ST ALTO OF IRELAND, ABBOT

ST ALTO OF IRELAND, ABBOT - 5 SEPTEMBER

SAINT ALTO OF IRELAND, ABBOT

Saint Alto was a Irish/Scottish holy monk, who, travelling into Germany, was famous for many miracles, and founded, by the liberality of King Pepin, the abbey of Altmünster in Bavaria, about the middle of the eighth century.

THE PERFECT MAXIMS AND SPIRIT OF HOLY RELIGION

In the midst of a barbarous nation, at that time overrun with ignorance, vice, and superstition, the extraordinary humility and devotion of this saint infused into many the perfect maxims and spirit of holy religion, and his single life was a sensible demonstration of the power of divine grace in raising vessels of weakness and corruption to the most sublime state of sanctity.

HIS FEAST DAY

He is honoured in Germany on February 9, which seems to have been the day of his death. But the British calendars commemorate him on September 5. The abbey of Altmünster was repaired and given to Bridgetine nuns in the fifteenth century.

The Scottish clergy founded many monasteries in Germany, one at Cologne, in 975, under the invocation of Saint Martin; one at Erfurt in 1036; two at Ratisbon, one at Würzburg, one at Nuremberg, one at Vienna, and one at Aistacht, etc.

In some modern writers we read of a solemn league entered into between Charlemagne, emperor of the West, and Achaius, king of Scotland; but the whole is a manifest forgery, picked up somewhere by Hector Boethius, as the learned Mr O’Flaherty has proved against Sir George Mackenzie.

"HIBERNIA SCOTORUM INSULA"

Till the conquest of the Pictish kingdom, A. D. 842, the royal race of Fergus, the son of Eirc, bore only the title of Kings of Albany. In Charlemagne’s time, the name of Scotia was confined to Ireland alone, as Usher has proved; and Eginhard, secretary to Charlemagne, expressly denominates Ireland, "Hibernia Scotorum insula;" he likewise informs us of the several letters of the Scottish kings to that emperor; of their great deference to his will, and the affection they declared towards him.

The country of the Scots in Britain, during this period, was too inconsiderable to form alliances with foreign princes, the far better part of North Britain being still in possession of the Picts.

IRELAND WAS THE PRIME SEAT OF LEARNING IN ALL CHRISTENDOM

Ireland was then, as the learned Prideaux remarks, the prime seat of learning in all Christendom; and it was from thence that Charlemagne invited the learned professors, Clement and John, the one founder of the university of Paris, and the other of the university of Pavia in Italy.

[SCOTTISH MISSIONARIES TO GERMANY]:

Amongst the Scots who settled in Germany, and made a rapid progress in the conversion of infidels, several were raised to the episcopal dignity; as

1. Saint Sidonius bishop of Passau, who was the companion of Saint Virgilius of Salzburg, and who is mentioned in the life of this saint published by Canisius.

2. Saint Tanco, third bishop of Verden, who was martyred in 815, and is honoured on February 16.

3. Saint Patto, who succeeded Swidbert in the see of Verden: he was in great favour with Charlemagne, and is mentioned in the Scottish and German calendars on March 13 and March 30. Molanus asserts that both Tanco and Patto were ranked by the pope in the number of the saints, in the time of Haruth, eighth bishop of Verden.

MARIANUS SCOTUS SETTLED AT RATISBON

In the eleventh age Marianus Scotus (who is proved by Usher to have been a Scot from Ireland) having left the monastery of Dunkeld in North Britain, went to Germany and settled at Ratisbon, where he, with several of his countrymen, taught both sacred and profane learning, and where he founded a monastery for the Scots in 1074.

PIETY, ZEAL, AND KNOWLEDGE

Aventius gives a detailed account of the great reputation which these Scots had acquired by their piety, zeal, and knowledge.

Henry, surnamed the Lion, first duke of Austria, charmed with the piety of the Scottish monks, invited several of them to Vienna, where he founded, in 1144, a magnificent abbey under the Rule of Saint Benedict which he designed for the burial-place of his family. There are still to be seen in the church his own tomb, with those of his wife Theodora, (daughter to the emperor Emanuel Comnenus,) of his two sons Leopold and Henry, and of his daughter Agnes.

Source: Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints

PRAYER:

May the intercession of the blessed abbot Alto commend us to you, so that through his merits we may obtain that which we cannot accomplish by our own. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

BL. RICHARD NEWPORT, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 30 MAY

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 30th of May WELCOME! BLESSED RICHARD NEWPORT, PRIEST AND MARTYR Richard Newport, alias Smith , was born in Northamptonshire and performed his studies abroad, partly in the college of Rheims (if he be the Richard Smith whom I find in the Douay diary sent to Rome in 1586) and partly in that of Rome, where he was made priest. From thence he was sent upon the English mission, and behaved himself in such a manner as justly to acquire the character of a laborious missionary; being withal remarkably successful in bringing home many strayed sheep to the fold of Christ, to which his apostolical way of living did not a little contribute. He was several times apprehended and cast into prison, and twice banished. His name occurs amongst those who were transported in 1606; at which time, we are told, he took that opportunity of making a pilgrimage to Rome, there to pour forth his prayers at the tombs of the apostles, in behalf of thi...

SAINT FEAST DAY FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR

Search This Blog