Aper (bishop)

Window in the Saint-Epvre (Holy Aper) church in Nancy

Statue of Saint Aper in the Contrexéville church

Aper (Latin "boar" ; also Aprus or French St. E (p) vres ; † 507 ) was the seventh bishop of Toul in Lorraine from 500 to 507 . He is venerated as a Catholic saint; his feast day is September 15th . Probably because of the meaning of his name, he is considered the patron saint of swineherd .

Life

The life dates and biography of the Aper are largely in the dark, authors of various saints' vitae interpret the sometimes contradicting occurrences of people named "Aper" in historical sources differently.

In 1586 Cesare Baronio equated Bishop Aper with Aper to whom three surviving letters from Paulinus von Nola were addressed. Later authors such as Butler (1814) and Stadler in the Complete Lexicon of Saints (1858) consider this to be largely unlikely, since the three letters of Paulinus must have been written almost a century before the year of Bishop Aper's death, but no later than 431 (Paulinus' death year). In addition, both authors considered it unlikely that Aper - as it is attributed to the earlier one - was a secular, married lawyer who was called to priest later in life.

Another occurrence of the name Aper as an addressee of letters from Sidonius Apollinaris leads some authors, including Butler, to assume that Aper came from Troyes in the Auvergne; in this case the holy Apronia is named as his sister. For the place of birth, Stadler mentions the area “Treyes” with reference to “the vita of an unknown person”, and there a village called “Trancol, Trancost or Trancault (Tranquillus) ” as an option; Occasionally, Trier (French: Trèves ) appears as the place of birth in popular calendars of saints or directories - there is no doubt that Trier has been confused with Troyes.

It is largely agreed that Aper was after Auspicius († 478) the second successor (after Ursus) in the office of Bishop of Toul. During the seven years of his episcopate he built the Mauritius Church , later the Abbey of St. Evre , but he did not live to see its completion. He was first buried in this church, his bones were later brought to the cathedral church to be safe from looting, but were then secretly brought back to the monastery and hidden by monks from the abbey. It was not until 978 or 987 that the bones were lifted again by Bishop Gerard I of Toul.

Especially in Lorraine there are a number of churches that have chosen Aper as their patron saint, for example the basilica Saint-Epvre in Nancy , in Tronville or the church in Chavelot . In addition, the small Moselle town of Saint-Epvre bears the name of the saint. In Germany, St. Aper in Wasserliesch is the only parish church with this patronage . In Cologne's inner city, St.-Apern-Straße is a reminder of a chapel, first mentioned in 1169, consecrated to St. Aper and a later Cistercian convent .

See also

• List of the bishops of Toul

Web links

Commons : Aper (Bishop)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Ekkart Sauser :  APER, Bishop of Toul. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 25-26.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Alban Butler: The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints: compiled from original monuments and other authentic records, illustrated with the remarks of judicious modern critics and historians. Volume 9, J. Murphy Verlag, 1814
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Complete lexicon of saints or life stories of all saints, blessed etc. etc. of all places and all centuries whose memory is celebrated or otherwise honored in the Catholic Church, with reference to the related critical, ancient, liturgical and Symbolic, in alphabetical order, with two supplements, containing the attributes and the calendar of the saints. Edited by Johann Evangelist Stadler and Franz Joseph Heim, 1st volume: A – D, Augsburg: B. Schmid'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1858.
4. ↑ Example: Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, Stephen Bunson: Our Sunday Visitor's encyclopedia of saints , Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2003, ISBN 978-1-931709-75-0 .
5. ↑ Ludwig Arentz, H. Neu and Hans Vogts : Paul Clemen (ed.): Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Köln , Volume II, Extension Volume: The former churches, monasteries, hospitals and school buildings of the City of Cologne . Verlag L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1937. Reprint 1980, ISBN 3-590-32107-5 . Chapter Cistercian Convent of St. Apern, p. 317.