RUPRECHT (Hruobert, Rupert), Saint. - First bishop of Salzburg, d. 27 March 718 (?). A monk, Irish or Scottish, if not by birth, at least by education and spiritual formation, he was summoned, in the early years of Childeric III, king of the Franks (691-711), to Regensburg by Duke Theodo of Bavaria for the conversion of his people. R. was bishop, or at least chorepiscopus, at Worms.

R. established the first episcopal see on the shores of the Wallersee, building a church in honor of St. Peter, patron of the cathedral of Worms (present-day Seekirchen, Upper Austria); but before long he received from Theodo as a gift a more suitable locality, on the Salzach, among the ruins of ancient Iuvavum (present-day Salzburg). R. devoted himself with energy to the work of conversion and civilization of the vast subalpine and alpine regions (as far as the Tauri and the Enns), erecting as a center of irradiation the abbey of St. Peter (Sankt Peter, at Salzburg), and that of nuns, dedicated to St. Mary (Nonnberg), with his niece St. Erentrude as its head.

The figure and the work of the Saint survived in the veneration of the people; one of the first successors, St. Virgil, transferred the relics of R. to the new Cathedral (24 Sept. 774), which, according to the customs of the time, is equivalent to a true canonization. R. is patron of the city, diocese and province of Salzburg, greatly venerated also in Bavaria, patron of the salt mines, the wealth of those regions, for which reason he is almost always represented with a small barrel of salt in his hand. Feast on 27 March.

RUPERT, saint - St. R. before the Crucifix; behind the Saint, his mother Berta and St. Peter of Salzburg. Engraving of 1524.(from *Die Legende des heiligen Herzog Ruprecht*, Oppenheim 1821, *pl. facing p. 7*)

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: sources: the primitive life (c. 870), that is, the beginning of the Libellus de conversione Baqueriorum et Curantanorum, in MGH, Scriptores, XI, pp. 4-5; to be framed with the oldest, but very summary, notices of the Notitia Arnonis and the Breves notitiae (history of the bishopric of Salzburg, c. 790), in Salisburger Urkundenbuch, I, Salzburg 1910, p. 1 ff.; Vita or Gesta Hruoberti (c. 740, according to others however c. 850), in MGH, Script. rerum Meroving., VI, p. 140 ff. The literature on R. is very extensive, above all because of the question of the time in which he lived. Recent treatments in E. Tomek, Kirchengesch. Österr., I, Innsbruck 1935, pp. 65-70; W. Hauthaler, Die dem hl. R., Apostel v. Bayern, geweihten Kirchen u. Kapellen, Salzburg 1885; J. Braun, Tracht u. Attribute der Heiligen in der deutschen Kunst, Stuttgart 1943, pp. 636-37.

Giuseppe Löw

@incollection{ec10_ruperto_hruobert_ruprecht_sant, author = {Lów, Giuseppe}, title = {Ruperto (Hruobert, ruprecht), santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1445--1446}, 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/ruperto-hruobert-ruprecht-santo} }

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Ruprecht (Hruobert, Rupert), Saint

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