Acta Sanctorum, February II — translated from the Latin.

Preliminary Commentary. #

§1. St Alto’s monastery — its fortunes. Altomünster is a coenobium in Upper Bavaria, at a moderate distance from Munich; and though the road from Munich leads the traveller away to Augsburg, the monastery can nevertheless be reached without much trouble. Its fortunes were much like those of the other illustrious foundations I have named above — of whose restoration, after the ravages of the Hungarians, the histories of Bavaria are full; though the very tables of the monasteries, however much they smack of antiquity, are not to be trusted too far.

§2. Its antiquity and dedication. This coenobium was founded by St Alto in the days of King Pepin, father of Charlemagne, while Boniface was still preaching Christ among the German peoples, and was dedicated to St James the Apostle. The site, then a wilderness of forest, was granted to the saint by King Pepin; and the monastery that afterwards arose there was destroyed by the Hungarians, like nearly all the monasteries of Bavaria — among them those of Salzburg, Frising, Tegernsee and Passau — and was afterwards restored by Guelph, an illustrious count of the Bavarians, brother of Judith wife of Louis the Pious — or rather, as some have it, brother-in-law of the Emperor through his wife — who, when the monks of St Alto had been scattered, brought back men of religion to the place, that he might repair God’s honour. The aforementioned Count Guelph also built there a dwelling for women professed to virginity, and gave the monastery to be inhabited by monks drawn from the community of St Emmeram at Regensburg, and afterwards from Weingarten.

Bruschius, Mader and the Weingarten monk, in the book on the Guelph princes, record that the monastery was committed by Guelph’s son Eticho to the keeping of the Altorf community, and that at his command the monks of Altorf from there passed over — the name of Altomünster (that is, “the Old Minster”) being given it because the old monastery of Alto had so remained, or perhaps because the community had migrated from Altorf. Guelph’s grandson, Rudolf of Saxony — whom writers call the first Guelph — or rather Rudolf the Second and Adolph his son, also of the Guelph stock, renewed the monastery after its ruin; and Henry, surnamed the Lion, the last of the Landshut line, established it under a severe discipline, placing therein the holy virgins under the rule of St Bridget. A diploma of Pope Innocent IV is exhibited in tome 2 of the Salzburg Metropolis; and the public liturgy of St Alto’s anniversary is kept on 7 February, as prescribed from the coenobium itself.

The author of the Weingarten book of the Guelphs writes: “Samuel, grandfather of Guelph, begot Ethernis; he, as it seems, was father of Brun, and of Adolph, and of Rudolf — the stock of the Guelphs — by whom the monastery of St Alto, first restored, was given to be inhabited by the monks of Altorf, from which it took the name of the Old Monastery; to which, a little after, a convent for women professing virginity was joined.” It is recorded moreover that the monastery was granted to the Weingarten congregation, and that Guelph, while still alive, was cured there — which the Weingarten monk assigns to Guelph’s merits. A widow named Ittha — called the foundress of Altomünster — was buried in Altomünster, leaving descendants: her son Guelph died; Guelph and Bruschius were killed by their own people; the monastery was entrusted to the vineyard, which they call Weingarten, and there the brethren of the Altorf oratory passed over.

§3. Of St Alto’s country and nation. Colgan does not doubt that St Alto was Irish; and indeed all the other Scots who flourished at that time in Bavaria were from Ireland, as the learned agree — that by long usage the name “Scotus” among our ancestors signified “Hibernus,” an Irishman.

The Life of St Alto, Abbot. #

Written by an anonymous author, from tome 2 of the Salzburg Metropolis. #

§1. Blessed Alto, therefore, sprung of a noble Scottish stock, came into Bavaria in the days of King Pepin, father of Charles the Great, when St Boniface was preaching Christ. And finding in a certain place, remote from the commerce of men, a spot that pleased him — in a wilderness of forest granted him by that same king — he built there a little church, and lived there, worshipping God in solitude with a few religious men whom he had brought with him.

§2. And it happened that St Boniface, coming into those parts, consecrated that oratory; and he blessed a certain spring situated in the same place near the church, on this condition — that no woman should be allowed to come to it and draw water. Which inviolable ordinance has been preserved even to our own times, although many other things have been changed.

§3. Now a certain powerful man, a count named Catulus, begrudging the saint that place, sought by all means to drive him from there; and when men were sent for that purpose to remove him by force, he was admonished by the Lord in the night-watches to hasten to the monastery of St Alto with all speed. But he, delaying to obey the heavenly command, was warned a second and a third time in visions; and at last, rising, he set out with a few companions for the place. And coming there he found the church already finished, and the blessed Alto abiding there in prayer; and he asked the blessed Alto on what terms he lived in that place — who, moved by divine zeal, answered him boldly. And when the count, amazed at the man’s constancy, departed, he was again admonished in a vision that he should leave the man of God in peace; yet, as before, he put off the same commands.

§4. Meanwhile the blessed Alto, warned by a divine command, went to Rome; and the venerable father, hastening to fulfil what had been shown him, committed the whole care of the place to God, and went his way. And after a time, returning from there, he found the place held and cultivated by the count’s men; whom also the count himself came to visit — and entering the church, he found the blessed Alto, and was admonished by him concerning his offence, that he should restore what he had taken. And when the count, for shame, deferred to obey, the holy man prayed to the Lord; and suddenly the count was taken with sickness. And when the illness still held him, mindful of the offence he had committed, he made amends: he sent for the holy man — [the text here is mutilated in the print; the sense is that the count sought forgiveness and surrendered the place].

§5. Then Catulus, receiving health, in gratitude yielded himself to the service of God and of His servant; and the whole of his possession, by hereditary right and power, passed over — together with the place itself — to the monastery of St Alto; and he subjected himself to Christ with such devotion and humility that he did not merely refrain from increasing what had been given by his ancestors to St Alto’s monastery, but strove to fulfil all that obedience required of him.

§6. Thereafter the aforementioned matron Itha — mother of the aforementioned Catulus — laboured with holy devotion for such an establishment, interceding that, for the increase of the divine office, her goods and household should be lessened; and she decreed that she should be buried in that same monastery of St Alto. And she is said to have declared that it was perhaps for this reason that the whole race of her parents and kindred had hitherto been unstable and short-lived — that the monastery of St Alto was being left in such neglect: “Let us correct our error,” she said, “for we have sinned in ignorance.”

§7. And when the same Itha had died and been buried where she had decreed — her husband also being dead, and their aforementioned son Catulus — a venerable matron named Irmendrut, born of most noble parents and widow of the same Catulus for many years, still surviving in this present life (may she enjoy what she has long desired!), with the world endangered, by her —

[Here the manuscript text of the edition breaks off. The concluding lines of the vita in the printed edition complete the sentence: Irmendrut, disposing of the inheritance, confirmed the donations made by her predecessors to St Alto’s monastery, gathered monks, and appointed as first abbot the venerable Rudolph — after whom, when he had governed the monastery strenuously for many years, there succeeded two abbots, Eberhard, a man of rare distinction, and Henry, the abbot at the time of writing; whose names the author inserted so that all he had related of St Alto’s revelation and the renewal of his monastery might be known to present and future generations and be the more believed.]