VIRGIL, abbot-bishop of Sankt Peter in Salzburg, saint. — Latinized as such, or Fergil (Feregil), of Irish origin, b. ca. 700, d. 27 Nov. 784.
A monk, then abbot at Aghaboe, he acquired a broad culture, including scientific knowledge, especially in mathematics and geography. Following the example of many Irish-Scottish monks, in 743 he went to the Frankish kingdom, to Pippin, and in 745 moved to Bavaria, to Duke Odilo. After the death of the abbot-bishop of Salzburg, John, Odilo sent him there as abbot of the monastery of Sankt Peter and at the same time bishop of Salzburg. Virgil, still a deacon, used a traveling bishop to perform episcopal functions. He received consecration only in 755 (according to others in 767). His rule was among the most important of the early bishops of Salzburg. He had disputes with St. Boniface over liturgical and doctrinal matters, but managed to defend himself. Though abbot of St. Peter, he built a separate, grand cathedral, destroyed in the 16th century, consecrated on 24 Sept. 744, and established a chapter there (a prelude to the separation between St. Peter and the bishopric). To deepen the penetration of Christianity, he founded or promoted the founding of Benedictine monasteries, such as Mondsee (748), Mattsee (before 784), Innichen (now San Candido in Alto Adige, 769), and Kremsmünster (777), which were entrusted with the mission to the east. More significant was his assumption of the mission among the Slavs of Carantania (Carinthia), where he established a chorepiscopate, preparing the great missionary expansion of Salzburg (v.). Virgil is also the first author of the famous *Verbrüderungsbuch* of St. Peter, that is, a catalogue of monasteries and churches spiritually affiliated, which remained in use until the 13th century, with more than 8,000 names, one of the oldest and most renowned books of this kind (ed. by S. Herzberg-Fränkel, in MGH, Necrologia, II. Berlin 1890-1904). He was buried in the cathedral of Salzburg. In 1233 Gregory IX canonized him. His relics now rest, together with those of St. Rupert, beneath the high altar of the new cathedral, where they were transferred in 1628.