RABANUS (Hrabanus, Rhabanus, Magnentius), MAURUS. - Benedictine, b. at Mainz ca. 784, d. there on 4 February 856.

Trained in sacred and secular letters by Haimo in the school of Fulda and then by Alcuin in that of Tours, he was ordained priest in 814 and from 817 directed the school of the abbey of Fulda. Ordained priest in 814, elected abbot in 822, he resigned in 842 and retired to Petersberg. On 26 June 847 he was elected archbishop of Mainz.

R. rightly deserves the title of praeceptor Germaniae. Thanks to his pedagogical learning, Fulda was transformed into an intellectual center of the first order, which fostered the progress of literary and theological knowledge in a country where these were almost non-existent. R. cultivated learning only in order to provide the clergy with the equipment necessary to spread Christianity in Germany. To this end he wrote a great number of works which share the character of practical manuals, useful for instructing in the truth of the faith populations that were still barbarian; for example, the commentaries on almost all the books of Sacred Scripture, in which passages from the Holy Fathers and allegorical senses abound; De institutione clericorum, the work of R. that exercised the greatest influence; De universo libri viginti duo, a broad encyclopedic treatise, the fruit of assiduous reading, which preludes the various Summae, Treasures, and Mirrors left by the Middle Ages; Homilies for the course of the ecclesiastical year and on the virtuous Christian life; a historical Martyrologium, dependent on that of Bede; poems and festal hymns, among them the Veni Creator; a copious and important collection of letters.

R. struggled against Gottschalk, his former pupil, who professed dangerous theories concerning a twofold predestination, the one to the joys of Paradise, the other to the pains of Hell. R. distinguished two things quite different from one another: predestination, by virtue of which the good will be saved, and divine foreknowledge concerning the damnation of hardened sinners. In October 848 an assembly of bishops, presided over by R., declared Gottschalk guilty of heresy.

Bibliography14 works

BIBL.: Works in PL 107-12; the Poems in MGH. Poëtae latini Medii aevi, II, edited by E. Dümmler, Hannover 1884, pp. 159-258; the Letters, ibid., Epistolar., V, II, edited by E. Dümmler, ibid. 1899, pp. 379-516; for the De institutione clericorum the edition of A. Knöpfler, Munich 1901, should be consulted; of the short poem De laudibus s. Crucis a copy existed at Ivrea in 1439 (cf. G. Borghesio, Inventari e notizie della Bibl. capitolare d'Ivrea nel sec. XV, in Miscellanea Ehrle, V [Studi e testi, 41], Rome 1924, p. 431). Studies: F. Kunstmann, Hrabanus Magnentius Maurus, Mainz 1841; L. Wüllner, Das Hrabanische Glossar u. die ältesten bayerischen Sprachdenkmäler, Berlin 1882; E. Dümmler, Hrabanus-Studien, Berlin 1893; S. Birkle, R. M. und seine Lehre von der Eucharistie, in Studien u. Mittheil. O.S.B., 1902, pp. 76-86, 339-60, 609-24; 1903, pp. 33-57; A. Achelis, Martyrologien, 1900, pp. 213-37; G. M. Dreves, Hymnologischen Studien zu Venantius Fortunatus u. R. M., Leipzig 1908; G. M. Dreves - C. Blume, Ein Jahrtausend lateinische Hymnendichtung, I, Leipzig 1909, pp. 76-83; Manitius, I, 288-302 (with ample bibl.); H. Pellier, s. v. in DTBC, XIII, coll. 1601-20.

Guglielmo Mollat

@incollection{ec10_rabano_hrabanus_rhabanus_magne, author = {Mollat, Guglielmo}, title = {Rabano (Hrabanus, rhabanus, magnentius), mauro}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {439--440}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/rabano-hrabanus-rhabanus-magnentius-mauro} }

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Rabanus (Hrabanus, Rhabanus, Magnentius), Mauro

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