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Concept
Walafrid Strabo
Summary
Walafrid, alternatively spelt Walahfrid, nicknamed Strabo (or Strabus, i.e. "squint-eyed") (c. 808 - 18 August 849), was an Alemannic Benedictine monk and theological writer who lived on Reichenau Island in southern Germany.
Walafrid Strabo was born about 805 in Swabia. He was educated at Reichenau Abbey, where he had for his teachers Tatto and Wetti, to whose visions he devotes one of his poems. Then he went on to the monastery of Fulda, where he studied for some time under Rabanus Maurus before returning to Reichenau, of which monastery he was made abbot in 838.
For unclear reasons, he was expelled from his house and went to Speyer. According to 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 I on the death of Louis the Pious in 840. He was, however, restored to his monastery in 842, and died in 849 on an embassy to his former pupil. His epitaph was written by Rabanus Maurus, whose elegiacs praise him for being the faithful guardian of his monastery.
Walafrid Strabo's works are theological, historical and poetical.
There is an exposition of the first 20 psalms (published by Pez. in Thes. Anecdota nova, iv.) and an epitome of Rabanus Maurus's commentary on Leviticus. An Expositio quatuor Evangeliorum is also ascribed to Walafrid.
His De exordiis et incrementis quarundam in observationibus ecclesiasticis rerum was written between 840 and 842 for Reginbert 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.
In his exposition of the Mass, Walafrid does not enter into the dispute over the doctrine of transubstantiation as taught by his famous contemporary Radbertus.
Official source
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