ST. GERMAN, or GERMANUS, was son of a rich senator of Triers, and
brought up from the cradle under the care of Modoald, bishop of Triers.
At seventeen years of age, he gave all he could dispose of to the poor,
and with Modoald's consent applied himself to St. Arnoul, who having
resigned his dignities of bishop of Metz, and minister of state under
Dagobert, then led an eremitical life in a desert in Lorrain, near
Romberg, or Remiremont. That great saint, charmed with the innocence and
fervor of the tender young nobleman, received him in the most
affectionate manner, and gave him the monastic tonsure. Under such a
master the holy youth made great progress in a spiritual life, and after
some time, having engaged a younger brother, called Numerian, to forsake
the world, he went with him to Romberg, or the monastery of St. Romaric,
a prince of royal blood, who, resigning the first dignity and rank which
he enjoyed in the court of king Theodebert, had founded in his own
castle, in concert with his friend St. Arnoul, a double house, one
larger for nuns, the other less for monks; both known since under the
name of Remiremont, situated on a part of Mount Vosge. St. Romaric died
in 653, and is named in the Roman Martyrology on the 8th of December, on
which his festival is kept at Remiremont, and that of the Blessed Virgin
deferred to the day following. He settled here the rule of Luxeu, or of
St. Columban.[1] St. German made the practices of all manner of
humiliations, penance, and religion, the object of his earnest ambition,
and out of a desire of greater spiritual advancement, after some time
passed with his brother to the monastery of Luxeu, then governed by the
holy abbot, St. Walbert. Duke Gondo, one of the principal lords of
Alsace, having founded a monastery in the diocese of Basil, called the
Great Valley, in German, Granfel, and now more commonly Munster-thal, or
the Monastery of the valley, St. Walbert appointed St. German abbot of
the colony which he settled there. Afterwards the two monasteries of
Ursiein, commonly called St. Ursitz, and of St. Paul Zu-Werd, or of the
island, were also put under his direction, though he usually resided at
Granfel. Catihe, called also Boniface, who succeeded Gondo in the duchy,
inherited no share of his charity and religion, and oppressed both the
monks and poor inhabitants with daily acts of violence and arbitrary
tyranny. The holy abbot bore all private injuries in silence, but often
pleaded the cause of the poor. The duke had thrown the magistrates of
several villages into prison, and many ways distressed the other
inhabitants, laying waste their lands at pleasure, and destroying all
the fruits of their toil, and all the means of their poor subsistence.
As he was one day ravaging their lands and plundering their houses at
the head of a troop of soldiers, St. German went out to meet him, to
entreat him to spare a distressed and innocent people. The duke listened
to his remonstrances and promised to desist; but while the saint stayed
to offer up his prayers in the church of St. Maurice, the {441} soldiers
fell again to killing, burning, and plundering: and while St. German was
on his road to return to Granfel, with his companion Randoald, commonly
called Randaut, they first stripped them, and then, while they were at
their prayers, pierced them both with lances, about the year 666. Their
relics were deposited at Granfel, and were exposed in a rich shrine till
the change of religion, since which time the canonries, into which this
monastery was converted, are removed to Telsberg, or Delmont.
Footnotes:
1. Remiremont was destroyed in the tenth century by the Hungarians or
New Huns, but rebuilt in the reign of Louis III., in the plain
beyond the Moselle, at the bottom of the mountain, where a town is
formed. It has been, if not from its restoration, at least for
several centuries, a noble collegiate church for canonesses, who
make proof of nobility for two hundred years, but can marry if they
resign their p{}ends; except the abbess, who makes solemn religious
vows.