Aureus (Mainz)

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St. Aureus. Commemorative tombstone ( 1320 ) in the choir of the St. Agidienkirche , Heilbad Heiligenstadt

The holy Aureus (* unknown in Rhone - Loire -region; † around 436 or 451 in Mainz ) of the 5th century to the first half Bishop of Mainz have been.

Life

According to the oldest surviving list of Mainz bishops from the 10th century, he is the first bishop known by name. The church sources about the life of the aureus are strongly influenced by legends and contradict each other. There is no evidence of him outside of these sources. It cannot therefore be clearly defined historically.

The oldest testimony about Aureus comes from a work by the later Archbishop of Mainz Rabanus Maurus , which he wrote on the occasion of the consecration of the Fulda monastery church . After that there was an altar in this church on the south side, which among other things was dedicated to St. Aureus was consecrated.

In 843 Rabanus also wrote a martyrology which testifies to the death of Aureus and his sister Justina on June 16. They were therefore murdered in a raid by the Huns in the church. However, there is no year. Later sources give the year 454, which is unlikely, since the attack by the Huns can be dated to the year 451. If Aureus suffered martyrdom during one of the raids during the Migration Period, then in addition to 451, 436, 406/7 and even 368 come into question. 406/7 is considered the year in which Alban, later also venerated as a saint in Mainz , suffered martyrdom. According to tradition, Alban was beheaded for preaching against Arianism in Mainz . The same tradition speaks of a bishop Aureus who was expelled before the time of Alban.

Accordingly, Aureus would have been bishop of Mainz before 406. Because he stood against Arianism, he was expelled by the citizens of Mainz. During his absence, the bishop Theomast / Theonestus, who apparently came from Italy, and his pupil Alban worked in the city. After 406 he probably returned to the now destroyed city and resumed his episcopate. Contrary to the fact that he only suffered martyrdom in 451, the unusually long term of office of 50 years and the difficult timing of the subsequent bishop Maximus speaks against it. Presumably therefore Aureus suffered the martyrdom together with his sister Justina as early as 436. Contrary to later assumptions, he was not transferred to the Albanian basilica until 805 , but was buried there immediately after his death. 805 only one reburial took place.

Adoration

The Aureus Chapel, destroyed in 1793. Lithograph by Jean Dionis Bernard Wasserburg (1813–1885), brother of the writer Philipp Wasserburg

Aureus is traditionally venerated as a saint in the diocese of Mainz . The aureus chapel in Zahlbach (Mainz) was consecrated to him, which, according to local tradition, was located on the site of his martyrdom or burial place. It is probably the oldest continuously used Christian cult site in Mainz. It goes back to the St. Hilary Church, which in the early days often served as the grave church of the Mainz bishops. This chapel no longer exists; it was completely destroyed in the storming of Mainz in 1793 . In 1856, a new building was built on the site, which was now in the area of ​​the Mainzer Main Cemetery , according to plans by the Cologne cathedral builder Vincenz Statz , which again went down in an air raid in 1944, during the Second World War .

In 1022 relics of the aureus were transferred to Heiligenstadt in Electoral Mainz. Since the late Middle Ages he and his deacon Justinus (!) Have been venerated as the city's patron saint . This local veneration is based on a different version of the legend, according to which Aureus and his deacon escaped from Attila, king of the Huns and fled to Eichsfeld , but were caught up, martyred, beheaded and buried there - at the very place where later because of the miracles that occurred there Holy city ​​was founded.

In addition, St. Aureus is especially venerated in Oberursel-Bommersheim.

The feast of St. Aureus is celebrated on June 16 or as a separate festival of the Diocese of Mainz on June 27 .

The following churches are consecrated to St. Aureus:

literature

  • Hans Werner Nopper: The pre-bonifatianischen Mainz bishops, Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2001, ISBN 3-8311-2429-9
  • David Gniffke, Konstatin Liebrand, Gerhard Müller: Eichsfeld preparatory work for the "Acta Sanctorum". The correspondence between the Jesuits Johannes Knackrick and Daniel Papebroch in 1692/93. In: Eichsfeld-Jahrbuch 23rd vol. 2015, Mecke Druck and Verlag Duderstadt, pp. 71–187

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ knop; P. 81
  2. ↑ knop; P. 85ff
  3. ↑ knop; P. 90
  4. ↑ knop; P. 95
  5. ↑ Website of the original aureus chapel
  6. ↑ PDF document on the Mainz cemeteries with mention of the new chapel building from 1856 (page 8)
  7. ↑ Article in Stadler's dictionary of saints
  8. ↑ heilbad-heiligenstadt.de
  9. ^ Joachim Schäfer: Aureus of Mainz. In: https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/ . Retrieved June 27, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Bischöfliches Ordinariat Mainz (Ed.): The celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours for the Catholic dioceses of the German-speaking area. Own celebrations of the diocese of Mainz. Offizin Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1982.
predecessor Office successor
Mar (t) inus Bishop of Mainz
around 400 to 436/451 		Maximus
personal data
SURNAME Aureus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Martyr, Bishop of Mainz
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century or 5th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Rhone - Loire area
DATE OF DEATH around 450
Place of death Mainz