Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (c. 780 –
4 February 856), also known as
Hrabanus or
Rhabanus, was a
Frankish Benedictine monk, the
archbishop of Mainz in
Germany and a
theologian. He was the author of the
encyclopaedia On the Nature of Things. He also wrote treatises on education and grammar and commentaries on the Bible. He was one of the most prominent teachers and writers of the
Carolingian age. On the Roman calendar (
Martyrologium Romanum, 2001, pp. 126f.), he is celebrated on 4 February and listed as 'sanctus,' though the online version of the Catholic Encyclopedia lists him as 'beatus.'
Rabanus was born of noble parents in Mainz. The date of his birth is uncertain, but in 801 he received a deacons order at
Fulda in
Hesse, where he had been sent to school. In the following year, at the insistence of
Ratgar, his abbot, he went together with Haimon (later of Halberstadt) to complete his studies at Tours. He studied there under
Alcuin, who in recognition of his diligence and purity gave him the surname of Maurus, after
Saint Maurus the favourite disciple of
Benedict. Returning to Fulda two years later, he was entrusted with the principal charge of the school, which under his direction rose into a state of great efficiency for that age, and sent forth such pupils at
Walafrid Strabo, Servatus Lupus of Ferrières and
Otfrid of Weissenburg. At this period it is most probable that his excerption from the grammar of
Priscian—a popular text book during the middle ages—was compiled.
In 814 Rabanus was ordained a priest. Shortly afterwards, apparently on account of disagreement with Ratgar, he was compelled to withdraw for a time from Fulda. This banishment is understood to have occasioned the pilgrimage to
Palestine to which he alludes in his commentary on
Joshua. He returned to Fulda on the election of a new abbot (
Eigil) in 817, upon whose death in 822 he himself became abbot. He was efficient and successful in this role until 842, when, in order to secure greater leisure for literature and for devotion, he resigned and retired to the neighbouring cloister of St Petersberg.
In 847, Rabanus was again constrained to enter public life by his election to succeed
Otgar in the archbishopric of Mainz. He died at Winkel on the Rhine in 856.
Rabanus' works, many of which remain unpublished, comprise Scriptural commentaries (
Genesis to
Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Judith, Esther, Canticles, Proverbs, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Maccabees, Matthew, the
Epistles of St Paul, including
Hebrews); and various treatises relating to doctrinal and practical subjects, including more than one series of Homilies. In
De institutione clericorum he brought into prominence the views of Augustine and Gregory the Great as to the training which was requisite for a right discharge of the clerical function. One of his most popular and enduring works is a spectacular collection of poems centered around the cross, called
De laudibus sanctae crucis, a set of highly sophisticated poems that present the cross (and often a monk kneeling before it) in word and image, even in numbers.
Among the others may be mentioned the
De universo libri xxii., sive etymologiarum opus, a kind of dictionary or encyclopedia, heavily dependent upon
Isidore of Seville's Etymologies, designed as a help towards the
typological, historical and mystical interpretation of Scripture, the
De sacris ordinibus, the
De disciplina ecciesiastica and the
Martyrologium. All of them are characterized by erudition (he knew even some
Greek and
Hebrew) rather than by originality of thought. The poems are of singularly little interest or value, except as including one form of the
Veni Creator. In the annals of German philology a special interest attaches to the
Glossaria Latino-Theodisca. A commentary,
Super Porphyrium, printed by
Cousin in
1836 among the
Ouvrages inidits d'Abélard, and assigned both by that editor and by Haurau to Hrabantis Maurus, is now generally believed to have been the work of a disciple.
In 2006, the 1150th anniversary of his death was celebrated in Germany, especially in Mainz and Fulda. One of the highlights of the celebrations was the display of Codex Vaticanus Reginensis latinus 124, an extremely rare loan by the Vatican to Mainz of a spectacular manuscript containing De laudibus sanctae crucis. The anniversary also saw the publication of no fewer than three book-length studies of Maurus and his work.
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