Plechelm of Guelderland B (RM)
Born in Northumberland; died c. 730. Plechelm was ordained a priest. He went to
Rome with another Northumbrian priest, Saint Wiro, and a deacon named Otger. In
Rome, Wiro and Plechelm were consecrated regionary bishops. After doing
missionary work in Northumbria, they went to the Friesland area of the
Netherlands, where they evangelized the inhabitants of the lower Meuse Valley
under Saint Willibrord or Saint Swithbert, and built a church and cells at
Odilienberg on land granted to them by Blessed Pepin of Herstal. They
were martyred while preaching the Gospel (Benedictines, Delaney).
St. Plechelm, Bishop and Confessor
[Apostle of Guelderland.] HE was by birth a noble English
Saxon, but born in the southern part of Scotland; for Lothian and the rest of
the Lowlands as far as Edinburgh frith belonged for several ages to the
Northumbrian English. Having received holy orders in his own country he made a
pilgrimage to Rome, whence he returned home enriched with holy relics. Some
time after, in company with the holy bishop St. Wiro, and St. Otger a deacon,
he passed into those parts of Lower Germany which had not then received the
light of faith. Having obtained the protection of Pepin, mayor of the palace in
Austrasia, he converted the country now called Guelderland, Cleves, Juliers,
and several neighbouring provinces lying chiefly between the Rhine, the Wahal,
and the Meuse. When he had planted the gospel there with great success he
retired to St. Peter’s Mount near Ruremund, but continued to make frequent
missions among the remaining infidels. Prince Pepin, who though he had formerly
fallen into adultery, led afterwards a penitential and Christian holy life,
went every year from his castle of Herstal to confess his sins to this holy
pastor after the death of St. Wiro, which the author of St. Plechelm’s life
relates in the following words: 1 “Pepin, the king of the French, (that is, mayor with royal authority,)
had him in great veneration, and every year, in the beginning of Lent, having
laid aside his purple, went from his palace barefoot to the said mount of Peter
where the saint lived, and took his advice how he ought to govern his kingdom
according to the holy will and law of God, and by what means he might promote
the faith of Christ and every advantage of virtue. There also having made the
confession of his sins to the high priest of the Lord, and received penance, he
washed away with his tears the offences which through human frailty he had
contracted.” F. Bosch, the Bollandist, observes, this prince must have been
Pepin, surnamed of Herstal, or the Fat, who though he never enjoyed the title
of king, reigned in Austrasia with regal power, and with equal piety and
valour. He died in 714, in the castle of Jopil on the Meuse, near Liege, which
was his paternal estate, St. Pepin of Landon his grandfather being son of
Carloman, the first mayor of this family, grandson of Charles count of Hesbay
near Liege, the descendant of Ferreol, formerly præfectus-prætorio of the
Gauls. St. Plechelm survived Pepin of Herstal seventeen years, is called by
Bollandus bishop of Oldenzel and Ruremund, and died on the 15th of July, 732.
He was buried in our lady’s chapel in the church, on the mountain of St. Peter,
now called of St. Odilia, near Ruremund. His relics were honoured with many
miracles. The principal portion of them is now possessed by the collegiate
church of Oldenzel, in the province of Over-Yssel, part at Ruremund. His name
is famous in the Belgic and other Martyrologies. His ancient life testifies
that he was ordained bishop in his own country before he undertook a missionary
life. Bede, in the year 731, mentions Pechthelm, who having been formerly a
disciple of St. Aldhelm, in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, returning to his
own country was ordained bishop to preach the gospel with more authority. He
afterwards fixed his see at Candida Casa, now a parliamentary town of Galloway
in Scotland, called Whitehorn. The Bollandists in several parts of their work
contend this Pechthelm to have been a different person from St. Plechelm, whom
Stilting demonstrates to have been at Mount St. Peter, whilst the other,
somewhat elder according to Bede, was in North-Britain at Candida Casa; though
Antony Pagi 2 and the author of Batavia Sacra endeavour to prove him, against F.
Bosch and his colleagues, to have been the same. See his authentic life with
the remarks of Bollandus and his colleagues, Julij, t. 4, p. 58, and Batavia
Sacra, p. 50. 3
Note 3. Our saint’s colleague St. Wiro (in Irish Bearaidhe) is honoured on the
8th of May. By the Four Masters he is styled Abbot of Dublin; but with the
Irish annalists, bishop and abbot are generally synonymous terms. He died in
650. See Ware.
St. Plechelm’s other fellow-missionary, St. Otger, is honoured on
the 10th of September; he is always styled deacon, by which it appears that he
was never promoted to the priesthood. From his name and other circumstances it
is thought he was an English-Saxon, though from the north, probably the
southern parts of Scotland anciently subject to the kings of the Northumbers.
Being desirous to accompany SS. Wiro and Plechelm to Rome, and in their
apostolic missions into Germany, when Pepin gave the Mount of St. Peter or of
St. Odilia to St. Wiro, the three saints settled there together, and ended
their days in that monastery. Whether St. Otger outlived St. Plechelm is
uncertain. All three were buried in the monastery of Berg, or of Mount St.
Peter or St. Odilia; and their bodies remained there till, in 858, that monastery
was given by King Lothaire to Hunger, bishop of Utrecht, when the greater part
of these relics was translated to Utrecht. Part still remained in the church of
Berg till, with the chapter of canons, it was removed to Ruremund. These relics
were hid some time in the civil wars for fear of the Calvinists, but discovered
in 1594, and placed again above the high altar. The portion at Utrecht was also
hid for a time for fear of the Normans; but found and exposed to public
veneration again by Bishop Baldric. See the life of St. Otger, with notes by
Bollandus, and the additional disquisitions of Stilting, ad 10 Sept. t. 2, p.
612. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
VII: July. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
Saint Plechelm of
Guelderland
Also known as
- Plechelm of Utrecht
- Plechelmus of….
- Apostle of Guelderland
Profile
Benedictine monk. Priest. Pilgrim to Rome, Italy with Saint
Wiro and Saint
Otger. Regional missionary bishop to Northumberland, England. Missionary to Friesland, in the modern Netherlands; may have worked with Saint
Willibrord of Echternach. Helped found Saint Peter’s monastery at Roermond, Netherlands near modern Odilienberg c.700 on land given them by Blessed
Pepin of Herstal.
Born
- Anglo-Saxon from Northumbria, England
