medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
A tenth-century monk called Alaric of Ufnau is said to be recorded in the necrology of Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln (Kanton Schwyz). By ca. 1075 a monk of this name from Einsiedeln who had been divinely prompted to become an hermit on the island of Ufnau or Ufenau (also in Kanton Schwyz) in Lake Zurich was enough of a figure of local memory/legend that the author of the Vita secunda of St. Wiborada (BHL 8867) has him present at St. Gallen and urging Wiborada (d. 925 or 926) to be more careful of her health. By the fourteenth century, according to records from that century from Ufnau, his name was Adelricus (in German: Adelrich, the name by which he is generally known in Switzerland, and Adalrich); he had a cult on the island and was said to have settled on it with his mother Regelinde (Reginlinde), the last wife of the genealogically significant duke Burchard I of Swabia.
Ufnau was given to Einsiedeln abbey in 965 by Otto I. It has two medieval churches, restored in 2007/08: the seemingly originally tenth-century Sankt Martinskapelle (sometimes dated to the seventh or eighth century; previously restored, 1964/65) and the originally twelfth-century Kirche Sankt Peter und Paul (1141/42; later medieval additions; previously restored, 1959). The latter, a replacement for a predecessor of the same dedication first documented from 970, has been shown archeologically to be built over the remains of a Gallo-Roman temple. Here's a view of the island with the St. Martinskapelle at left and the Kirche St. Peter und Paul at right:
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Adalrich-Insel_Ufenau.jpg
Other views of the Kirche St. Peter und Paul:
http://www.kraftplätze.ch/images/ufenau_kirche.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/ydtrxqx
http://tinyurl.com/yctpg58
This interior view of the St. Martinskapelle shows in the foreground Alaric's seventeenth-century tomb recording an Elevatio of 1663:
http://tinyurl.com/yafa8so
Alaric's relics are no longer there. They are said to have been lost during a war in the eighteenth century. Relics of Alaric (perhaps from the Kirche St. Peter und Paul) are also said to have been removed from the island in 1959 and brought to the abbey of Einsiedeln.
Alaric of Ufnau's feast day in Einsiedeln and in Freienbach (Kanton Schwyz) is 28. September. Today (29. December) is his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Alaric of Ufnau as depicted in a fifteenth-century fresco (restored in 2007-2008) in the Kirche St. Peter und Paul on Ufnau:
http://tinyurl.com/jbpum8o
Best,
John Dillon
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