Wolfsindis of Reisbach

Wolfsindis of Reisbach is a regional saint of the Middle Ages in Lower Bavaria,[1] who is revered as holy virgin and martyr.[2] Her veneration dates back to the 7th or 8th century.[2]

Saint Wolfsindis of Reisbach, ca. 1900.

According to legend Wolfsindis became a Christian in secret and was slain by her heathen father, whereupon a spring rose up at that spot.[2] A different tradition recounts that, as a Christian virgin, she was bound to the tail of a horse by a rejected suitor and dragged to death.[1]

The saint and her grave were revered at least since the 8th century, when the Bavarian duke Tassilo III (748–788) gave Reisbach to Wessobrunn Abbey in 760.[2] At this place a church synod took place in 798/799. Wolfsindis is further mentioned in a Wessobrunnian necrology from the 10th century, an indenture of Regensburg's bishop Heinrich I (1132–1155) from 1139 and a necrology of the Abbey of Saint Gall from the 12th century. Since 1753 the holy day of Wolfsindis is celebrated in Reisbach and neighbouring Dirnaich. September 2 is held to be Wolfsindis' death and feast day since old times. There are no doubts about her historicity, but there are about her martyrdom.[1] The cult of the saint is connected to a spring cult: In the 18th and 19th century many healings were attributed to the water that nowadays flows from below the altar of the small church erected in 1822.[2]

References
  • Reinhard Höppl: Die Traditionen des Klosters Wessobrunn. Beck Verlag, München 1984, ISBN 3-406-10392-8, p. 5.
  • P. Morsbach: Wolfsindis – die kleine Heilige von Reisbach. In: Ratisbona Sacra. Das Bistum Regensburg im Mittelalter. Exhibition catalogue, art collection of the bishopric of Regensburg, diocesan museum Regensburg, catalogues and scriptures, volume 6. München–Zürich 1989, pp. 301–302.
  • Ekkart Sauser (1998). "Wolfsindis". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 14. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 40–41. ISBN 3-88309-073-5.
  1. Dieter Vogel (ed.): Das Vilstal - Heimatbuch. Kiebitz Buch 1994, Vilsbiburg, pp. 200-201.
  2. P. W. Auer: Wolfsindis, S.. In: Johann E. Stadler, Franz Joseph Heim, Johann N. Ginal (ed.): Vollständiges Heiligen-Lexikon, Volume 5 (Q–Z), B. Schmid’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung (A. Manz), Augsburg 1882, pp. 997-999. - (Appendix to volumes 1 to 5, volume 5, addendum to p. 832)
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