| Saint Trudpert | |
| Death Date: | ~~607 or 644 AD |
| Feast Day: | April 26 |
| Venerated In: | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Birth Place: | Ireland or Germany |
| Attributes: | axe, palm of martyrdom |
Saint Trudpert (d. 607 or 644) was a missionary in Germany in the seventh century. He is generally called a Celtic monk from Ireland, but some consider him a German.
Having procured the approval of the pope for his mission, Trudpert traveled along the Rhine until he came to Breisgau, where he established a hermitage near Munstertal. The local lord gave him the land, where Trudpert cleared the trees and built a cell. The noble also loaned him some serfs to assist with his labors. According to tradition, Trudpert was murdered by two of them.[1] He was buried in his oratory, which became a site of pilgrimage.
According to legend, he went first to Rome in order to receive from the pope authority for his mission. Returning from Italy he traveled along the Rhine to the country of the Alamanni in the Breisgau. A person of rank named Otbert gave him land for his mission about 25km (16miles) south of Freiburg in Baden, today a part of the village Münstertal, Black Forest.[2]
Trudpert cleared off the trees and built a cell and a little oratory which later Bishop Martinus of Constance dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul. Here Trudpert led an ascetic and laborious life.[2]
According to a now discounted tradition, one day when he was asleep he was murdered under a pine by one of the serfs whom Otbert had given him, in revenge for severe tasks imposed. Otbert gave Trudpert an honourable burial. The Benedictine Abbey of St. Trudpert was built in the next century on the spot where Trudpert was buried. The story of his life is so full of legendary details that no correct judgment can be formed of Trudpert's era, the kind of work he did, or of its success. The period when he lived in the Breisgau was formerly given as 640-643; Baur gives 607 as the year of his death. The day of his death is 26 April.[2]
In 815 his bones were translated and the first biography of him was written; this biography was revised in the tenth and thirteenth centuries. His reliquary came finally to the abbey church of St. Trudpert and parts are held in the Ettenheimmünster monastery.[3]