October 9
BD GUNTHER (A.D. 1045)
The first part of the life of Gunther, who was a cousin of St Stephen of Hungary and related to the Emperor St Henry, was by no means inspired by the holiness of his relatives, for until his fiftieth year he was a worldly and ambitious nobleman and none too scrupulous at that. He then came under the influence of St Gothard of Hildesheim at that time abbot of Niederaltaich and engaged in reforming the monastery of Hersfeld. This prelate succeeded also in reforming Gunther, who made up his mind to expiate his sins by becoming a monk. He devoted all his property to the endowment of Hersfeld, with the exception of an endowment for the abbey of Göllingen in Thuringia, of which house he retained the ownership in spite of the protests of St Gothard. Gunther then went on pilgrimage to Rome, and on his return entered Niederaltaich as a monk. But his conversion had not been complete, his humble position did not satisfy his ambition, and he insisted on being allowed to be made abbot of Göllingen. The experiment was not successful: there was friction between him and his monks, and the monastery began seriously to suffer. Aided perhaps by an illness which overtook Gunther, St Gothard succeeded by persuasion and rebuke in inducing him to resign his abbacy, and he returned to Niederaltaich. His turning to God was at last wholehearted, and whereas formerly the status of a simple monk had been too modest for him he now wished for an even more humble and retired life. Accordingly in 1008 he went to live as a hermit in the forest of Lalling, where a reputation of sanctity soon brought him disciples. Later he moved with them to the neighbourhood of Rinchnach on the Regen in Bavaria, where cells were built and a church; this foundation developed into a regular monastery.
Bd Gunther in the meanwhile continued his eremitical existence, going from place to place to beg alms for the poor, and encouraging his cousin Stephen in the christianization of his realm. It is said that Gunther received the gift of infused knowledge and became a powerful preacher though deficient in ordinary ecclesiastical learning: he could probably neither read nor write. He atoned for the excesses of his earlier years by severe mortification, and he exercised a rigid discipline over his followers, to the extent of rationing the amount of water which each of his monks might have at disposal. Bd Gunther died at about the age of ninety, on October 9, 1045, at Hartmanice in Bohemia. He was buried at Brevnov, near Prague, and the reputation of the last thirty-five years of his life together with the wonders that were reported at his tomb led to a popular cultus: it is recognized liturgically at Passau and elsewhere.
The main facts in the Latin biography printed both by Mabillon and the Bollandists are probably reliable. This compilation seems to be based, at least in part, upon statements taken from the writings of Wolfher, a canon of Hildesheim, who was a contemporary. See also Grauert, in the Historisches Jahrbuch, vol. xix (1898), pp. 249-287; Oswald, Das Kloster Rinchnach (1902); MGH., Scriptores, vol. vi, p. 672, vol. xi, pp. 276-279; and the early lives of St Stephen of Hungary.
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(Butler's Lives of the Saints, Christian Classics, 1995)
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