Wandalbert of Prüm: Vita Sancti Goaris

This is Wandalbert of Prüm’s revision of the life and miracles of Saint Goar, a hermit of the sixth century who lived on the Rhine at the place now called Sankt Goar. The prologue observes that the miracles of God must always be told, but that many recent ones are forgotten through negligence, and laments that the study of letters had long lain neglected in Gaul until revived by the generosity of princes. The life tells of Goar’s hospitality to travellers and his conflict with a bishop of Trier, who accused him of magic because he ate in the morning and was impatient of fasting; the hermit was vindicated by miracles.

Wandalbert reworked an older Merovingian life at the request of Marcward, abbot of Prüm, which held the cell of Sankt Goar, and added a book of miracles of his own time. His prologue’s remarks on the decline and revival of letters are a well-known witness to the Carolingian sense of a cultural renewal. The work also contains vivid scenes of life on the Rhine, including shipping and the dangers of the river, and documents Prüm’s interest in the shrine.