HE was by birth a Frenchman, and of royal blood; but still more
illustrious for his learning, and the extraordinary virtues he practised
from his youth. He exercised himself is austere fasting, watching, and
other mortifications; was a great lover of chastity and temperance; and
so charitable as always to impoverish himself to enrich the poor. His
reputation drew persons from remote provinces to receive his advice and
instructions. He removed all their doubts and scruples, comforted the
afflicted, cured the sick, and healed the disorders of souls. So
distinguished a merit raised him to the episcopal see of Worms. But that
people, being for the most part idolaters, could not bear the lustre of
such a sanctity, which condemned their irregularities and superstitions.
They beat him with rods, loaded him with all manner of outrages, and
expelled him the city. But God prepared for him another harvest.
Theodon, duke of Bavaria, hearing of his reputation and miracles, sent
messengers to him, earnestly beseeching him to come and preach the
gospel to the Baioarians, or Bavarians. This happened two years after
his expulsion from Worms: during which interval he had made a journey to
Rome. He was received at Ratisbon by Theodon and his court with all
possible distinction, in 697, and found the hearts both of the nobles
and people docile to the word of God. The Christian faith had been
planted in that country two hundred years before, by St. Severinus, the
apostle of Noricum. After his death, heresies and heathenish
superstitions had entirely extinguished the light of the gospel.
Bagintrude, sister of duke Theodon, being a Christian, disposed her
brother and the whole country to receive the faith. Rupert, with the
help of other zealous priests, whom he had brought with him, instructed,
and, after a general fast, baptized, the duke Theodon and the lords and
people of the whole country. God confirmed his preaching by many
miracles. He converted also to Christianity the neighboring nations.
After Ratisbon, the capital, the second chief seat of his labors was
Laureacum, now called Lorch,[1] where he healed several diseases by
prayer, and made many converts. However, it was not Lorch, nor the old
Reginum, thence called Regensbourg, now Ratisbon, the capital of all
those provinces, that was pitched upon to be the seat of the saint's
bishopric, but old Juvavia, then almost in ruins, since rebuilt and
called Saltzbourg. The duke Theodon adorned and enriched it with many
magnificent donations, which enabled St. Rupert to found there several
rich churches and monasteries. After the prince's death, his son
Theodebert, or Diotper, inheriting his zeal and piety, augmented
considerably the revenues of this church. St. Rupert took a journey into
France to procure a new supply of able laborers, and brought back to
Saltzbourg twelve holy missionaries, with his niece St. Erentrude, a
virgin consecrated to God, for whom he built a great monastery, called
Nunberg, of which {669} she was the first abbess.[2] St. Rupert labored
several years in this see, and died happily on Easter-day, which fell
that year on the 27th of March, after he had said mass and preached; on
which day the Roman and other Martyrologies mention him. His principal
festival is kept with the greatest solemnity in Austria and Bavaria on
the 25th of September, the day of one of the translations of his relics,
which are kept in the church under his name in Saltzbourg. Mabillon and
Bulteau, upon no slight grounds, think this saint to have lived a whole
century later than is commonly supposed, and that he founded the church
of Saltzbourg about the year 700. See his life, published by Canisius,
Henschenius, and Mabillon, with the notes of the last-mentioned editor.
Footnotes:
1. A village on the Danube in the midway between Ratisbon and Vienna,
the capital of eastern Bavaria, at present Austria.
2. The bishop of Saltzbourg was, under Charlemagne, made an archbishop
and metropolitan of Bavaria, Austria, and its hereditary
territories. He is one of the first ecclesiastical princes of the
empire, and is elected by the canons of the cathedral, who are all
of noble extraction.