Goar, St

Goar, St.

a French anchorite, was born in Aquitaine about the year 585. The legend says that, after being ordained priest, he devoted himself to the propagation of Christianity, and left his family to retire to the neighborhood of Oberwesel (Germany), where he erected a small chapel (at the place since called St. (Goar), beside his cell, to receive pilgrims, and succeeded in converting a large number of heathen. Some of his enemies, having accused him as "an impostor and a man fond of good living" to Rusticus, bishop of Treves, he cleared himself by performing several miracles. Sigebert III offered to appoint him bishop in the place of Rusticus, but Goar preferred remaining in his humble position. He died July 6, 649, and was buried in the chapel he had erected by Agrippin and Eusebius, two of Sigebert's priests. The Church of St. Goar, on the Rhine, was dedicated to him in 1768. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale. 20:809. (J.N.P.)