Saint Solus (also Sualo, Sola) (d. c. 790-794) was an English monk, in Germany with

St. Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

Life

Solus was from southern England. In 744, he went to the Monastery of Fulda where he was ordained priest by

Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations o ...

, became a monk, and established himself in a cell at

Solnhofen Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Middle Franconia in the ' of Bavaria in Germany. It is in the Altmühl valley. The local area is famous in geology and palaeontology for Solnhofen limesto ...

in Suabia. There he built an oratory, a small oratory on a site near a former Roman quarry, and worked as a missionary. In 793

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Em ...

visited Sola on his journey from Regensburg to the royal court in Weißenburg. The monk's reputation for holiness caused Charlemagne to make him a grant of the land where he had set up his hermitage. Solus then bestowed it as a cell on Fulda Abbey. He died about 790 and was buried at the northern outer wall of his church. His feast was celebrated on 3 December.

Veneration

A life of Solus was written in the ninth century by Ermanrich of Ellwangen, sometime between 836 and 842. He claimed to have derived his information from an old servant of the saint. It was written at the request of his friend Gundram, former court chaplain to

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqui ...

and nephew of the Fulda abbot (and later archbishop of Mainz)

Hrabanus Maurus Rabanus Maurus Magnentius ( 780 – 4 February 856), also known as Hrabanus or Rhabanus, was a Frankish Benedictine monk, theologian, poet, encyclopedist and military writer who became archbishop of Mainz in East Francia. He was the author of t ...

.Coon, Lynda. "Historical Fact and Exegetical Fiction in the Carolingian Vita S. Sualonis", ''Church History'', vol. 72, no. 1, 2003, p. 1-17 In 833, Gundram was sent to Solnhofen to take charge of the newly founded Benedictine provostry of Solnhofen and the royal estate. With the permission of Bishop Altuin of Eichstätt, he raised Sola's bones and reburied them in the northern aisle of the basilica. This act effected the canonization of Solas. "Ermenrich knew almost nothing about the saint, but turned his biography into a political and ecclesiastical tool to legitimize Sualo's hermitage and its important place in Carolingian-era missions." Not having much historical information regarding Solus, Ermanrich focuses first on Solus' connection with Boniface, and secondly, with the sacred landscape where he established his hermitage.Meeder, Sven. ''The Irish Scholarly Presence at St. Gall: Networks of Knowledge in the Early Middle Ages'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018, p. 33
The ''Vita Suaolonis'' was later printed by Luc D'Achery, and in Jean Mabillon's ''Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti'', III, ii. 389–98, ed. Venice, 1734. Sola is the particular patron saint of all heavy labourers in the juridical diocese of Eichstätt. He is also the namesake of the local Catholic church.

Notes

Attribution

Sources

* "Ermanrici Sermo de vita s. Sualonis dicto Soli", ed. O. Holder-Egger, in: ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores'' XV/1, pp. 151-163 {{DEFAULTSORT:Solus 794 deaths West Saxon saints Benedictine monks Year of birth unknown