Author Metzsky Bishop of Metz, Saint Date of Birth: . Country: Operator

1. Saint Autbert, Bishop of Metz
2. Origins and Ministry
3. Relics and Veneration
4. Trippstadt
5. Connection to Braunschweig
6. Intercessor and Protector

Saint Autbert, Bishop of Metz

During the invasion of Metz by Attila the Hun in 451 AD, Saint Autbert (also known as Aptor, Otor, or Adinctor) served as the city's bishop. From the 1200s, he became a local saint and patron of the city of Braunschweig. His feast day, August 20th, remained a city holiday in Braunschweig until the modern era. However, historical knowledge about Autbert is scarce.

Origins and Ministry

Autbert's exact origins and location of ministry are uncertain due to the presence of multiple individuals with the same name in various places. According to unverified legend, he hailed from Greece and was ordained in Rome before possibly relocating to Gaul. In 451 AD, he was the 13th bishop of Metz in Lorraine when Attila's Hunnic forces seized the city. His first mention appears in a 776 AD manuscript. Autbert's relics were later transferred to the Alsatian monastery of Marmoutier in 830 AD, where his tomb was destroyed in 1525 during the Peasants' War. His commemoration day is August 9th.

Relics and Veneration

In 852 AD, Dрого, Bishop of Metz, arranged for the transfer of Saint Autbert's relics to Marmoutier, along with those of Saint Celeste, Metz's second bishop. Tradition dictates that Autbert's relics were intended to be carried first in the procession due to his greater fame, but it is said that the procession could not move until Celeste's relics were placed at the forefront.

Trippstadt

In Trier, approximately 100 km northeast of Metz, at least one or possibly two bishops bore the name Autbert (though historical documentation is lacking). It remains unclear whether "Auctor" was a personal name or could have been an appellative meaning "creator" or "founder." Moreover, it is believed that Autbert's relics in the Imperial Abbey of St. Maximin in Trier may have originated from the transfer of his relics from Metz. A cult surrounding Autbert developed in Trier only in the last third of the 11th century. His commemoration day is August 20th, coinciding with Braunschweig's patron saint day.

Connection to Braunschweig

Legend states that the saint appeared in a dream to Gertrude of Brunswick the Younger, a member of the Brunonids dynasty, and requested that his relics be transferred to Braunschweig. In 1113 AD, relics from Trier were brought to the city and placed in the newly founded monastery of St. Giles in 1115 AD. Arnold of Lübeck mentions this in his Chronica Slavorum, completed in 1210 AD. Another source indicates that the relics were transferred with those of Saint Maximin to Helmarshausen Abbey in 1105 and 1107 AD before eventually being brought to Braunschweig.

During a dynastic struggle between the Guelphs and the Hohenstaufens, King Philip of Hohenstaufen's forces besieged the Guelph city of Braunschweig in 1200 AD. On August 20th of that year, Saint Autbert, with a sword in hand, appeared to the enemy troops, prompting them to lift the siege. Since then, he has been revered as the patron saint of Braunschweig, with August 20th observed as "Autbert's Day."

Intercessor and Protector

Saint Autbert is also credited with peacefully resolving internal city conflicts, known as the "Braunschweig Schicht" in the 14th and 15th centuries, which opposed the city council. His relics were venerated in Braunschweig's Benedictine monastery of St. Mary and St. Giles since 1115 AD, alongside those of the latter, the monastery's main patron. From 1200 AD, when the city was saved from the Hohenstaufen siege, Autbert became its defender and protector.

Each year on his feast day, August 20th, his relics were paraded in a grand procession around the city walls, accompanied by the singing of "De leve here sunt Autor / de is eyn hillich man, / is unse procurator, / de vor uns striden kan (Sant Autbert lives here / He is a holy man / He is our protector / He can fight for us)." This annual celebration at St. Blasius Cathedral was established by the city council in 1298 AD. An Autbert Chapel was built in the Braunschweig Cathedral by 1317 AD.

During the "Great Schicht" from 1374 to 1380 AD, eight city councilors were killed. After this uprising was suppressed in 1386 AD, a Saint Autbert Chapel was also built in the old town hall as a gesture of atonement. In gratitude for quelling the disturbances in 1445–1446 AD, the city council commissioned a silver processional shrine, which was completed in 1457 AD. From then on, twelve council members carried the shrine in the city wall procession. Additionally, a lantern in the shape of the city's silhouette was crafted in 1493–1494 AD.

With the advent of the Reformation in Braunschweig in 1528 AD, the veneration of saints in the city came to an end. Duke Anton Ulrich, who had converted to Catholicism, ordered the relics to be interred in a monument in 1710 AD, which was later demolished in 1789 AD. The remains were then laid to rest in a chapel at St. Giles' Church. Here the relics were rediscovered in 1789 AD, 1938 AD, and 1976 AD. The chapel's back wall bears the inscription: "St. Autbert: On June 4, 1976, the relics of St. Autbert, buried by Duke Anton Ulrich, were rediscovered here." On August 20th, 1955 AD, the Catholic community reinstated the celebration of the patron saint's day.