Marianus Scottus

Marianus Scottus ( Gaelic : Muiredach ; † approx. 1081 in Regensburg ) was an Irish monk and scribe who founded the Weih Sankt Peter monastery in Regensburg.

He was probably in Donegal or Derry ( Ireland born) and belonged to the MacRobartaigh of family that was related to the family O'Donnell's that the Cathach (Battle Book of Colmcille) guarded. He himself wrote his nickname with two ts ("Scottus", see Vienna, Austrian National Library, Cod. 1247). 1067 he broke as a pilgrim on two fellows named John and Candidus to a pilgrimage to Rome. On the way there he was won over to the Benedictines in the monastery Michelsberg at Bamberg enter. It is reported anachronistically that Bishop Otto von Bamberg induced him and his companions to join. However, Marianus moved to Regensburg at the latest in 1074, where he initially found accommodation in the Niedermünster women's monastery (perhaps before that also in the Obermünster women's monastery ) and produced manuscripts for a living.

In 1075/1076 he received the Church of Consecration of Saint Peter from the abbess of the Obermünster, where he finally settled and founded a monastic community, which was quickly enlarged by further Irish pilgrims and which he led in the manner of an abbot (officially he held the office of an abbot). The monastery of Weih Sankt Peter and the Irish monastery of St. Jakob , which was also founded in Regensburg soon after (albeit after the death of Marianus) , became the nucleus of the Scots monasteries . Marianus is considered the founding father of these exclusively Irish Scottish monasteries. At the beginning of the 1080s, probably in 1081, Marianus died, who was soon venerated as a saint and was honored by a vita about a hundred years after his death (Vita Mariani Scotti). His relics are now in the altar of St. Jacob.

Some of the numerous manuscripts he wrote or at least glossed over have survived. The most important autographs by Marianus are the Paulus letters with commentary from the year 1079, which are now kept in the Austrian National Library in Vienna (Cod. 1247; olim Theol. 287), as well as a collective manuscript with various texts that he wrote in 1081 and those up to 1083 by another scribe ( Edinburgh , National Library of Scotland , Fort Augustus Collectio Acc. 11218/1). He quickly adapted his script, which was originally influenced by Irish, to the continental Carolingian minuscule, only for glosses (partly in Gaelic) he continued to use Irish minuscule. He never worked as a calligrapher (calligraphy writer), he carried out the usual writing activity. However, he worked quickly and sometimes well into the night, as his comments in the surviving manuscripts show. His most famous miracle is related to his activity as a scribe, because when he lacked candlelight for writing at night, the fingers of his left hand would have started to glow to give him the light he needed (cf. Vita Mariani Scotti, chap. 8) .

literature

• Helmut Flachenecker : Schottenklöster. Irish Benedictine convents in high medieval Germany (= sources and research from the field of history. NF Vol. 18). Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 1995, ISBN 3-506-73268-4 (Eichstätt, University, habilitation thesis, 1992).
• H. Count von Waldersdorff: St. Mercherdach and St. Marian and the beginnings of the Schottenklöster zu Regensburg , in: Negotiations of the Historical Association for Upper Palatinate and Regensburg 34, 1879, pp. 189–232.
• Stefan Weber : Irish on the continent. The life of Marianus Scottus of Regensburg and the beginnings of the Irish “Schottenklöster” , Heidelberg 2010 (with edition of the Vita Mariani Scotti).
• Stefan Weber : Glowing fingers, pillars of fire and abstinent Irish - from the history of the Irish Scots monks in southern Germany , in: Beuroner Forum. Cultural, monastic and liturgical life in the Archabbey of St. Martin 3, 2011, pp. 37–57.
• Vita Mariani Scotti , published in: Acta Sanctorum , Volume February II, Antwerp 1658 (reprinted in Brussels 1966) (edition based on only 1 manuscript).

Web links

• Marianus Scotus (the Abbot) Catholic Encyclopedia New York 1913