Sebaldus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the church, see St. Sebaldus Church.
| Saint Sebaldus | |
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| Died | ~770 AD or possibly 11th century |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Canonized | March 26, 1425 by Pope Martin V |
| Major shrine | St. Sebaldus Church |
| Feast | August 19 |
| Attributes | pilgrim with the staff and the cap and the beard; later represented with the model of his church; sometimes depicted with the coats of arms of the reigning Houses of France and Denmark |
| Patronage | against cold and cold weather; Nuremberg; Bavaria |
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Sebaldus of Nuremberg[1] (Sinibald, Sebald) is venerated as the patron saint of Nuremberg, traditional administrative center of Franconia, and the guarantor of its independence.[2] His legend makes him a hermit and missionary.
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[edit] Legends
Since the details of his life are uncertain, beyond his presence in the woodland of Poppenreuth, west of Nuremberg[3] which was explained by his being a hermit, various legends came to be told of him:[4] in the earliest, of ca 1280, he was a contemporary of Henry III and was of Franconian origin, and after a pilgrimage in Italy, became a preacher at Nuremberg; another text tells that he was a Frankish nobleman who met Willibald and Winibald in Italy (thus giving him an eighth century date) and later became a missionary in the Sebalder Reichswald that is associated with his name. In other legendaria he was the son of the king of Denmark— or a student in Paris— who married a French princess, but abandoned her on their wedding night and became a hermit instead, going on pilgrimage to Rome, where he received from the Pope the mission of evangelising in the forests of Nuremberg,[4] which gave his ancient presence there a papal authority.
[edit] Veneration
More firmly than his obscure origins and historicity, the cult of Sebaldus was associated with Nuremberg, fostered by the city itself, which became a place of pilgrimage.[4] The earliest existence of his cult can be dated to the late eleventh century, with a passing reference under the year 1072 in the chronicle of Lambert of Hersfeld.[5] in 1255, he became the co-patron, with Saint Peter, of the newly rebuilt parochial church, where his tomb was venerated.[4]
His feast day of August 19 appeared in a calendar of Olmütz of 1131-1137, and many children born in that city bore the saint’s name. The relics of the saint were translated in 1397 to the new choir of the church of Saint Sebaldus, and every year his relics were carried in procession. The kings and emperors of Germany, when in Nuremberg, customarily prayed before his reliquary.[4]
On March 26, 1425 he was formally canonized by Pope Martin V, following a request by the Council of Nuremberg.[4] In 1429, florins from Nuremberg began to bear his image.[4] A Latin Vita Sancti Sebaldi ("Life of St. Sebaldus") was written about 1480 by Sigmund Meisterlin, a peripatetic Benedictine monk who spent some time at Augsburg.
In 1508-19, Peter Vischer the Elder and his sons fabricated the celebrated Late Gothic bronze tomb in the Church of St. Sebaldus, considered a masterpiece of the German Renaissance. The cult survived the Protestant Revolution.[4] In Italy, where he is venerated as San Sinibaldo, an altar was dedicated to him in the Venetian church of San Bartolomeo sul Rialto. In the same church, in 1507, Sebastiano del Piombo painted a representation of Sebald.
[edit] Notes
- ^ There is also a Saint Sebaldus of Trier.
- ^ Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon: "Sebaldus von Nürnberg"
- ^ (Klasus-Stefan Krieger), Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, s.v. "Sebaldus"
- ^ a b c d e f g h San Sebaldo (Sinibaldo)
- ^ Noted in Carl Mirbt, Die Publizistik im Zeitalter Gregors VII. 1894:115 and note 5,
