Walafrid (also Walahfrid), surnamed Strabo (or Strabus, i.e. "squint-eyed") (d. August 18, 849), German monk and theological writer, was born about 808 in Swabia. Strabo (squinty) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. ... August 18 is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events Births Deaths August 18 - Walafrid Strabo, German monk and theologian Categories: 849 ... Swabia (German: Schwaben) is both a historic and linguistic region in Germany. ...

Life

Walafrid was educated at the monastery of Reichenau, near Constance, where he had for his teachers Tatto and Wettin, to the dying visions of the latter he devotes one of his poems. Then he went to Fulda, where he studied for some time under Hrabanus Maurus before returning to Reichenau, of which monastery he was appointed abbot in 838, by Louis the Pious. In 840, he was exiled from the Reichenau, fleeing to Spires: There is a story (based, however, on no good evidence) that this was because Walafrid devoted himself so closely to letters as to neglect the duties of his office; but, from his own verses, it seems that the real cause of his flight was that, notwithstanding the fact that he had been tutor to Charles the Bald, he espoused the side of his elder brother Lothair on the death of Louis the Pious in 840. He was, however, restored to his monastery in 842, and he died on 18 August, 849, drowning in the Loire on an embassy to Charles. His epitaph was written by Hrabanus Maurus, whose elegiacs praise him for being the faithful guardian of his monastery. 15th-century towers on the Romanesque church of Sts Peter and Paul in Reichenau-Niederzell Reichenau Island lies in Lake Constance in southern Germany, at approximately 47°42′N 9°4′E. It lies between the Gnadensee and the Untersee, almost due west of the city of Constance. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Wettinus Augiensis (Wettin of Reichenau) was a 9th century monk. ... Fulda is a city in Hessen, Germany; it is located on the Fulda River and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district. ... Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (c. ... Events At Hingston Down, Egbert of Wessex beats the Danish and the West Welsh. ... Louis the Pious doing penance at Attigny in 822. ... Events After the death of Louis the Pious, his sons Lothar, Charles the Bald and Louis the German fight over the division of the empire, with Lothair succeding as Emperor. ... Speyer (English formerly Spires) is a city in Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate) with approx. ... Charles the Bald - Detail from a painting in the First Bible of Charles the Bald, painted ca. ... Events Oaths of Strasbourg — alliance of Louis the German and Charles the Bald against emperor Lothar — sworn and recorded in vernacular languages. ... Loire is a département in the east-central part of France occupying the Loire Rivers upper reaches. ...

Works

Walafrid Strabo's works are theological, historical and poetical. Of his theological works the most famous is the great exegetical compilation which, under the name of Glosa ordinaria or the Glosa, remained for some 500 years the most widespread and important quarry of medieval biblical science, and even survived the Reformation, passing into numerous editions as late as the 17th century (see Hist, littéraire de la France, t. y. p. 59 ff.). The oldest known copy, in four folio volumes, of which the date and origin are unknown, but which is certainly almost entirely Walafrid's work, gives us his method. In the middle of the pages is the Latin text of the Bible; in the margins are the "glosses," consisting of a very full collection of patristic excerpts in illustration and explanation of the text. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ...

There is also an exposition of the first twenty psalms (published by Fez in Anecdota nova, iv.) and an epitome of Hrabanus Maurus's commentary on Leviticus. An Expositio quatuor Evangeliorum is also ascribed to Walafrid. Of singular interest also is his De exordiis et incrementis rerum ecclesiasticarum, written between 840 and 842 and dedicated to Regenbert the librarian. It deals in 32 chapters with ecclesiastical usages, churches, altars, prayers, bells, pictures, baptism and the Holy Communion. Incidentally he introduces into his explanations the current German expressions for the things he is treating of, with the apology that Solomon had set him the example by keeping monkeys as well as peacocks at his court. Of special interest is the fact that Walafrid, in his exposition of the Mass, shows no trace of any belief in the doctrine of transubstantiation as taught by his famous contemporary Radbertus; according to him, Christ gave to his disciples the sacraments of his Body and Blood in the substance of bread and wine, and taught them to celebrate them as a memorial of his Passion. The Eucharist is either the Christian sacrament of consecrated bread and wine or the ritual surrounding it. ... Solomon (Hebrew, Shlomo from Shalom for peace, also Arabic as Suleiman or Sulyaman meaning peace) can mean any of the following: 1. ... Radbertus Paschasius (d. ...

Walafrid's chief historical works are the rhymed Vita sancti Galli, which, though written nearly two centuries after this saint's death, is still the primary authority for his life, and a much shorter life of Saint Othmar, abbot of St. Gall (died 759). A critical edition of them by E. Dümmler is in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica "Poetae Latini", ii. (1884), p. 259 ff. Walafrid's poetical works also include a short life of St Blaithmaic, a high-born monk of Iona, murdered by the Danes in the first half of the 9th century; a life of St Mammas; and a Liber de visionibus Wettini. Alternate uses: see St. ... Abbey of St. ... Events The Franks capture Narbonne; the Saracens are completely driven out of Japanese poet Otomo no Yakamochi compiled the first Japanese poetry anthology Manyoshu. ... Ernst Ludwig Dümmler (2 January 1830 - 11 September 1902) was a German historian. ... 1884 is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar). ... Iona seen from Fionnphort, the ferry point on the Isle of Mull Iona, population 175, is a small island (1 mile wide, 3. ...

This last poem, like the two preceding ones written in hexameters, was composed at the command of "Father" Adalgisus, and based upon the prose narrative of Heto, abbot of Reichenau from 806 to 822. It is dedicated to Wettin's brother Grimald. At the time he sent it to Grimald Walafrid had, as he himself tells us, hardly passed his eighteenth year, and he begs his correspondent to revise his verses, because, "as it is not lawful for a monk to hide anything from his abbot," he fears he may be beaten with deserved stripes. In this curious vision, Walafrid's teacher Wettin saw Charles the Great suffering purgatorial tortures because of his incontinence. The name of the ruler alluded to is not indeed introduced into the actual text, but "Carolus Imperator" form the initial letters of the passage dealing with this subject. Many of Walafrid's other poems are, or include, short addresses to kings and queens (Lothar, Charles, Louis, Pippin, Judith, etc.) and to friends (Einhard; Grimald; Hrabanus Maurus; Tatto; Ebbo, archbishop of Reims; Drogo, bishop of Metz; etc.). Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ... Events April 12 - Nicephorus elected patriarch of Constantinople, succeeding Tarasius. ... Statue of Charlemagne in Frankfurt, a Romantic interpretation of his appearance from the 19th century Charlemagne (c. ... Sir Anduin Lothar Sir Anduin Lothar was a knight in the fictional universe of Warcraft in the Kingdom of Azeroth. ... Pepin III (714 - September 24, 768) more often known as Pepin the Short (French, Pépin le Bref; German, Pippin der Kleine), was a King of the Franks (751 - 768). ... Einhard as scribe Einhard (also Eginhard or Einhart) (born about 775 in the valley of the River Main, died March 14, 840, at Seligenstadt, Germany) was a Frankish historian and a dedicated servant of Charlemagne. ... Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (c. ... Saint Mark from the Ebbo Gospels. ... The Archdiocese of Reims was founded (as a diocese) around 250 by St. ... Drogo (French: Dreux or Drogon; Italian: Drogone) was the name of several historical figures: Drogo of Champagne (670-708), duke of Champagne Drogo of Metz, bishop of Metz and son of Charlemagne (see Drogo Sacramentary) Drogo of Mantes (996-1035), count of the Véxin Drogo of Hauteville, count of...

His most famous poem is the Hortulus, dedicated to Grimald. It is an account of a little garden that he used to tend with his own hands, and is largely made up of descriptions of the various herbs he grows there and their medicinal and other uses. Sage holds the place of honor; then comes rue, the antidote of poisons; and so on through melons, fennel, lilies, poppies, and many other plants, to wind up with the rose, "which in virtue and scent surpasses all other herbs, and may rightly be called the flower of flowers." The curious poem De Imagine Tetrici takes the form of a dialogue; it was inspired by an equestrian statue of Theodoric the Great which stood in front of Charlemagne's palace at Aix-la-Chapelle. Species see List of Salvia species Sage is a term used for plants of the genus Salvia of the mint family, Lamiaceae. ... Species Between 8-40 species, including: Ruta angustifolia - Egyptian Rue Ruta chalepensis - Fringed Rue Ruta corsica - Corsican Rue Ruta graveolens - Common Rue Ruta montana - Mountain Rue Rue (Ruta), also known as herb-o-grace, is a genus of strongly scented evergreen subshrubs 20-60 cm tall, in the family Rutaceae... Binomial name Cucumis melo L. The melon is the fruit and plant of a typically vine-like (climber and trailer) herb that was first cultivated more than 4000 years ago (~ 2000 BC) in Persia and Africa. ... Binomial name Foeniculum vulgare Mill. ... lily is the best name in the whole wide world. ... Papaver rhoeas Poppy at High Wood cemetery, France. ... Species About 100, see text A rose is a flowering shrub of the genus Rosa and the flower of this shrub. ... Theodoric the Great (454 - August 30, 526), known to the Romans as Flavius Theodoricus, was king of the East Goths, the Ostrogoths (488-526), ruler of Italy (493-526), and regent of the Visigoths (511-526). ... Map of Germany showing Aachen Aachen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the border with Belgium and the Netherlands, 65 km to the west of Cologne, and the westernmost city in Germany, at 50°46 N, 6°6 E. Population: 256,605 (2003). ...

Codex Sangallensis 878 may be Walafrid's personal brevarium, begun when he was a student at Fulda. Codex Sangallensis 878 is a manuscript kept in the library of the Abbey of St. ...

Bibliography

• For a bibliography of Walafrid's historical works, and of writings dealing with them, see Potthast, Bibliotheca hist. mediaevi (Berlin, 1894), p. 1102 ff.
• Walafrid's works are published in Migne's Patrologia Latina, vols. cxiii. and cxiv.
• For further references see the article by Edouard Reuss and Albert Hauck in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (Leipzig, 1908), xx. 790.

Jacques Paul Migne (25 October 1800 - 25 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely-distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias and the texts of the Church Fathers. ... The Patrologia Latina is an enormous work published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1844 and 1855, with indices published between 1862 and 1865. ... Edouard Guillaume Eugène Reuss (July 18, 1804 – April 15, 1891), was a Protestant theologian. ...

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia

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