Wendelin of Trier

Last updated

Saint Wendelin of Trier
St. Wendelin by Martin Schaffner - Staatsgalerie - Stuttgart - Germany 2017.jpg
Picture of St Wendelin in Staatsgalerie Stuttgart art museum
Bornc. 554
Scotland
Diedc. 617
Sankt Wendel, Saarland, Germany
Venerated in Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Canonized Pre-Congregation
Feast 22 October
Patronage country folk, herdsmen

Saint Wendelin of Trier (Latin : Vendelinus; c. 554 - c. 617 AD) was a hermit and abbot. His cultus is wide-spread in German-speaking areas. He is a patron of country folk and herdsmen. He is honored on October 22.

Contents

Life

Because no information about him was available, a biography was written in the Middle Ages, which is based purely on legendary data and tells not so much the life of Saint Wendelinus, but rather how the medieval man of that time imagined the life of a holy hermit from earlier times. [1] There is very little definite information about this saint; his earliest biographies (two in Latin and two in German), did not appear until after 1417. The name "Wendelin" means "wanderer" or "pilgrim" in Old High German. The biographies state that Wendelin was the son of a Scottish king who led a pious life as a youth before leaving his home in secret to make a pilgrimage to Rome. On his way back he settled as a hermit at Westrich in the Diocese of Trier. [2]

One day when he went to Treves to perform his devotions, and begged his bread from house to house, a nobleman who saw him, and reproved him with great vehemence, saying that begging was the result of laziness and a disorderly life. Wendelin entered his service as a herdsman, but a miracle led the landowner to allow him to return to his solitude. [3]

Wendelin then established a company of hermits from which sprang the Benedictine Abbey of Tholey in Saarland. It is not clear whether Tholey arose from his hermitage, or whether he left his hermitage to become abbot in Tholey. [1] He was consecrated abbot in approximately 597, according to the later legends, while Tholey was apparently founded as a collegiate body about 630. It is difficult to say how far the later biographers are trustworthy. [3]

Legend

Saint-Wendelin , Eglise Saint-Gall, Niedermorschwihr StGall Niedermorschwihr StGall 21.JPG
Saint-Wendelin , Église Saint-Gall, Niedermorschwihr StGall

The story is told that when Wendelin was working as a herdsman he often took his flock to a mountain to pray there in silence. The sheep thrived under his care, and jealous servants reported that he drove the sheep to a field so far distant that they were exhausted when they returned to the fold. The master coming upon him there, was angry because he could not imagine that Wendelin had time to get the flock home before sunset. However, when the master arrived home on horseback he discovered the shepherd and his flock already there. Realizing that this was a miracle from God he granted Wendelin his greatest desire and built him his own hermit cell in the vicinity of the farm. [4]

Death and veneration

Wendelin was buried in his cell, and a chapel was built over the grave and the small town of Sankt Wendel grew up nearby. The saint's intercession was considered powerful in times of pestilence and contagious diseases among cattle. When in 1320 a pestilence was checked through the intercession of the saint, Baldwin, Archbishop of Trier had the chapel rebuilt. Baldwin's successor, Bohemond II, built the present beautiful Gothic church, dedicated in 1360, to which the saint's relics were transferred. Since 1506 they have rested in a stone sarcophagus. [3] People make a pilgrimage to Wendalinus basilica on St. Wendelin's day in October.

Wendelin is the patron saint of country people and herdsmen [5] and is still venerated in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Africa. Saint Wendelin's feast is observed in the Diocese of Trier on 22 October, but in the Roman Martyrology on 21 October. [6]

St Vendel was celebrated in Hungary.


Two statues celebrating Saint Vendel and Saint Florian are in a small square in Zalavar village.  They sit on separate similar plinths next to each other. (This arrangement and the style of the statues appears to be in the period 1900-193)0.

The statues are not outside the village churches. Many villages in west Hungary have two christian churches - catholic and protestant.)

Before 1920 german was the dominant language in hundreds of villages in Hungary, although Zalavar appears to be not in the main german speaking areas.

A Zalavar monument listing people who died in World Wars 1 & 2 has two or three names of german origin. Zalavar cemetery has very few graves displaying names of german origin.

n the oldest section of the cemetery furthest from the r,oad most graves have no headstone.

Sacred Heart Church in Perkinsville, New York holds a relic of Wendelin. In 2017, a German film crew visited the hamlet while making a documentary about the saint. [7]

Iconography

He is represented in art as either a youth or a bearded man, with a shepherd's bag and a book in one hand and a shepherd's crook in the other. He is often pictured with feeding lambs, cattle, and swine, while a crown and a shield appear at his feet.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Giles</span> Christian hermit

Saint Giles, also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 7th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly legendary. A town that bears his name grew up around the monastery he purportedly founded, which became a pilgrimage centre and a stop on the Way of Saint James. He is traditionally one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romuald</span> Founder of the Camaldolese order

Romuald was the founder of the Camaldolese order and a major figure in the eleventh-century "Renaissance of eremitical asceticism". Romuald spent about 30 years traversing Italy, founding and reforming monasteries and hermitages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Florian</span> Christian saint (250–304)

Florian was a Christian holy man and the patron saint of chimney sweeps; soapmakers, and firefighters. His feast day is 4 May. Florian is also the patron saint of Poland, the city of Linz, Austria, and Upper Austria, jointly with Leopold III, Margrave of Austria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camaldolese</span> Monastic communities of the Order of St Benedict

The Camaldolese Hermits of Mount Corona, commonly called Camaldolese, is a monastic order of Pontifical Right for men founded by Saint Romuald. Its name is derived from the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli, high in the mountains of central Italy, near the city of Arezzo. Its members add the nominal letters E.C.M.C. after their names to indicate their membership in the congregation. Apart from the Roman Catholic monasteries, in recent times ecumenical Christian hermitages with a Camaldolese spirituality have arisen as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolfgang of Regensburg</span> German saint

Wolfgang of Regensburg was bishop of Regensburg in Bavaria from Christmas 972 until his death. He is a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. He is regarded as one of the three great German saints of the 10th century, the other two being Ulrich of Augsburg and Conrad of Constance. Towards the end of his life Wolfgang withdrew as a hermit to a solitary spot, in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria. Soon after Wolfgang's death many churches chose him as their patron saint, and various towns were named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Fiacre</span> Name of three different Irish saints

Fiacre is the name of three different Irish saints, the most famous of which is Fiacre of Breuil, the priest, abbot, hermit, and gardener of the seventh century who was famous for his sanctity and skill in curing infirmities. He emigrated from his native Ireland to France, where he constructed for himself a hermitage together with a vegetable and herb garden, oratory, and hospice for travellers. He is the patron saint of gardeners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charbel Makhlouf</span> 19th-century Lebanese Maronite monk and saint

Charbel Makhlouf, O.L.M., born Youssef Antoun Makhlouf and venerated as Saint Charbel, was a Maronite monk and priest from modern-day Lebanon. During his life, he obtained a wide reputation for holiness, and for his ability to unite Christians, Muslims and Druze.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sankt Wendel</span> Town in Saarland, Germany

Sankt Wendel is a town in northeastern Saarland. It is situated on the river Blies 36 km northeast of Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland, and is named after Saint Wendelin of Trier. According to a survey by the German Association for Housing, Town Planning and Land Use Regulation, St. Wendel is known to be one of the wealthiest regions in Germany, behind Starnberg in Bavaria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tholey Abbey</span>

Tholey Abbey in Tholey, in the district of Sankt Wendel in Saarland, is a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint Maurice. It is part of the Beuronese Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meinrad of Einsiedeln</span>

Meinrad, OSB was a German Benedictine hermit and is revered as a Catholic and Orthodox saint. He is known as the "Martyr of Hospitality". His feast day is 21 January.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Lady of the Enclosed Garden</span>

The Roman Catholic hermitage of Our Lady of the Enclosed Garden is situated in the former Reformed church of Warfhuizen, a village in the province of Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands. It is the only Dutch hermitage currently inhabited by a hermit. The name draws upon the traditional epithet for the Virgin Mary of hortus conclusus or enclosed garden, a reference to the Song of Songs that indicates Mary’a “perpetual virginity and at the same time her fruitful maternity.”

Gunther was a German (Bavarian) Catholic hermit and diplomat, who had quite important role in early history of Hungary and especially Bohemia, thanks to his good personal relationships with the rulers of those countries. In Czech, German and Hungarian settings is venerated as a saint although he never had been officially canonized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erhard of Regensburg</span> Seventh century bishop and saint

Saint Erhard of Regensburg was bishop of Regensburg in the 7th century. He is identified with an Abbot Erhard of Ebersheimmunster mentioned in a Merovingian diploma of 684. Ancient documents call him also Erard and Herhard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erentrude</span> Roman Catholic saint (died 718)

Erentrude was a saint and abbess, born during the end of the 7th century, probably in present-day Germany or Austria. She was born into a Franconian-Merovingian royal house, and was the niece of Rupert of Salzburg. She left her home country to assist Rupert in establishing religious communities in Salzburg; in about 700, he built a convent, Nonnberg Abbey, and installed her as its first abbess. She and the nuns at Nonnberg served the poor, needy, and ill, striking a balance between living as cloistered nuns and engaging in charitable works. Erentrude died on 30 June 718. Her fame for healing miracles and intercession grew after her death, and many legends have arisen throughout the centuries since her death. In 2006, Erentrude's image appeared on the Austrian Nonnberg Abbey commemorative coin. Her feast day is celebrated on 30 June.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Procopius of Sázava</span> Czech hermit

Saint Procopius of Sázava was a canon and hermit, canonized as a saint of the Catholic church in 1204.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gelenberg</span> Municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Gelenberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kelberg, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Matthias' Abbey</span> Benedictine monastery in Trier, Germany

St. Matthias' Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symeon of Trier</span> German monk and recluse (d. 1035)

Saint Simeon of Trier, also written as Symeon, was a monk and recluse who died in Germany in 1035. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church with his feast day on 1 May, as well as in the Catholic Church, particularly in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Wendelin's Chapel</span>

The small St. Wendelin's Chapel is located about 750 metres east of St. Odile above the Musbach valley, Germany, on the Small Roßkopf, a spur of the Roßkopf, at a height of 540 m. It belongs to the parish of St. Hilarius in Freiburg's suburb Ebnet. It is named after Saint Wendelin, a king's son who lived as a shepherd and hermit. Wendelin is the patron saint of shepherds and flocks. According to the documents of the Capuchins the first chapel was built of wood in 1723 and served the herdsmen from Ebnet also as a protection against storms. Pilgrims who went from Freiburg over the Roßkopf to St. Peter used this chapel as a shelter and for devotion. The present stone chapel was funded and built by the citizens of Ebnet in 1895. Even today it is maintained from Ebnet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paulus of Verdun</span>

Paulus of Verdun (576-648) was a bishop of Verdun in the Lorraine region of France from 630 until his death in 647 or 648.

References

  1. 1 2 Akker, A. van der, " Wendelin van Trier", Heiligen,net, October 14, 2007
  2. Weninger,SJ., Francis Xavier. "Saint Wendelin, Hermit and Abbot". Lives of the Saints 1876. CatholicSaints.Info. 10 May 2018 PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  3. 1 2 3 Löffler, Klemens. "St. Wendelin of Trier." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 13 December 2021 PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  4. Bistum Münster. "Heiliger Wendelin (Wendalinus)" . Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  5. "St Wendelin", The British Museum
  6. https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/74620
  7. Latona, Mike. "German filmmakers seek out rare relic at Steuben County church", Catholic Courier, July 19, 2017

Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Wendelin of Trier". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Saint Wendelin at Wikimedia Commons