New Post
Search
Help[Facts] Re: Sunniva - Norwegian? Fridolin - German?
in reply to a message by Anneza
St. Fridolin was born in Ireland, but he did the missionary work that earned him his sainthood in Germany. I would suppose that Fridolin is a "Germanization" of his original Irish name, whatever that might have been, so that the Germans he was working with could relate to him better.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06303c.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06303c.htm
1
Replies
I checked a few books on Saints, and they agreed on the fact that his life is not reliable. Some suspect that he was of Frankish origin rather than Irish.
"His unreliable Life discribed him as an Irishman who ..." (D.Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 1997)
"The uncertain life, covered by legends, says Fridolin was of Irish, but rather of Frankish descent" (Schauber & Schindler, Bildlexikon der Heiligen, München 1999)
"... probably of Frankish descent ..." (Clemens Jöckle, Das Große Heiligenlexikon, Köln 2003
"His Germanic name is a point against his Irish descent." (Lexikon der Heiligen und Heiligenverehrung, Freiburg 2003)
FRIDOLIN is a typical southern German name, by the way, at home in Swabia. And indeed -lein / -lin is the diminutive used in the south of Germany (and -chen / -ke(n) rather in the north).
"His unreliable Life discribed him as an Irishman who ..." (D.Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 1997)
"The uncertain life, covered by legends, says Fridolin was of Irish, but rather of Frankish descent" (Schauber & Schindler, Bildlexikon der Heiligen, München 1999)
"... probably of Frankish descent ..." (Clemens Jöckle, Das Große Heiligenlexikon, Köln 2003
"His Germanic name is a point against his Irish descent." (Lexikon der Heiligen und Heiligenverehrung, Freiburg 2003)
FRIDOLIN is a typical southern German name, by the way, at home in Swabia. And indeed -lein / -lin is the diminutive used in the south of Germany (and -chen / -ke(n) rather in the north).
1
The Irish origin of this saint seems to be a creation as a lot of personal data in medieval saints' lifes:
"The improbability of Fridolin as an Irish missionary is evident from his Germanic, rather than Celtic, name."
At the review of Sankt Fridolin und sein Biograph Balther: Irische Heilige in der litterarischen Darstellung des Mittelalters by Margrit Koch, by Marvin L. Colker (Speculum, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Jul., 1960), pp. 468-469)
"The improbability of Fridolin as an Irish missionary is evident from his Germanic, rather than Celtic, name."
At the review of Sankt Fridolin und sein Biograph Balther: Irische Heilige in der litterarischen Darstellung des Mittelalters by Margrit Koch, by Marvin L. Colker (Speculum, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Jul., 1960), pp. 468-469)
1