Mamertus

Mamertus ST., archbishop of Vienna, was a brother of Glaudianus Ecdicius Mamertus, SEE CLAUDIANUS, author of the celebrated work De statu animon. St. Mamertus is especially known for having, on the occasion of a great fire, and other accidents which befell the city of Vienna, instituted the Rogations, i.e. penitential prayers for the three days preceding the ascension. Baronius, in his Martyrologium Romanum (Moguntise, 1631), p. 255 sq. and 296, denies that Mamertus was the first to organize these rogations, claiming that they were an old institution which had fallen into disuse, and which he merely revived. Bingham in his Orgini. eccles. (3:80 sq.; 5:29), subsequently took the same view. However, it is certain that the example of Mamertus induced the Council of Orleans, in 511, to introduce the rogations throughout France. They were subsequently adopted by the whole Western Church, by order of Gregory the Great, in 591. Mamertus is generally believed to have died in 475. He is commersorated on the 11th of May. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 8:774; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Genesis 33:129.