March 6 Fridolin d. 540

Thom and Jack,
Good Morning, I love you
110308, 1413

With too much time not doing what I’m suppose to do, I might as well get the saints part of this caught up past today. After Fridolin, the next saint meeting my criterion is the 12th. I’ll knock off past this weekend before this weekend. From Baltimore I’m on my way to Chincoteague for a ‘same time next year’ experience that’s more a ‘same time next century’ opportunity. Videbimus.

March 6

Fridolin d. 540

Fridolin was a Benedictine abbot, an Irishman venerated as “the Apostle of the Upper Rhine.”

Fridolin traveled to France and settled in Poitiers, rebuilding the monastery of St. Hilary which had been destroyed by Vandals.

Fridolin then became a hermit on the Rhine. There Fridolin built the abbey of Sackingen.

< Another example of doing the hermit thing before setting out to serve God in community. >

Fridolin was called “the Wanderer’ because of his many evangelizing trips in the region.

< Growing up we had the FBI priests – our foreign born Irish, the overflow of Irish priests. Today, the state of the Church in Ireland saddens us all. Ora pro nobis. >


Catholicencyclopedia online

In accordance with a later tradition, St. Fridolin is venerated as the first Irish missionary who laboured among the Alamanni on the Upper Rhine, in the time of the Merovingians.

< Of course it was easy in the sixth century, to be the first to evangelize an area. However, today, you always have the chance to be the first to evangelize among your friends and much of your family. Evangelize by living a Catholic life as well as preaching what you practice. >

Fridolin belonged to a noble family in Ireland (Scottia inferior), and at first laboured as a missionary in his native land.

< The Apostles of Ireland evangelized clans from the top down. Their persuasive powers as well as the appeal of Christianity to the Celts is proved by the number of nobles who became priests in this new religion. >

< To go first to your native land is a high risk endeavor. Being a prophet in your own land carries its challenges. But. That’s what we’re called to do. To evangelize with our lives. When you live under your mother’s apron, that’s the place you get to demonstrate Truth. >

Afterwards crossing to France, Fridolin came to Poitiers, where in answer to a vision, he sought out the relics of St. Hilarius, and built a church for their reception.

< Whether we’re blessed with a vision or simply discernment, pray that you will see what God is calling you to do. Find His will in your life through prayer and spiritual guidance. >


St. Hilarius subsequently appeared to him in a dream, and commanded him to proceed to an island in the Rhine, in the territories of the Alamanni. In obedience to this summons, Fridolin repaired to the "Emperor" Clovis, who granted him possession of the still unknown island, and thence proceeded through Helion, Strasburg, and Coire, founding churches in every district in honour of St. Hilarius.

Reaching at last the island of Säckingen in the Rhine, he recognized in it the island indicated in the dream, and prepared to build a church there. The inhabitants of the banks of the Rhine, however, who used the island as a pasturage for their cattle, mistook Fridolin for a cattle-robber and expelled him.

< Expect it to be a common experience that when you live your Catholicism that you will be seen as a ‘cattle-robber’ – someone who is a threat to the essential false beliefs of those around you. >

On Friodlin’s production of Clovis's deed of gift, he was allowed to return, and to found a church and monastery on the island.

Fridolin then resumed his missionary labours, founded the Scottish monastery in Constance, and extended his mission to Augsburg.

Fridolin died on 6 March, and was buried at Säckingen.

And yet….

Not a single ancient author mentions Fridolin, the life has no proper historical chronological arrangement, and the enumeration of so many wonders and visions awakens distrust.

Consequently, most modern historians justly reject the life as unauthentic, and as having no historical foundation for the facts recorded, while the older historians believed that it contained a germ of truth.

So, we learn from the oral traditions of our bards and seanachie’s and druids and priests and ….

I love you,
Dad
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