Pelagius (saint)
Saint Pelagius is the patron saint of the city of Constance and was patron saint of the former bishopric of Constance . The probably fictional catacomb saint was venerated as a martyr in Istria from the 5th or 6th century and in the Lake Constance area from the 9th century .
Life
The life of Pelagius is described in stereotypical legends of saints , from which nothing reliable can be determined about his actual existence or possible living conditions. An important source is Ekkehard IV. Casus Sancti Galli .
According to legend, Pelagius had wealthy parents and suffered martyrdom as a persecuted Christian at a young age . This event is said to have occurred under the Roman emperor Numerian , which is why later historians wanted to fix the year of his death on his short reign 283-284. The event is historically not documented, especially since under Numerian, as far as is known, there was no persecution of Christians at all, which increases the doubts about the historicity of Pelagius. The place of his death is given as Aemona (Emona) in Carniola / Pannonia , which was previously equated with Novigrad in Istria , but is now identified with today's Ljubljana ( Slovenia ). Later legends from the Lake Constance region made Pelagius a real local saint by relocating the place of martyrdom to Constance - occasionally precisely to the Dominican Island.
Adoration
The earliest worship found a saint named Pelagius in the dioceses of Novigrad (today Poreč-Pula ), Poreč and Trieste in Istria . Current research dates the beginning of the worship of Pelagius in Istria (ultimately speculative) to the 5th or 6th century; Pelagius, who was now often considered a soldier himself, was evidently quite popular, especially in the military. According to tradition, this Pelagius cult was imported into the Lake Constance area in the year 904, but in fact already several decades earlier, where it was developed.
For the St. Gallen monastery there is evidence of the worship of Pelagius in the last quarter of the 9th century. In the monastery Reichenau Pelagius was perhaps revered as early as the 850th Viten were created in both monasteries, the oldest of which are dated to the 9th century; The veneration is documented, among other things, in a revision of the martyrology of Wandalbert von Prüm , which was written down between 864 and 899 on the Reichenau. There is the verse:
- Urbs Alamannorum recolit Constantia sanctum
- Hac quoque Pelagium fuso per sanguine clarum
- The city of the Alemanni commemorates Constance [or: revered]
- of St. Pelagius, also famous in this [city] for his blood shed.
According to the tradition of Ekkehard IV , a relic of the first degree of Pelagius was in 904 by the Constance bishop Solomon III. (Term of office 890–919) transferred as part of a pilgrimage from Rome to Constance ( Translatio ).
However, based on the above evidence for the veneration of St. Gallen and Reichenau, recent research assumes that the relic was imported as early as the middle or second half of the 9th century under Bishop Solomon I (term of office 838? −879). At the same time, Solomon I could have founded the monastery of St. Pelagius Bischofszell and furnished it with relics; the foundation of the pen consecrated to Pelagius was mostly Solomon III. attributed. According to current research, the relic (no longer preserved today) was probably the bones of an anonymous catacomb saint from Rome . The background to the transfer was the decision of the Second Council of Nicaea of 787 that relics were to be deposited under every altar. For the bishopric, having its own saint was also a question of prestige. With Pelagius, the bishopric of Constance received its first "house saint", whose relic soon became a destination for pilgrimages .
In the 10th century, Pelagius worship grew as Pelagius was ascribed great miracles. In the scriptorium of the St. Gallen Monastery and the Reichenau Monastery , numerous texts on the life of Pelagius were written during this period. The saint was mentioned in litanies and breviaries . In the 12th century, the cult of the local bishop Konrad von Konstanz ( canonized in 1123) gradually outstripped the worship of Pelagius. Officially, however, the two cartridges were of equal rank and were always shown side by side. Even in the 17th century, students at the Jesuit grammar school in Constance still performed Christian plays about his life. With the exception of the Reformation period (1522–1548), Pelagius was strongly venerated in the diocese of Constance until the late 18th century, after which he was increasingly forgotten, especially after the diocese was abolished in the 19th century. In the high mass of Konstanz he is still mentioned as patron in intercessions .
The Constance relic was in the crypt of the Constance Minster in a burial chamber that was connected to the main altar by a vertical shaft. For this, the church had a valuable reliquary in the Middle Ages. It was regularly carried in processions ; On Pelagius Day, August 28th, the relic was moved to Petershausen Monastery . Two other places of worship in the Münster are occupied. Relic and shrine were lost around 1530 in the iconoclasm during the Reformation period ; probably they were thrown into the Rhine and the shrines melted down. Nothing could be saved, as in 1618, by order of the Rottweil city council, part of the Pelagius relics from the St. Pelagius basilica in Rottweil's old town were handed over to Auxiliary Bishop Jakob Mirgel. The reliquary on display in the crypt today is a simple stone coffin of unknown origin.
Attributes
In liturgical prints and sculptures of the diocese, Pelagius usually appears next to the two other patrons, Maria and St. Conrad . Pelagius is usually depicted as a knight or a wealthy citizen. Its iconographic attributes are a palm branch for martyrdom, a sword, and sometimes a book .
Remembrance day
Pelagius' feast day is August 28 in the regional calendar for the Archdiocese of Freiburg . In Constance the patronage festival is celebrated on September 1st, in Novigrad on August 28th.
Patronage
Pelagius was the patron saint of the Diocese of Constance , dissolved in 1821 , the city of Constance and the Constance Minster . Especially in the area of the former diocese, i.e. in southwest Germany and northern Switzerland, there are still churches today that are under his patronage . Pelagius was worshiped in most of the monasteries and in many parish churches of the diocese, often through the consecration of an altar.
List of patronage: see Pelagius Church
Individual evidence
literature
- Fredy Meyer : Saint Pelagius and Gregory the Great: Your veneration in the diocese of Constance. Alber, Freiburg / Munich 2002, ISBN 3-495-49946-6 (At the same time dissertation at the University of Konstanz 1999 under the title: Pelagius in Konstanz and Pope Gregor the Great in Petershausen ).
- Wilhelm Kohl : Pelagius (saint). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 7, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-048-4 , Sp. 173-174.
- Helmut Maurer : The Bishops of Constance from the end of the 6th century to 1206. (= Germania Sacra. Volume 42.1). De Gruyter, Berlin / New York, NY 2003, esp. Pp. 104-107. ISBN 978-3-11-017664-3 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pelagius |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pelagius of Aemona; Pelagius of Constance |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Christian martyr, city patron of Konstanz (probably fictional person) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 3rd century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 3rd century |