St. Magnus

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

(MAGNOALDUS, MAGINALDUS, popularly known as ST. MANG)

An apostle of the Algäu, d. about 750 (655?). The history of St. Magnus is shrouded in obscurity. The only source is an old "Vita S. Magni", which, however, contains so many manifest anachronisms that little reliance can be placed on it. It relates that two Irish missionaries Columbanus and Gall, spent some time with Willimar, a priest at Arbon. Here Gall fell sick and was put in charge of Magnus and Theodore (Maginald and Theodo), two clerics living with Willimar, while Columbanus proceeded to Italy and founded the monastery of Bobbio. When Gall had been miraculously informed of the death of Columbanus he sent Magnus to pray at his grave in Bobbio. Magnus returned from Bobbio with the staff of Columbanus and thereafter they followed his rule. After the death of Gall, Magnus succeeded him as superior of the cell.

About this time a priest of the Diocese of Augsburg, named Tozzo, came as a pilgrim to the grave of St. Gall and invited Magnus to accompany him to the eastern part of Algäu. Magnus proceeded to Eptaticus (Epfach), where Bishop Wichbert of Augsburg received him and entrusted him with the Christianization of Eastern Algäu. He penetrated into the wilderness, then crossed the River Lech at a place which is still known as St. Mangstritt (footstep of St. Magnus) and built a cell, where afterwards the monastery of Füssen was erected, and where he died.

The "Life" is said to have been written by Theodore, the companion of Magnus, and placed in the grave under the head of St. Magnus. When in 851 Bishop Lanto transferred the relics to the newly erected church of Fussen, this "Life" is said to have been found in a scarcely legible condition, and to have been emendated and rewritten by Ermenrich, a monk of Ellwangen. It was re-edited with worthless additions in 1070 by Othloh of St. Emmeram. A manuscript is preserved at the Monastery of St. Gall (Codex 565). The chief inconsistencies in the "Life" are the following: St. Magnus is made a disciple of St. Gall (d. 627) and at the same time he is treated as a contemporary of Wichbert, the first historically established bishop of Augsburg (d. about 749). Other manifest impossibilities have induced Mabillon (Acta SS. O.S B., II, 505 sq.) Rettberg (Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, II, 147 sq.), Hanck (Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands 4th ed., 1, 339 sq.), and others, to reject the whole "Life" as a forgery of a much later date, while Steichele (Bistum Augsburg, IV, 338 sq.), Baumann (Geschichte des Allgaus, I, 93 sq.), and many others conclude that the first part of the wife", where Magnus is made a companion of St. Gall, is a later addition, and that the second part was written in 851 when the relics of the saint were transferred. The opinion of Steichele and Baumann is the one generally followed at present. They maintain that a monk of Ellwangen (probably not Ermenrich, as Goldast asserts without any authority) wrote the "Life" in 851, when the body of Magnus was transferred. To attach more weight to the "Life", the story was given out that it had been written by Theodore, the companion of Magnus, and was found with the body of the saint but in a scarcely legible condition; that therefore a monk of Ellwangen was ordered to rewrite it. (This was a common custom of the early Middle Ages.) The "Life", as it was written by the monk of Ellwallgen, is an account of the ninth-century popular tradition. When Bishop Abbot Solomon III of Constance dedicated a church in honour of St. Magnus at the monastery of St. Gall, he received a relic and the "Life" from the monks of Füssen. The monks of St. Gall had a tradition of another Magnus, who was a companion of St. Gall and lived 100 years before the Apostle of the Algau. They now wrote a new "Life", in which they blended the tradition of the earlier Magnus with the "Life" which they had received from Füssen. This accounts for the historical discrepancies. His feast is celebrated on 6 Sept.

Acta SS, Sept., II, 700- 81; STEICHELE, Bistum Augsburg, IV (Ausgsburg, 1885), 338-369; BAUMANN, Geschichte des Allgus, I (Kempten, 1883), 93-98; SEPP, Zur Magnuslegende in Beilage zur Augsburger Postzeitung, no 36 (29 June, 1901), 283-86 ; BABENSTUBER, St. Magnus Algoisorum Apostolus (Tegernsee, 1721); TRAFRATHSHOFER, Der hl. Magnus, Apostel des Algaues (Kempten, 1842); MAYER VON KNONAU in Realencyk. fur Protestantische Theologie und Kirche, XII (Leipzig, 1903), 75-6.

MICHAEL OTT