St. Trudpert

Missionary in Germany in the seventh century. He is generally called a Celtic monk from Ireland, but some consider him a German. According to legend, he went first to Rome in order to receive from the pope authority for his mission. Returning from Italy he travelled along the Rhine to the country of the Alamanni in the Breisgau. A person of rank named Otbert gave him land for his mission about fifteen miles south of Freiburg in Baden. Trudpert cleared off the trees and built a cell and a little church which Bishop Martinus of Constance dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul. Here Trudpert led an ascetic and laborious life. One day when he was asleep he was murdered by one of the serfs whom Otbert had given him, in revenge for severe tasks imposed. Otbert gave Trudpert an honourable burial. The Benedictine Abbey of St. Trudpert was built in the next century on the spot where Trudpert was buried. The story of his life is so full of legendary details that no correct judgment can be formed of Trudpert's era, the kind of work he did, or of its success. The period when he lived in the Breisgau was formerly given as 640-643; Baur gives 607 as the year of his death. The day of his death is 26 April. In 815 his bones were translated and the first biography of him was written; this biography was revised in the tenth and thirteenth centuries.

Acta SS., April, III, 424-40; Bibliotheca hagiagr. lat. (Brussels, 1898-1900), 1205-6; BAUR, Der Todestag es hl. Trudpert in Freiburger Dioesanar chiv, XI (Freiburg, 1877), 247-52.

Klemens Löffler.