Saints Along The Romantic Road
Plenty
of visitors from the UK and Ireland get confused when they see familiar
names popping up as the patron saints for a particular area or involved
in the legends surrounding the founding of a city.
Much of the story has to do with the preservation of Christianity in the remote regions of Scotland, Ireland and northern England following the withdrawal of the Romans and the eventual missionary work carried out by monks and bishops to other parts of Europe.
Germany was especially favoured because of the influence of the part of England settled by the Saxon invaders.
St Kilian of Würzburg
Originally in born in Ireland in the 7th century, St Kilian had a major role in the growth of Würzburg into a city, as his rediscovered remains became a point of pilgrimage to the settlement. More details about his story can be seen in the article St Kilian and Würzburg in the Würzburg section.
St Lioba of Tauberbischofsheim
St Lioba was another of the northern European missionaries to the southern German population. She was born in Wessex in the 8th century and was a follower of St Boniface, who created a convent in Tauberbischofsheim and appointed her the first abbess. Lioba was regarded highly amongst the religious and political hierarchy (almost entirely male) of the area and was an advisor to both Pepin and his son Charlemagne, rulers of the Frankish empire. The main shrine to St Lioba is in Fulda.
St Ulrich & St Afra of Augsburg
St Afra is probably the oldest of the saints on this page as her martyrdom is supposed to have taken place in the latter part of Roman rule (around the 4th century). Afra was a Christian inhabitant of Augsburg who was burnt at the stake on an island in the River Lech for refusing to take part in pagan rituals.
St Ulrich dates from much later and was a Bishop of Augsburg in the 10th century (in fact, he led the Roman Catholic church in Germany at the time). Originally a sickly Swabian (or Swiss, depending on the source) he rose to the highest ranks of the church and stayed there through his piety and the fact that he organised the successful defence of the city against Hungarian invaders.
St Magnus of Füssen
St Magnus, or - as he is popularly known in Bavaria and the Tirol - St Mang, is one of the best-known saints of the Romantic Road. Yet there is very little that can be discovered about him outside the popular traditions.
Apparently he was part of the missionary settlement started by Irish monks in the eastern part of Switzerland, although this may be a confusion with an earlier Magnus. At any rate, he became known as the Apostle of the Allgäu and was responsible for the foundation of the monastery at Füssen.
