Rupert (or Ruprecht, Ie Robert), St

Rupert (Or Ruprecht, I.E. Robert), St., the apostle OF BAVARIA. The exact period in which this personage lived is not known, and is the subject of continued dispute, the limits being from about A.D. 580 to 700 sq. The authorities are the Salzburg Chronicles from the 12th to the 14th century, on the one hand; and the Vita Primigenia, composed about 873 (see Kleinmayr, Nachr. vom Zustande d. Gegend u. Stadt Juvavia [Salzb. 1784, suppl. p. 7 sq.]), the so called Congestum of bishop Arno of Salzburg, the Breves Notitioe of the time of bishop Virgil (died 784), etc., on the other. The preponderance of opinion is towards the later date, according to which Rupert entered on his work of conversion in 696, after a beginning had already been made by other agents. Concerning his life, it is related that he sprang from the royal family of the Franks, became bishop of Worms, and was invited by duke Theodo to preach the cross in his Bavarian dominions. Having consented, he was received at Ratisbon with great solemnity, and baptized the duke, many nobles, and large numbers of the common people. He was also permitted to select a place for his settlement anywhere in the country, and for this purpose traversed the land, everywhere preaching the Gospel; and after a temporary experiment elsewhere, he finally chose the spot covered by the splendid ruins of a Roman city on the Juvavum (Salzach), and there built an episcopal residence, church, and convents. This was the beginning of the town and diocese of Salzburg (about A.D. 700), which in the time of Arno, the tenth successor of Rupert, was raised into a metropolitan see. Rupert placed twelve pupils from Worms in the monastery, and assigned the nunnery to the virgin Erindrud. After further tours for preaching, the founding of other churches, and the appointing of a successor, he returned to his proper see (propria sedes), and there died on Easter Sunday. So the Vita Primigenia, though Arnold of Vochburg lets him die at Salzburg. See Rudhard, in the München. Gelehrte-Anzeigen, 1837, Nos. 196222; 1845, Nos. 80-83; Aelteste Gesch. Bayezns (Hamb. 1841); Rettberg, Kirch. Gesch. 2, 193 sq.; Kurtz, Handb. der allgem. Kirchengesch. 2, 1, 120 sq.