Walafrid Strabo
Walafrid, alternatively spelt
Walahfrid, surnamed
Strabo (or
Strabus, i.e. "
squint-eyed") (c. 808 –
August 18,
849), was a
Swabian monk and
theological writer.
Walafrid was born in the
Carolingian duchy of
Svebia (Alamannia) and was educated at the monastery of
Reichenau, near
Constance, where he had for his teachers Tatto and
Wettin, to the dying visions of the latter he devotes one of his poems. Then he went to
Fulda, where he studied for some time under
Hrabanus Maurus before returning to Reichenau, of which monastery he was appointed abbot in
838, by
Louis the Pious. In
840, he was exiled from the Reichenau, fleeing to
Spires: There is a story (based, however, on no good evidence) that this was because Walafrid devoted himself so closely to letters as to neglect the duties of his office; but, from his own verses, it seems that the real cause of his flight was that, notwithstanding the fact that he had been tutor to
Charles the Bald, he espoused the side of his elder brother Lothair on the death of Louis the Pious in 840. He was, however, restored to his monastery in
842, and he died on
18 August,
849, drowning in the
Loire on an embassy to Charles. His epitaph was written by Hrabanus Maurus, whose elegiacs praise him for being the faithful guardian of his monastery.
Walafrid Strabo's works are theological, historical and poetical.
Johannes Trithemius, Abbot of Sponheim (1462-1516), credited him with the authorship of the
Glossa Ordinaria or
Ordinary Gloss on the Bible: the Gloss dates, in fact, from the twelfth century, but Trithemius' erroneous ascription remained current well into the twentieth century. See
Karlfried Froehlich, "The Printed Gloss," in
Biblia Latina cum Glossa Ordinaria, Facsimile Reprint of the Editio Princeps Adolph Rusch of Strassburg 1480/81, intro. Karlfried Froehlich and Margaret T. Gibson (Brepols: Turnhout, 1992).
There is an exposition of the first twenty psalms (published by Fez in
Anecdota nova, iv.) and an epitome of Hrabanus Maurus's commentary on Leviticus. An
Expositio quatuor Evangeliorum is also ascribed to Walafrid. Of singular interest also is his
De exordiis et incrementis rerum ecclesiasticarum, written between 840 and 842 and dedicated to Regenbert the librarian. It deals in 32 chapters with ecclesiastical usages, churches, altars, prayers, bells, pictures, baptism and the
Holy Communion. Incidentally he introduces into his explanations the current German expressions for the things he is treating of, with the apology that
Solomon had set him the example by keeping monkeys as well as peacocks at his court. Of special interest is the fact that Walafrid, in his exposition of the Mass, shows no trace of any belief in the doctrine of transubstantiation as taught by his famous contemporary
Radbertus; according to him, Christ gave to his disciples the sacraments of his Body and Blood in the substance of bread and wine, and taught them to celebrate them as a memorial of his Passion.
Walafrid's chief historical works are the rhymed
Vita sancti Galli (The Life of
Saint Gall), which, though written nearly two centuries after this saint's death, is still the primary authority for his life, and a much shorter life of
Saint Othmar, abbot of
St. Gall (died
759). A critical edition of them by
E. Dümmler is in the
Monumenta Germaniae Historica "Poetae Latini", ii. (
1884), p. 259 ff. Walafrid's poetical works also include a short life of
St Blaithmaic, a high-born monk of
Iona, murdered by the Danes in the first half of the 9th century; a life of
St Mammas; and a
Liber de visionibus Wettini.
This last poem, like the two preceding ones written in
hexameters, was composed at the command of "Father" Adalgisus, and based upon the prose narrative of
Heto, abbot of Reichenau from
806 to
822. It is dedicated to Wettin's brother Grimald. At the time he sent it to Grimald Walafrid had, as he himself tells his audience, hardly passed his eighteenth year, and he begs his correspondent to revise his verses, because, "as it is not lawful for a monk to hide anything from his abbot," he fears he may be beaten with deserved stripes. In this curious vision, Walafrid's teacher Wettin saw
Charles the Great suffering purgatorial tortures because of his incontinence. The name of the ruler alluded to is not indeed introduced into the actual text, but "Carolus Imperator" form the initial letters of the passage dealing with this subject. Many of Walafrid's other poems are, or include, short addresses to kings and queens (
Lothar, Charles, Louis,
Pippin, Judith, etc.) and to friends (
Einhard; Grimald;
Hrabanus Maurus; Tatto;
Ebbo,
archbishop of Reims;
Drogo, bishop of Metz; etc.).
His most famous poem is the
Hortulus, dedicated to Grimald. It is an account of a little garden that he used to tend with his own hands, and is largely made up of descriptions of the various herbs he grows there and their medicinal and other uses.
Sage holds the place of honor; then comes
rue, the antidote of poisons; and so on through
melons,
fennel,
lilies,
poppies, and many other plants, to wind up with the
rose, "which in virtue and scent surpasses all other herbs, and may rightly be called the flower of flowers." The curious poem
De Imagine Tetrici takes the form of a dialogue; it was inspired by an equestrian statue of
Theodoric the Great which stood in front of Charlemagne's palace at
Aix-la-Chapelle.
Codex Sangallensis 878 may be Walafrid's personal
brevarium, begun when he was a student at Fulda.
*For a bibliography of Walafrid's historical works, and of writings dealing with them, see Potthast,
Bibliotheca hist. mediaevi (Berlin, 1894), p. 1102 ff.
*Walafrid's works are published in
Migne's
Patrologia Latina, vols. cxiii. and cxiv.
*For further references see the article by
Edouard Reuss and
Albert Hauck in Herzog-Hauck,
Realencyklopädie (Leipzig, 1908), xx. 790.
*
Catholic Encyclopedia
