Pirminius, St

Pirminius, St.

a Frankish ecclesiastic and bishop of Melci (Metz, or Melo in St. Gallen, or Medelsheim, near Zweibriicken, or Meaux-on-the-Marne), carried the Gospel along the shores of the lake of Constance; and, protected in his labors by Charles Martel, he founded the monastery of Reichenau. Three years afterwards, however, he was expelled in consequence of a national rising of the Alemanni against the Frankish rule, and he now descended the Rhine and founded a number of monasteries (as Murbach, Schwarzenbach, Neuweiler, Schuttern, Gengenbach, etc.), among them Hornbach, in the diocese of Metz, where he died, Nov. 3. 753, after having met shortly before with St. Boniface. A great many legends surround the life of this servant of Christ, which, however, have no historical basis. Pirminius is said to be the author of Libellus abbmatis Pirminii, de singulis libris canonicis scarapsus (the latter in mediaeval Latin meaning "excerpt"), printed in Mabillon, Vetera Analecta (Paris, 1723, fol.), p. 65-73. See Rettberg, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, 2, 50-58; Hefele, Geschichte der Einfiihrung des Christenthums in südwestlichen Deutschland (Tübing. 1837); G. Th. Rudhard, Alteste Geschichte Bayerns (Hamburg, 1841), p. 346, 371, 372; M. Gorringer, Pirminius, etc. (Zweibr. 1841), p. 384-407; Fink, in Piper's Evangel. Kalender, 1861, 12:129-134; Kurtz, Lehrbuch der Kirchengesch. vol. 1, § 78, p. 1; Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.; Jicher, Gelehrten-Lexikon, s.v.; Theologisches Universal-Lexikon, s.v. (B. P.)