. Virgilius, whose beginning Hansiz, pag. 78, judges must be referred to about the year 745, and about which he also places his suit with Ursus, in which, since above at num. 23 the godson of the blessed old man Chunialdus the presbyter appears among the witnesses, it is likely that he had already died. For the rest, that the sacred bodies of both were translated in the year 773 by the same St. Virgilius, has been proved at num. 6. Hence I have written in the margin the time of their death as about the middle of the VIII century, which however I would have taken with a great latitude of years. More things to be recorded about these Saints I have not.