MEINRAD (MEGINRAD), Saint. – Born toward the end of the 8th century at Sülchgau (Germany), died on 21 January 861 at Einsiedeln. Educated at the abbey of Reichenau, he became a monk and priest, and director of the school at Benken on the upper Lake of Zurich. About 835 he withdrew into the forest where the abbey of Einsiedeln later arose; there he was killed by robbers, who, it is said, were then betrayed by two ravens that still figure in the coat of arms of the abbey of Einsiedeln. His body, first buried at Reichenau, was brought back to Einsiedeln in 1039. His feast is kept on 21 January.
BIBL.: The most ancient Life, authoritative in MGH, Scriptores, XV, pp. 445-48 and in O. Ringholz, Die Geschichte des Stifts Einsiedeln, Einsiedeln 1904, pp. 647-53, where a second Life by George of Gengenbach (1378) is also published, legendary in character (pp. 653-57); the famous Blockbuch of Einsiedeln (1550) contains a legend of M. with various woodcuts. Cf. also: O. Ringholz, St. Meinradsbüchlein, Einsiedeln 1905.
