Saint Rumbold
Encyclopedia
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
or Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
Christian
Christianism
Christianism had various definitions over the years. It was originally defined as "the Christian religion" or "the Christian world". In recent years, Christianism has also been used as a descriptive term of Christian fundamentalists, mostly in the United States, for the ideology of the Christian...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
.
He was martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
ed near Mechelen
Mechelen
Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...
by two men whom he had denounced for their evil ways.
Saint Rumbold's feast day is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, and the Western Rite Orthodox
Western Rite Orthodoxy
Western Rite Orthodoxy or Western Orthodoxy or Orthodox Western Rite are terms used to describe congregations and groups which are in communion with Eastern Orthodox Churches or Oriental Orthodox Churches using traditional Western liturgies rather than adopting Eastern liturgies such as the Divine...
on June 24;
and celebrated in Ireland on 3 July.
He is the patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of Mechelen, where St. Rumbold's Cathedral has at its high altar an elaborate golden shrine containing relics attributed to the saint, and it is rumoured that his remains are buried inside the cathedral. Twenty-five paintings in the choir illustrate his life.
Life and legend
Rumbold is assumed to have been consecrated a regionary BishopBishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
at Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. Hugh Ward (c. 1590–1635) argued that Rumbold had been born in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. He is also said to have been a Bishop of Dublin
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin
The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Dublin, , is a Roman Catholic archdiocese in eastern Ireland centred around the republic's capital city – Dublin. The see of Dublin was raised to the status of a Metropolitan Province by the Synod of Kells in 1152. Its jurisdiction includes much of the Province of...
, the son of a Scottish king, and the brother of St. Himelin. He is assumed to have worked under St. Willibrord in Holland and Brabant
Flemish Brabant
Flemish Brabant is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also completely surrounds the Brussels-Capital Region. Its capital is Leuven...
, and to have been a close companion of the hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
St. Gummarus
Gummarus
Saint Gummarus was the son of the Lord of Emblem. He received no formal education, but served in the court of Pippin the Younger until he left to serve in Pepin's army, serving eight years in the field in Lombardy, Saxony, and the Aquitaine.He married a noblewoman named Guinmarie with whom he had...
and of preacher monk Fredegand van Deurne (Turninum)
Deurne
Deurne may refer to two towns:* Deurne, North Brabant, a municipality in North Brabant * Deurne, Belgium, a district of the city of Antwerp...
who according to one tradition maintained contact with St. Foillan (who was murdered in the Sonian Forest
Sonian Forest
The Sonian Forest is a forest that lies across the south-eastern part of Brussels, Belgium.The forest lies in the Flemish municipalities of Sint-Genesius-Rode, Hoeilaart, Overijse and Tervuren, in Uccle, Watermael-Boitsfort, Auderghem and Woluwe-Saint-Pierre in the Brussels-Capital Region and in...
around 665) and according to another was linked to St. Willibrord (who died in 739).
St. Rumbold's biography written around 1100 AD by Theodoricus, prior of Sint-Truiden
Sint-Truiden
Sint-Truiden is a city and municipality located in the province of Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium, near the towns of Hasselt and Tongeren. The municipality includes the old communes of Aalst, Brustem, Duras, Engelmanshoven, Gelinden, Gorsem, Groot-Gelmen, Halmaal, Kerkom-bij-Sint-Truiden,...
Abbey, caused 775 to be the traditional year of the saint's death. The surrounding areas of Mechelen however, had been christianized much earlier.
In 2004 state-of-the-art examination of the relics assumed to be St. Rumbold's showed a death date between 580 and 655.
This would make Saint Rumbold a Hiberno-Scottish
Hiberno-Scottish mission
The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a mission led by Irish and Scottish monks which spread Christianity and established monasteries in Great Britain and continental Europe during the Middle Ages...
rather than an Anglo-Saxon mission
Anglo-Saxon mission
Anglo-Saxon missionaries were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century, continuing the work of Hiberno-Scottish missionaries which had been spreading Celtic Christianity across the Frankish Empire as well as in Scotland and Anglo-Saxon England itself...
ary, and not a contemporary of either St. Willibrord, St. Himelin, or St. Gummarus.
St. Rumwold of Buckingham
There has been some historical confounding between Rumbold of Mechelen and Rumwold of Buckingham, who died in 662 AD at the age of... 3 days. The latter has become referred to as Romwold, Rumwald, Runwald, Rumbald, Rumbold. A compilation about three saints' lives as translated by Rosalind Love mentioned that on 15th century records at SalisburySalisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
an unknown author 'corrected' the attribution as "martyr" (possibly Rumbold murdered in Mechelen) by annotating "confessor" (fitting the miraculous infant Rumwold who was no martyr). Also, the original dedication of churches in Northern England appears uncertain.