Fridolin St.

The histoery of Fridolin, written in the 10th century by Valtherus (Walter), a monk of Sackingen, cannot, according to Rettberg, be considered as a really historical source, yet is received by learned Roman Catholics as an authority. The best edition is contained in Mone's Quellansammlung d. bidischen Landesgeschichte. All our knowledge of hilm is derived from this biography. The exact time of his life even is unknown, but he is generally considered as a coantemporary of Chlodwig I (t 511). According to this biography he was a Celt, but left the British islands to escape the reputation hue had gained by his preaching. In Poitiers he brought back the people and the clergy to the veneration of their St. Hilary, whose relics he brought to light, and to whom he erected a church. He is also said to have been the first apostle of Germany. While seeking an island in the Rhine which had been shown him in a vision by Hilary, he came to Chur, or, according to others, to Glarus, where he brought a dead man back to life; in consequence, he is considered as the patron of the canton, and is still represented on its coat of arms. He finally found the island he sought between Schaffhausen and Basel, and founded there a church to St. Hilary and the nunnery of Sackingan, where, after the Rhine had, at his request, moved to another bed (!), he died, on the 6th of November, on which day he is commemorated. According to Rettherin, this biography is a legend invented for the purpose of establishing the right of the convent to the whole island; and his travels were imagined to give the divers churches erected to St. Hilary in different places a renowned founder. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 4:595.