Saint Rupert of Salzburg

Rupert of Salzburg (German: Ruprecht, Latin: Robertus, Rupertus; c. 660 – 710 AD) was Bishop of Worms as well as the first Bishop of Salzburg and abbot of St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg. He was a contemporary of the Frankish king Childebert III. Rupert is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Rupert is also patron saint of the Austrian state of Salzburt Holy tradition states that Rupert was a scion of the Frankish royal Merovingian dynasty; he was possibly related to the Robertians, and likely a descendant of Count palatine Chrodbert II. In his missionary work in Germany Rupert was accompanied by Saints Chuniald and Gislar, but no records of their acts have survived. As bishop at Worms, Rupert was first accepted as a wise and devout dignitary, but the mostly pagan community came to reject him and forced him out of the city by the end of the 7th century. The Agilolfing duke Theodo of Bavaria requested that he come to his residence at Regensburg (Ratisbon) to help spread the Christian faith among the Bavarian tribes. Rupert then moved to Altötting, where he started his missionary work by preaching to the locals. He would sail down the Danube river, visiting many towns, villages and forts. Soon he had converted a large population along the Danube, reaching southeastward to the Bavarian border with the Pannonian lands, which were under the rule of the Avar Khaganate. Here, he stayed at Lorch, the former Roman city of Lauriacum (today part of Enns), where an early Christian church—the present Basilica of St. Lawrence—already existed. Warlike conditions in the borderlands made him abandon plans of missionary work in the territories of the Pannonian Avars. Instead, he proceeded along the Roman road via Seekirchen to the ruined city of Juvavum, which he made his base and renamed "Salzburg" (Latin: Salisburgum). As in Lorch, Rupert was able to build on early Christian traditions that were already in place.