ARBOGAST OF STRASBOURG, ST.

Bishop; b. probably Aquitaine; d. near Strasbourg, mid-sixth century. It was his original intention to live as a hermit, and to that end he settled in a forest in Alsace. According to a later tradition, he was made bishop of Strasbourg c. 673 through the influence of King dagobert ii, who seems to have been his patron. As bishop, Arbogast was known for his simplicity and humility, and before his death he asked to be buried in a cemetery where only criminals had previously been interred. In the eleventh century a magnificent church was erected on the site, but it was destroyed in the sixteenth century and the relics of the saint were lost. He is the patron of the Diocese of Strasbourg. It should be noted that the ancient episcopal catalogues of the diocese, as well as inscriptions on parts of the cathedral built in the sixth century, assign his episcopate to c. 550. In art he is represented as walking dry-shod over a river.

Feast: July 21.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum July 5:168–179. uto iii, Vita in a. postina, Sankt Arbogast, Bischof von Strassburg (2d ed. Strasbourg 1929). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 3:158–159. a. mercati and a. pelzer, Dizionario ecclesiastico (Turin 1954–58) 1:203. g. allmang, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 3:1462–63. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum, (Metten 1933–38) 2:484–485.

[j. f. fahey]