GOAR OF TRIER, ST.

Priest and hermit; d. c. 575. The Vita Goaris, written probably by a monk of prÜm in the eighth century, states that the saint came from Aquitaine in the days of Childebert I (d. 558), king of the Franks; and with the permission of the bishop of trier (Fibicius or Felicius), he built a chapel and hermitage along the Rhine near Oberwesel. Reports of Goar's hospitality allegedly aroused the suspicions of a later bishop of Trier named Rusticus, who decided to put the hermit to the test. Summoned to Trier, Goar was ordered by the bishop to command a three-dayold foundling to name its father and mother, but the test proved to be the undoing of Rusticus, who was named as the infant's father. The problems of fitting the persons named in the vita into a chronologically accurate account have given rise to conflicting opinions on the dates of Goar, for some place him in the sixth century while others put him as late as the eighth century. The difficulties are compounded by Wandelbert's reworking of the vita in 839, but in spite of these uncertainties, the local cult of Goar, venerated as the patron of innkeepers, is one of long standing.

Feast: July 6; July 9 (Diocese of Limburg); July 24 (Diocese of Trier).

Bibliography: Patrologia Latina ed. j. p. migne 71:639–654. Acta Sanctorum July 2:327–346. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 4:411–423. a. schÜtte, Handbuch der deutschen Heiligen (Cologne 1941) 145. e. ewig, Trier im Merowingerreich (Trier 1954) 88. m. coens, "Un Martyrologe de Saint-Géréon de Cologne" Analecta Bollandiana 79 (1961) 78; "Coloniensia" ibid. 80 (1962) 152, 159, 162. j. dubois, "Le Martyrologe de Wandelbert" ibid. 79 (1961) 288. r. gazeau, Catholicisme 5:75. f. pauly, "Der heilige Goar und Bischof Rustikus" Trierer Theologische Zeitschrift 70 (1961) 47–54. h. e. stiene, Wandalbert von Prüm, Vita et miracula Sancti Goaris (Frankfurt am Main 1981).

[h. dressler]