One of the oldest hagiographic texts in the Rhineland is the biography of St. Goar, likely written in Prüm around 765. Around 525, Bishop Felix of Trier sent him to the Middle Rhine, where he established a hospice for travelers. After his monastery came under the jurisdiction of Prüm, the monks were no longer satisfied with the simple hagiography. Deacon Wandalbert of Prüm wrote a new biography and supplemented it with 36 accounts of miracles. The miracles are a key source for the history of the Church and
piety, as well as for the history of trade and transportation along the Middle Rhine in the 8th and 9th centuries. Emperors and kings, Frisian merchants, and ships carrying wine, ceramics, and pilgrims to Rome thronged the Rhine. We learn details about transportation by towboats as well as by land. Wandalbert’s work was written in the context of a conflict between Prüm Abbey and the Diocese of Trier, which also laid claim to the monastery. After King Pippin the Younger had transferred the monastery to the monks, they built a new church at the saint’s grave, which attracted numerous pilgrims. St. Goar also became the administrative center of the Eifel Abbey’s extensive holdings along the Middle Rhine. Numerous manuscripts attest to the interest in the figure of St. Goar. In 1489, Peter Schöffer in Mainz published an incunabulum containing the saint’s life and miracles, spreading knowledge of the saint, who was also included in Schedel’s World Chronicle in 1493.

Wolfgang Schmid is a professor of historical regional studies at the University of Trier and a lecturer in diocesan history at the Faculty of Theology.

Welcome
Remarks by Dr. Stephan Fliedner
, Director of the Mainz City Libraries

Presentation
by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schmid

Reception

Admission from 6 p.m. Admission is free, donations are welcome. No registration necessary. 

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