Blessed Marianus Scotus

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This article is about the abbot. For the chronicler, see Marianus Scotus.

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Blessed Marianus Scotus, abbot of St. Peter's at Ratisbon, was born in Ireland before the middle of the eleventh century; he died at Ratisbon towards the end of the eleventh century, around 1088.^[1]

In 1067 he left Ireland, intending to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Like many of his countrymen, however, who visited the Continent, he decided to settle in Germany, at Bamberg, where he became a Benedictine monk. He went with some companions to Ratisbon (or Regensburg), where he founded the the monastery of St. Peter (Kloster Sankt Peter Regensburg) and became its first abbot.

After his death he was canonized^[1] and his feast-day is observed on 17 April, 4 July, or, according to the Bollandists, on 9 February. Marianus devoted himself to transcribing and glossing the text of the Scriptures. His success as a scribe, and the exceptional beauty of his calligraphy may be judged by a specimen of his work which has come down to us. This is Codex 1247 of the Imperial Library of Vienna containing the Epistles of St. Paul with glosses, some of which are in Latin and others in Irish. The latter were collected and published by Zeuss in his "Grammatica Celtica" (p. xxiv). The manuscript ends with the words "In honore individuae trinitatis Marianus Scotus scripsit hunc librum suis fratribus peregrinis…" (the date given is 16 May, 1078).

Over the words "Marianus Scotus" is the gloss: "Muirdach trog macc robartaig", i.e. "Marianus miser filius Robartaci", or 'Marianus, son of Robart". The Irish form of his name was, therefore, Muirdach and his family name was Robartaig.