Last Updated on May 14, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org
- * around 797 near Rottenburg (Württemberg);
- † January 21, 861 in Einsiedeln
- He was a hermit who lived where the Einsiedeln monastery was founded:
- read about on Wikipedia:
- According to a historically untenable legend, Meinrad came from the family of the Counts of Hohenzollern.
- He was taught at the monastery school of the Benedictine Abbey of Reichenau in Lake Constance by the abbots Haito and Erlebald.
- He entered the monastery and became a monk. After a few years on the Reichenau and in the dependent priory “Babinchova” (perhaps corresponding to today’s Benken, southeast of Lake Zurich), he decided on a hermit life and withdrew to the Etzel Pass in 828.
- His longing for silence was disturbed by the many visitors, so in 835 he moved further into the “Dark Forest”.
- He is said to have built a hermitage and a chapel on the spot where the Chapel of Grace now stands in the Einsiedeln monastery church in order to serve God
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meinrad_von_Einsiedeln
According to legend, Meinrad was killed on January 21, 861 by two tramps who coveted the treasures left at the shrine by believing pilgrims.
According to legend, Meinrad was killed on January 21 in the year 861 by two tramps who coveted the treasures left at the shrine by believing pilgrims.
Two ravens are then said to have pursued the murderers and brought them to court, where they were sentenced to death at the stake under the chairmanship of Count Adalbert the Illustrious.[1] For this reason, two ravens are depicted on the coat of arms of the monastery and village of Einsiedeln.
Saint Meinrad plays a very important role for Benedictine hermits and their pilgrimage. Without him, there would be neither a monastic community nor today’s Einsiedeln district. The monastery was founded in 934 on the site of his hermitage
after hermits around Blessed Benno of Strasbourg had previously kept alive the memory of the exemplary life of St. Meinrad:
https://www.kloster-einsiedeln.ch/kloster/geschichte/heiliger-meinrad