ERHARD, ST.

Missionary bishop; b. perhaps Narbonne, France (or Ireland?); d. Regensburg (formerly Ratisbon), Germany, seventh century. The details of this saint's life are unclear, for his vita, which was written in the mid-11th century by a monk, Paul the Jew, perhaps of Fulda of Regensburg, is not completely reliable inasmuch as it borrows freely from the vitae of St. odilia and St. hidulf of moyenmoutier. Erhard may well have been a monk following the rule of columban, and it is known that he was certainly a zealous missionary and the founder of seven monasteries. It seems that he was also a regional missionary bishop who died at Regensburg with a great reputation for sanctity; he was buried in the Abbey of Niedermünster. On Oct. 8, 1052, Pope leo ix, in the presence of Emperor henry iii, solemnly exhumed the relics

of wolfgang and Erhard (P. Jaffé, Regesta pontificum romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum 1198, ed. S. Löwenfeld 1:543), an action that at that time was equivalent to canonization. While Erhard's cult was overshadowed by that of St. Wolfgang and St. emmeram, two famous bishops of Regensburg, his purported crozier and part of his skull are still venerated in Regensburg.

Feast: Jan. 8.

Bibliography: Monumenta Germaniae Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum (Berlin 1825–) 6:1–21. Acta Sanctorum (Paris 1863–) Jan. 1:533–46. a. schÜtte, Handbuch der deutschen Heiligen (Cologne 1941) 113. r. bauerreiss, Kirchengeschichte Bayerns, 5 v. (St. Ottilien 1949–55; 2d ed. Munich 1958–) 1:52–53,173. konrad von megenberg, Historia Sancti Erhardi, ed. r. hankeln (Ottawa 2000) office for feast. r. van doren, Bibliotheca sanctorum (Rome 1961–) 4:1285–87. a. raggi, ibid. 1287.

[h. dressler]