EMMERAM, ST.

Marytr, itinerant preacher, possibly bishop, suffered a violent death in Bavaria, perhaps c. 660. His original name was Haimhramm. He is the patron of the monastery of sankt emmeram (formerly St. George), where he was buried and was honored as a martyr by 737. No other facts are known about his life. The vita by Bp. Arbeo (Aribo) of Freising (c. 772) contains a kernel of fact, but the similarity of most of its details to those in Arbeo's life of corbinian (d. c. 725) makes their authenticity improbable. According to Arbeo, Emmeram was bishop of Poitiers (although his name appears on no list) before coming to Bavaria to preach to the Slavs. He was detained at Regensburg by Duke Theodo and eventually murdered by members of the Duke's household on a false accusation to which Emmeram submitted voluntarily. In art, he is shown in episcopal robes, and either pierced by a lance or bound to a ladder and mutilated (as in Arbeo's account of his death).

Feast: Sept. 22.

Bibliography: Monumenta Germaniae Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum (Berlin 1825–) 4:452–524. h. c. f. timerding, ed., Die christliche Frühzeit Deutschlands in den Berichten über die Bekehrer, 2 v. (Jena 1929) v.1. h. frank, Die Klosterbischöfe des Frankenreiches (Münster 1932). a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige (Metten 1933–1938) 3:88–91; 4:90. g. jacquemet, Catholicisme 4:60–61. a. hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (Berlin-Leipzig 1958) 1:352–354. r. bauerreiss, Kirchengeschichte Bayerns (2d ed. St. Ottilien 1958–) 1:53–54.

[m. f. mccarthy]