Notable Chronicle of the Hirsau Abbey of the Order of Saint Benedict

MONASTERY OF HIRSAU

He remained buried in Milan for 437 years.

Aurelius is transferred to Hirsau.

...a sweetest shepherd, and indeed a most rewarding advocate. In this, he raises the praises and commendations of the holy prelate Aurelius to heaven with great powers of eloquence. The text likely refers to Saint Ambrose of Milan, who famously praised Aurelius. Thus, the body of Saint Aurelius remained buried there, shining with many miracles, from the time of the reign of Gratian until the reign of Emperor Charlemagne, for nearly 437 years. This continued until Notting, the Bishop of Vercelli, obtained the body through great petitions from the Archbishop of Milan. In the fifth year of Emperor Louis the First, Notting transferred it to his own church. Louis the First is better known as Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne. Not long after, under the same Louis, the body was brought to Germany, his homeland, and placed in the Hirsau monastery as we mentioned before. In that place, to this present day, Almighty God works many virtues and signs through his merits.

CONCERNING LINTBERT, THE FIRST

Lintbert, the first abbot.

In the year of our Lord 838, under the most pious Emperor Louis, the monk Lintbert of Fulda was appointed the first abbot of this monastery. He was chosen by the election of the brothers who had come with him from the heart of the Monastery of Fulda. He was granted the pastoral staff by Otgar, the most reverend Archbishop of Mainz, and presided over the rule of this monastery for sixteen years. The character of Abbot Lintbert. He was born of parents who were not of the lowest rank according to the dignity of the world. He was from Swabia and was the brother of Buno, the Abbot of Hersfeld. Buno himself was a monk of Saint Boniface and served for many years under Abbot Baugulf. When he was made a monk. Furthermore, Lintbert was devoted to God from infancy. He became a monk in the monastery of Fulda in the eighteenth year of his age under the aforementioned Abbot Baugulf, who had succeeded Saint Sturm. As he grew in years, he made great progress in holy character and scholarly knowledge, both under Baugulf and his successors Egilo and Rabanus. He took the monastic habit in the year of our Lord 796, in the fourth indiction. An indiction was a fifteen year cycle used in the Middle Ages for dating documents. He was sent to Hirsau and took up the position of Abbot in the year of our Lord 838, as we said before. He was then 60 years old and in his forty-second year of monastic life. He ruled for 16 years. The holiness of his conduct. He was a man held in great reverence, known to and familiar with kings and princes. From the time he entered the monastery, he lived blamelessly. More importantly, he shone with such holiness that he offered an example of true perfection to everyone in his daily life. We know there are certain compositions on sacred scripture by his teacher Rabanus addressed to him, which seem to have been requested by the talent of this studious man. He wrote on the Song of Songs. I have read a most beautiful little work on the Song of Songs of Solomon under the name of Abbot Lintbert. In this work, he describes the desire and state of the faithful soul thirsting for its God so beautifully, elegantly, and appropriately that, in my judgment, no one I have read has ever treated this subject more clearly. However, I do not have sufficient proof that our Abbot Lintbert of Hirsau is the same author of this work. Yet a devoted reader might be persuaded of it because whoever wrote it did so under Emperor Lothair, the son of Louis, as is clear from the preface of the work itself. Since our Abbot Lintbert was for a long time a student and fellow disciple of Rabanus of Fulda, a man most learned in all things, one must believe he could only have emerged as a most scholarly person. Rabanus presided over the public school at Fulda. For Rabanus himself, while still a monk, held a public school for monks in the monastery of Fulda, which he continued even as abbot. In this school, he instructed monks not only in the sacred scriptures but also in all kinds of secular literature. He did not only teach the monks of the Fulda monastery. He also instructed many disciples in every kind of learning who were sent to him from various other places. Many of these, in the course of time, rose to...