De miraculis sancti Alexandri

Bronze sculpture in Wildeshausen : Transfer of the remains of St. Alexander to Wildeshausen by Waltbert

Bronze sculpture of Walbraht (the grandson of the Saxon Duke Widukind) and Saint Alexander in Drensteinfurt

De miraculis sancti Alexandri ( Latin , "Of the miracles of St. Alexander" ) is the title of a Latin legend begun in the Fulda monastery by Rudolf von Fulda in 863 and completed by Meginhard . The surviving manuscript is kept in the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library in Hanover . The text is also scientifically edited under the name Translatio Sancti Alexandri .

Only the introduction (chapters 1–3) of the text comes from Rudolf, the main part - the actual translation report - comes from Meginhard. This tells of the transfer ( translatio ) of the bones of the martyr Alexander from Rome to Wildeshausen in Lerigau by the Saxon nobleman and Count Waltbert . In the course of this trip, numerous miracles happened, especially the healing of illnesses and ailments for individuals. With this work, the authors wanted to underpin the value of the Wildeshauser relic and the authority of the church. A few years earlier there had been an uprising in Saxony , in the course of which many churches were destroyed and many Christians were killed.

The client of this text was the aforementioned Waltbert (also Waltbraht ), a grandson of Duke Widukind , who had his sphere of influence in the area of ​​the western Hunte - in today's Wildeshausen .

The work, as it begins with a tribal history of the Saxons (chapters 1–3), closely based on the "Germania" of Tacitus , can be considered the oldest historical monument in Lower Saxony, even if, as in all Christian legends, it is not strictly historiography Sinn acts because the authors' interest is missionary colored. In chapter 3 there is a valuable testimony about Irminsul, which was destroyed in 772 .

In the text, the places Wallonhurst , today's municipality of Wallenhorst in the district of Osnabrück , and Wilshem , today's municipality of Wilsum in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim , are mentioned for the first time.

literature

• The transmission of the h. Alexander von Ruodolf and Meginhart , translated by G. Richter, in: Die Geschichtschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit , IX. Century, 7th volume, Berlin 1856.

Web links

• Translatio s. Alexandri in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Grafschafter story: Athuger from Wilshem ( Memento of 18 November 2011 at the Internet Archive ), accessed on 25 October 2011th