Reinold Explained

Honorific Prefix:Saint
Reinold
Titles:Martyr
Death Date:ca. 960
Venerated In:Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Church
Feast Day:7 January
Attributes:body armor, holding a shield
Patronage:stonemasons[1]

Reinold (also known as Reinoldus, Reinhold of Cologne or in German Reinhold von Köln) was a Benedictine monk who lived in the 10th century. Supposedly a direct descendant of Charlemagne, and the fourth son mentioned in the romantic poem Duke Aymon, by William Caxton.[2] The poem is Caxton's translation of the long French Chanson de Geste, Les Quatre Fils Aymon (The Four Sons of Aymon), where Renaud de Montauban dies in an almost identical manner.[3]

Reinold began his religious life by entering the Benedictine monastery of Pantaleon in Cologne, where he was appointed head of a building project occurring in the abbey. He often joined the stonemasons in their work, at times surpassing them. This led to the unsavoury event of his murder at the hands of the same stonemasons he worked with. Reinold was beaten to death with hammers and his body deposited into a pool near the Rhine. His body was later found through divine means, leading to the attribution of Reinold as the patron saint of stonemasons.

Notes and References

  1. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4577 St. Reinold
  2. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4577 St. Reinold
  3. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/AHA2639/1:3?rgn=div1;view=fulltext Corpus of Middle English Prose and Text