Edigna von Puch

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Edigna in the linden tree. Ceiling fresco from the 18th century, St. Sebastian in Puch.

Edigna von Puch (* 11th century in France ?; † February 26, 1109 in Puch near Fürstenfeldbruck in Bavaria) was a hermit who, according to legend, lived in a hollow linden tree and was venerated as a blessed in the Catholic Church through pious work and posthumous miracles becomes.

Legend

According to legend, Edigna was the daughter of the King of France. When her vow of eternal virginity was endangered by a planned marriage, she fled to Germany in the simple clothes of a beggar. It so happened that while she was sleeping on an ox-cart while she was fleeing, her cock crowed while the bell she carried was ringing at the same time. She woke up shortly afterwards and asked her driver exactly where these signs had occurred. He pointed to a linden tree behind them. Edigna saw in it a sign of God who assigned her this place as a place of activity. For 35 years she then lived a pious life as a hermit in the hollow linden tree at Puch. She taught the people the Christian faith, preached the scriptures, taught reading and writing, and helped with many needs. After Edigna died on February 26, 1109, a healing oil flowed from the linden tree, but it dried up when it was sold for money. After her death, Edigna did many miracles for people and cattle.

Edigna, great-granddaughter of Vladimir the Holy. Commemorative picture, 1988, of a group of the Ukrainian Church in exile. St. Sebastian, Puch.

historicity

The Edigna cult may go back to a person who actually lived. In 1978, during renovation work on the Church of St. Sebastian , which stands right next to Edigna's linden tree in Puch, an empty grave was discovered that was located behind the altar of the previous building. This honorary grave is awarded to Edigna.

It is doubtful that Edigna was a princess of France. An Edigna or a daughter who evaded marriage has not been recorded for either of the kings of France who are temporally relevant. Since Edigna was able to read and write, according to legend, it can be assumed that she was of noble origin. Nor does she seem to have been German. Both features could be omitted from the legend without changing the statement.

Provided that the historical information in the legend is based on facts, Edigna was the daughter of Henry I of France . If Edigna were a legitimate child, she would probably have come from his third wife Anna of Kiev and would have been born between 1052 and 1061. For example, Edigna would have been a young age when she escaped in 1074 and died in 1109 between the ages of 47 and 57. At the same time she would be the great-granddaughter of Vladimir the Holy and granddaughter of Yaroslav the Wise , both grand princes of the Kiev empire and largely responsible for the Christianization of Ukraine and Russia. It is unlikely that Edigna was the daughter of Philip I of France , whose first child was born around 1078.

Edigna in the linden tree. 18th century figure next to the high altar of St. Sebastian, Puch.

Tree cult

The Edigna lime tree is considered a thousand-year-old lime tree. Some estimate it to be 1,200 years old. It would be as old as the church attested in the 8th century, which was then consecrated to the Archangel Michael . Church and linden tree are so close together that they touch. Some of the legend puts Edigna in the vicinity of a pagan goddess who was worshiped in a tree like a dryad . This includes the fact that she was a virgin king's daughter, that she drove an ox cart like Nerthus across the country, that a rooster was her animal, that she lived in the tree for 35 years and that the linden tree secreted a healing oil after her death. The church had to fight for a long time against the pronounced tree cult of the Teutons and finally, because the people did not want to give up, Christianize some tree sanctuaries. In the 19th century, Johann Wilhelm Wolf therefore came to the conclusion that Edigna's legend goes back to a veneration of the goddess Hulda / Perchta . Even if this interpretation is out of date, there remains a closeness between Edigna and the linden tree that is extraordinary among Christian saints.

Worship history

The legend and cult of Edigna are first attested by illustrations from the early 15th century. She is depicted in a nun's robe with a royal crown. In her hands she holds the scriptures with a rooster on it. The oldest written testimony about Edigna comes from the year 1554 by Johannes Aventinus in Annales Ducum Boiariae . He writes that an Edigna is buried in Puch, who is much venerated and who is called upon especially in the event of loss or theft. Their legend passed on to us in 1624 by Matthäus Rader in his work Bavaria Sancta et Pia . He refers to a plaque that he found in the Pucher Church and to "annuals". Around 1600 the bones of Edigna are raised and made available to the people for worship. Pilgrimage from the surrounding villages begins. For the period from 1590 to 1616, Rader also reports miraculous healings through Edigna's intercession. The oldest surviving votive picture dates from 1639. The pilgrimage is not only promoted by the nearby Fürstenfeld monastery , to which the church in Puch is assigned. It is particularly favored by the visit of ladies of the high nobility. The first wife of Maximilian I of Bavaria , Elisabeth of Lorraine, made an annual pilgrimage to Puch until her death in 1633. The widow of the German Emperor Ferdinand II , Eleanor of Mantua , became engaged to Blessed Edigna because of a valuable piece of jewelry that was lost and was soon found (votive tablet from 1654). Nevertheless, Edigna's veneration was always limited to the immediate vicinity.

Today's admiration

Edigna is a blessed of the Catholic Church. Although it was never canonized, it is listed in the register of saints and blessings in the Pope John XXIII Institute. the Lateran University in Rome as blessed.

As a (possible) relative of Ukrainian saints, she is venerated in Eastern churches as well, as shown by visits from groups of the Russian Orthodox Church , the Ukrainian Church in exile , which is united with Rome, and the Catholic Ukrainians of the Byzantine Rite in Puch.

The main place of worship is the church of St. Sebastian in Puch, which is oriented towards Edigna. Both ceiling paintings show scenes from their legend ( Joseph Krenauer , 18th century). The left side of the church in particular is dedicated to her: Edigna side altar (19th century) with its relics and oil painting, a statue of Edigna in the linden tree (18th century) next to the high altar and another painting by Edigna's arrival in Puch on the ox cart that shows based on the template of the copper engraving by Raphael Sadeler in the Bavaria Sancta et Pia (17th century). In the back of the church there is a selection of more than 20 votive and memorial tablets that were donated between 1639 and today. Outside, on the linden tree, there is a glass container for devotional and sacrificial candles . Next to it is a painted wooden figure of the blessed in a small chapel.

In the Lower Bavarian municipality of Hunderdorf , in the Hofdorf district, there is the Catholic branch church St. Edigna, which was built in 1701. On the altar painting Edigna is shown with a skull and scourge. A hand relic of the blessed is also kept in the chapel.

In the window of the Thomas and Korbinian Chapel of the Munich Women's Cathedral , a glass painting by Robert Rabolt from 1965 shows the saints of the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising , including Edigna. The first pictorial evidence of Edigna was originally located in the Frauendom, an altar wing from the 15th century, which is now exhibited in the Bavarian National Museum. The other first image, another altar wing from the same period, can also be seen there.

Three annual pilgrimages lead from the parishes of Oberpfaffenhofen near Weßling , Mitterndorf near Dachau and St. Bernhard in Fürstenfeldbruck to Edigna in Puch. Dachau, where Edigna had achieved greater importance according to the evidence of the votive tablets, also made pilgrimages to Puch into the 20th century. They went around the altar three times in the Puch church and rang the handbell of the Edigna to draw the patroness's attention to the concerns brought with them (according to a testimony in the middle of the 20th century). Even today, the Edigna bell is rung after a pilgrimage service.

Since 1959, the Edigna Festival has been taking place every 10 years in Puch on their memorial day, which includes a play that depicts the legendary life and work of Edigna.

The rare first name Edigna is found comparatively often in Puch. About every twentieth women's grave in the cemetery bears this name.

Edigna's arrival in Puch. 19th century painting in the choir room of St. Sebastians in Puch.

meaning

Edigna was and is a local saint. She was venerated in the immediate vicinity within a radius of about 25 km, whereby the women of the high nobility, who visited the last place of the pious co-worker in the 17th century, gave her a special charisma. Your legend is a testimony to the persistence of pagan ideas in the Christian church and at the same time an example of the integration of old with new beliefs. Edigna offers models for women against heteronomy, for people to follow their inner voice and to have faith in God, as well as for the connection between East and West, high and low, God, people and nature.

Veneration information

  • Canonization: No, but it is still considered blessed.
  • Remembrance day: February 26th.
  • Relics: In the Pucher Church of St. Sebastian, her bones are in a glass shrine. Edigna's hand bell is also kept in the church. The Edigna linden tree stands in front of the church. A hand relic is in the church of St. Edigna in Hofdorf.
  • Attributes: Sitting or standing in a linden tree, on an ox-cart, with scriptures, with a bell or a cock.
  • Patronage: Helper with everyday problems and accidents, in the event of illness or at the hour of death. Especially in the case of lost or stolen things and diseases of the cattle.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Wilhelm Wolf : Contributions to German mythology . Volume 1, 1852, pp. 169-171.
  2. ^ Bernhard Hermann Röttger : The art monuments of Lower Bavaria. Unchanged reprint of the Munich 1929 edition. Munich 1982, ISBN 3-486-50498-3 , keyword: Hofdorf.
  3. ↑ Böck Pilgrimage p. 268
  4. ↑ Cornelia Nitsch: First names for girls. Verlag Gräfe und Unzer, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8338-1028-2 , p. 72: "Edigna: unusual in our times."
  5. ↑ Count of April 8, 2009: 108 women's graves, most of them from the 20th century, 6 times Edigna. Wiesenthal

Web links

Commons : Edigna von Puch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Edigna von Puch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Edigna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION blessed hermit who lived in a linden tree
DATE OF BIRTH between 1052 and 1061
PLACE OF BIRTH France
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1109
Place of death Puch near Fürstenfeldbruck