BEATUS OF TRIER, ST.

Hermit; fl. seventh century. According to a tradition not rich in detail, Beatus and his brother Bantus were priests who lived as hermits near Trier when Modoald (d. between 647 and 649) was bishop of that city. The same local tradition reports that the brothers died with a great reputation for sanctity and that Beatus was buried in the church of St. Mary of the Martyrs. His relics were, after 1331, brought to Koblenz in the care of the carthusians at Beatusberg (Mons S. Beati ). The beginnings of the cult are shrouded in obscurity, and the earliest document to refer to Beatus as a saint is the tenth-century Psalter of Egbert, where his name is listed in a laetania universalis. Still later documents from the fifteenth century report how Poppo, archbishop of Trier (d. 1047), enclosed relics of the saint in the main altar of the abbey church of St. Mary, which he consecrated on Dec. 16, 1017 (Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores 15.2:1272).

Feast: Aug. 26; July 31 (Trier).

Bibliography: Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores (Berlin 1826— ) 8:159. Acta Sanctorum 7 July (1868) 318–319. l.h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés (Mâcon 1935–39) 1:826; 2:3210–11. g. allemang, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 6:518. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienhereux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes (Paris 1935–56) 7:734. m. coens, Analecta Bollandiana 59 (1941) 284–286. a. heintz, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 2:87. g. fusconi, Bibliotheca sanctorum 2:747–748.

[h. dressler]