medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I paste below my signature at [*] a copy of Roland
Geiger's message that should be readable by all.
Marjorie Greene wrote:
: In responding to George H., I'd like to make
: a plea that George F. has mentioned at times
: and which, I believe, shows up in the list's
: guidelines. Kindly compose messages in plain
: text.
There were two features of Roland Geiger's interesting
message that might have caused the problem: first, it
was sent using the UTF-8 character set, which is
necessary if one wants to use Unicode but not necessary
for most English and Western European text; and
second, it was sent in "Base 64" encoding, which is a
problem even if one does not use UTF-8.
Both of these produce gibberish in the daily plain-text
(NOMIME) digest of the list, and also in some (mainly
older, but still widely used) e-mail software; and it
is possible to avoid using both by choosing appropriate
settings in one's e-mail software. Choosing an
encoding like ASCII or "Western European (ISO)", and
turning off HTML formatting, will make your messages
more easily readable by more recipients.
Terrence Lockyer
Johannesburg, South Africa
[*] Roland Geiger wrote:
In einer eMail vom 24.02.2008 06:14:17 Westeuropäische
Normalzeit schreibt [log in to unmask]:
: There is a bit about your saint here. It
: may have something new for you:
: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15587c.htm
Hello, Majoree,
I have checked your above mentioned link and found it
... well, typically.
This is the article behind it:
"St. Wendelin of Trier
Born about 554; died probably in 617. His earliest
biographies, two in Latin and two in German, did not
appear until after 1417. Their narrative is the
following: Wendelin was the son of a Scottish king;
after a piously spent youth he secretly left his home
on a pilgrimage to Rome. On his way back he settled as
a hermit in Westricht in the Diocese of Trier. When a
great landowner blamed him for his idle life he entered
this lord's service as a herdsman. Later a miracle
obliged this lord to allow him to return to his
solitude. Wendelin then established a company of
hermits from which sprang the Benedictine Abbey of
Tholey. He was consecrated abbot about 597, according
to the later legends. Tholey was apparently founded as
a collegiate body about 630. It is difficult to say how
far the later biographers are trustworthy. Wendelin was
buried in his cell, and a chapel was built over the
grave. The small town of St. Wendel grew up nearby. The
saint's intercession was powerful in times of
pestilence and contagious diseases among cattle. When
in 1320 a pestilence was checked through the
intercession of the saint, Archbishop Baldwin of Trier
had the chapel rebuilt. Baldwin's successor, Boemund
II, built the present beautiful Gothic church,
dedicated in 1360 and to which the saint's relics were
transferred; since 1506 they have rested in a stone
sarcophagus. Wendelin is the patron saint of country
people and herdsmen and is still venerated in Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland. He is represented in art as a
youth, or as a bearded man, with a shepherd's bag and a
book in one hand and a shepherd's crook in the other;
about him feed lambs, cattle, and swine, while a crown
and a shield are placed at his feet. St. Wendelin is
not mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, but his feast
is observed in the Diocese of Trier on 22 October."
In fact this is what I know:
St. Wendelin of St. Wendel
The only historical data we have about Wendelin comes
from Eberwin, abbot of Tholey and St. Martin (Trier).
Between 994 and 1008 he reported about the life of the
hermit Wandelinus in the Vosagus foret (containing the
Vosges, Hunsrueck Mountains and the Pfaelzer Wald) who
shall have lived during the lifetime of bishop
Magnerich of Trier (568-587) (Acta Sanctorum, Caput IV,
page 31-34 "Gesta episcoporum Virduensium").
Nothing else is know which can be historically proven.
All other data in the above mentioned article originate
from the various legends we have to give the skeleton
in the coffin in St. Wendalinus basilika in St. Wendel
an identity. But there are no facts - just legends.
There are two main versions of the story:
First - dating from 14th century - says that he came
from the North having been a son of a noble (king,
duke, mayor - whatever) who gave up his heritage,
became a priest and wandered to Trier. But he didn't
like living there because of the decadence around. Thus
he walked away and settled in the area of recend St.
Wendel (today capital of St. Wendel county, Saarland,
Germany). He lived as a hermit and became aquainted to
the monks of Tholey. Finally he became their first
abbot. When he died they put his body on a coach and
the oxes pulled it to the spot where he is now burried
and a church had been built over his grave. His
necessary miracle was pushing his walking stick on the
ground and water came out of it. This fountain is still
running at St. Wendel. It is said to be the small
fountain near St. Wendelin's chapel about ten minutes
outside of town. The figure representing that Wendelin
is a monk. It's the figure shown on the tumba.
Second version is different. It dates from about 1450
and most probably was initiated by Nicolaus von Cues
(Cusanus) who was Kommandatar priest at St. Wendel in
that time period.
This Wendelin also was a son of a noble (king, duke,
mayor - whatever) who gave up his heritage but was no
priest. He walked around begging. Once a noble asked
him how about to work. Wendelin took the job and become
his sheperd. The sheep didn't like the grass in the
Hunsrueck mountains but that in the area around recent
St. Wendel, about three days away from the noble's
farm. One day Wendelin's boss was traveling to France
on horseback and returning he met Wendelin with his
sheep. "What are you doing here?" he demanded, "don't
you know I have guests at home and need roast mutton
tonight?" Then he turned and rode home nearly killing
the horse. When he approached to his farm, he saw the
gate wide open and Wendelin leading his herd through
it. He realized that this was a miracle, fell from the
horse and became an upright man. This story contains a
miracle which cannot be beaten (especially as no one in
that time ever had heard about Startrek) and the
message that a common man - one from social low level -
can bring a noble back to believe in God. A powerful
story, wasn't it?
St. Wendelin Parish church - a basilika minor since
1960 - was built from 1340 until 1460. Most probably
there was an older, romanic style church but we don't
know anything about it - just that there must have been
one. The church was build in three phases: first they
attached a choir to the existing Romanic nave. This was
finished in 1360 and the relic was transferred in the
church from nearby St. Magdalenen Chapel. Next was to
do changes in the steeple area. The old entrance - now
a chapel - was replaced (actually this is what we
assume as we know something happened but not what is
was). Finally the old nave was torn down and the new
nave with side aisles was erected (with alterations
initiated by Nikolaus von Kues). This was finished in
1462.
Initiator of the re-building of the church in 1340 was
Balduin of Luxemburg, arch bishop of Trier, not Boemund
II. The relic rests in a coffin made of wood; in 1506
the coffin was badly damaged and removed by another one
made of wood as well. You can see it on display in our
local museum. About then they so-called "Hochgrab" was
created, a stone tube in which the coffin with the
relic was put in. The entrances goes through the altar.
"Hochgrab" because it "sits" about 7 feet high in the
air fixed on one side at the altar, on the other side
at the back wall of the choir.
Thus most of the so-called biographies of Wendelin are
what people from outside of St. Wendel put together
from legends and the small number of facts and are not
trustworthy at all. Lots of books state that the tumba
is the "Hochgrab" thus showing that the authors never
really saw the situation in situ.
One of the best sources about St. Wendel is the book
"St. Wendelin. Leben und Verehrung eines
alemannisch-fränkischen Volksheiligen" by Alois Selzer,
Moedling b. Wien 1962.
Roland Geiger, St. Wendel
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