ST EMMERAM, BISHOP AND MARTYR - 22 SEPTEMBER

 

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SAINT EMMERAM, BISHOP AND MARTYR

Saint Emmeram (Emmeramus) was Bishop of Poitiers and missionary to Bavaria, born at Poitiers in the first half of the seventh century; martyred at Ascheim (Bavaria) towards the end of the same century. 

Of a noble family of Aquitaine, he received a good education and was ordained priest. According to some authors Emmeram occupied the See of Poitiers, but this cannot be verified, for his name does not appear among the bishops of Poitiers. He probably held the see for a short time, from the death of Dido (date unknown) to the episcopate of Ansoaldus (674). 

Having heard that the inhabitants of Bavaria were still idolaters, he determined to carry the light of the Faith to them. Ascending the Loire, crossing the Black Forest, and going down the Danube, he reached Ratisbon in a region then governed by the Duke Theodo. 

For three years he laboured in Bavaria, preaching and converting the people, acquiring also a renown for holiness. 

He then turned his steps towards Rome, to visit the tombs of SS Peter and Paul, but after a five days' journey, at a place now called Kleinhelfendorf, south of Munich, he was set upon by envoys of the Duke of Bavaria who tortured him cruelly.

He died shortly afterwards at Ascheim, about fifteen miles distant. 

The cause of this attack and the circumstances attending his death are not known. All that is known as to the date of the saint's death is that it took place on September 22, some time before Saint Rupert’s arrival in Bavaria (696). 

At Kleinhelfendorf, where he was tortured, there stands today a chapel of Saint Emmeram, and at Ascheim, where he died, is also a martyr's chapel built in his honour. His remains were removed to Ratisbon and interred in the church of Saint George, from which they were transferred about the middle of the eighth century by Bishop Gawibaldus to a church dedicated to the saint. 

This church having been destroyed by fire in 1642, the saint's body was found under the altar in 1645 and was encased in a magnificent reliquary. The relics, which were canonically recognised by Bishop Ignaz de Senestrez in 1833, are exposed for the veneration of the faithful every year on September 22. 

From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Emmeram may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. 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.