Saint Tutilon
moine
et artiste de l'abbaye de Saint Gall en Suisse (✝ v. 915)
Tutilo
ou Tuathal.
Moine de Saint Gall en Suisse, il était adroit de ses mains, éloquent de sa
parole, d'une remarquable intelligence, excellent poète, musicien, peintre et
ciseleur. L'empereur Charles le Gros regrettait qu'on eût enseveli dans un
cloître un si bel homme. Il était d'une grande humilité et d'un grand
recueillement. Mais saint Tutilon donnait à tous la richesse de ses dons. On
l'appelait au loin pour peindre des saintes images, il élevait les enfants dans
la beauté du chant liturgique, il ciselait les objets liturgiques. On ne
conserve de lui que quelques élégies et une hymne.
Tutilo de Saint Gall né en Irlande vers 850, mort vers 915 moine et
artiste.
Il était de forte stature et passa sa vie dans l'abbaye bénédictine de
Saint Gall en Suisse où il était ami de Saint Notker
le Bègue.
Il était bon orateur, poète, musicien, peintre, architecte,
sculpteur....
Très talentueux, il pouvait jouer de tous les instruments utilisés pour la
liturgie y compris la harpe.
Peu de ses œuvres nous sont parvenues mais des
peintures et sculptures existent encore.
Il fut reconnu saint pour ses qualités d'humilité et de dévotion à Dieu par
la prière et par ses œuvres.
Tutilo of Saint-Gall, OSB (AC)
Died at Saint-Gall, Switzerland, c. 915. The handsome, eloquent, quick-witted
Saint Tutilo was a giant in strength and stature and a friend of Saint Notker
Balbulus, with whom he received musical training from Moengal. Tutilo, a monk
of Saint-Gall, may have been Tuathal, a younger member of the party of the
Irish Bishop Marcus and his nephew who stopped at the abbey on their return
from Rome. Tutilo was a painter, musician and composer of music for harp and
other strings, poet, orator, architect, metal worker, mechanic, head of the
cloister school, and sculptor, but he is best known for his obedience,
recollection, and aversion to publicity. Some of his paintings can be found in
Constance, Metz, Saint-Gall, and Mainz. The chapel in which he was buried, dedicated
to Saint Catherine, was later renamed for him (Attwater2, Benedictines, D'Arcy,
Encyclopedia, Fitzpatrick2).
Saint TUTILO
Feast: March 28
When St. Gall,
the companion of St. Columbanus, died in Switzerland in 640, a monastery was
built over the place of his burial. This became the famous monastery of St.
Gall, one of the most influential monasteries of the Middle Ages and the center
of music, art, and learning throughout that period.
About the middle of the
ninth century, returning from a visit to Rome, an Irishman named Moengul
stopped off at the abbey and decided to stay, along with a number of Irish
companions, among them Tuathal, or Tutilo. Moengul was given charge of the
abbey schools and he became the teacher of Tutilo, Notker, and Radpert, who
were distinguished for their reaming and their artistic skills. Tutilo, in
particular, was a universal genius: musician, poet, painter, sculptor, builder,
goldsmith, head of the monastic school, and composer.
He was part of the
abbey at its greatest, and the influence of Gall spread throughout Europe. The
Gregorian chant manuscripts from the monastery of St. Gall, many of them
undoubtedly the work of St. Tutilo, are considered among the most authentic and
were studied carefully when the monks of Solesmes were restoring the tradition
of Gregorian chant to the Catholic Church. The scribes of St. Gall supplied
most of the monasteries of Europe with manuscript books of Gregorian chant, all
of them priceless works of the art of illumination. Proof of the Irish
influence at St. Gall is a large collection of Irish manuscripts at the abbey
dating from the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries.
Tutilo was known to
be handsome, eloquent, and quick-witted, who brought something of the Irish
love of learning and the arts to St. Gall. He died in 915 at the height of the
abbey's influence, remembered as a great teacher, a dedicated monk, and a
competent scholar.
Thought for the Day:
Beauty is one of the names of God, and we often forget that the cultivation of
beauty can give glory to God. "O Lord, I have loved the beauty of Your
house and the place where Your glory dwells." St. Tutilo loved God deeply
and expressed it in a thousand beautiful ways, leading many people to God. Beautiful
things can lift our minds to God.
From 'The Catholic One Year Bible':
". . . The good soil represents honest, good-hearted people. They listen
to God's words and cling to them and steadily spread them to others who also
soon believe."—Luke 8:15
Taken from "The One Year Book
of Saints" by Rev. Clifford Stevens published by Our Sunday Visitor
Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., Huntington, IN 46750
Provided Courtesy of:
Eternal Word Television Network
5817 Old Leeds Road
Irondale, AL 35210
www.ewtn.com
Saint Tutilo of Saint Gall
6 May 2009, 6:48
pm
Also known as
- Tutilo von Gallen
- Tutilo of Gall
- Tuathal….
Profile
A large, powerfully
built man. Educated
at Saint Gall’s monastery in Switzerland where he stayed to become a Benedictine
monk.
Friend of Blessed
Notkar Balbulus. A renaissance man before the term
was coined. Excellent student,
he became a sought after teacher
at the abbey
school. Noted speaker.
Poet
and hymnist, though nearly all of his work has been lost. Architect, painter,
sculptor, metal worker, and mechanic;
some of his art
continues to grace galleries and monasteries
around Europe. Composer
and musician, playing several instruments including the harp. No matter
his talents or works, he preferred the solitude and prayers of
his beloved monastery.
Born
- c.915
at Saint Gall’s monastery,
Switzerland
Tutilo was an Irish man who, while visiting the
renowned Benedictine Abbey of St. Gall in present-day Switzerland, delayed his
departure – and stayed his whole life.
Said to have been a large, powerful, handsome and
quick-witted Irishman, Tutilo was also genial in that he was a teacher, an
orator, a poet, an architect, a painter, a sculptor, an accomplished
illuminator, a musician, even a mathematician and astronomer.
His numerous talents and gifts led to his being
much in demand and, by permission of his abbot, he fulfilled many artistic
commissions outside the monastery. One of these was his sculpture of the
Blessed Virgin Mary for the Cathedral at Metz, considered to be a masterpiece.
He was a member of the abbey at the zenith of its
influence throughout all of Europe. Many of the Gregorian chant manuscripts
that survive to this day, and some of the most authentic, are undoubtedly
Tutilo’s own work.
Of all his many talents, the one Tutilo loved the
most was music.
According to tradition, he could play and teach all
of the instruments in the monastery and had a fine musical voice.
King Charles had a great admiration for the gifted
monk and remarked that it was a great pity for so much talent to be hidden away
in a monastery.
But the saint himself shrank from publicity and
when obliged to go to the great cities he strove to avoid notice and
compliments.
All he wanted was to use his gifts for the service
of God.
Though Tutilo was the epitome of today's
"Renaissance man", sanctity was his real crown.
Tuotilo, the Monk of St. Gall
Hugh O'Reilly
The chronicler, Eckehard IV, tells about Tuotilo, monk of St. Gall
(850-915). Born in Ireland around 850, he was educated at the Abbey of St. Gall
in St Gallen, present day Switzerland. He remained to become a monk there.
A man of great physical strength and stature, he was a painter, sculptor,
musician, poet and composer of music for harp and other strings and head of the
cloister school. Eckehard also praises his skill in casting out demons. But he
is best known, he tells us, for his obedience, recollection and aversion to
publicity.
Eckehard describes him thus:
“Tuotilo was eloquent, clear of voice, a polished workman in carving and paint.
He was musical, even as his companions were, but surpassing all in every kind
of string and pipe, and he taught the cithara also to the sons of the nobles in
a building that the abbot had set apart for them.
“He was endowed by nature with a strong body and mind, and with a ready command
of both Latin and German; entertaining both in the serious and in the jocund
vein but the sight of anything unseemly never failed to excite his indignation.
“But with all these qualities he had one more excellent: in secret prayer he
had the gift of tears. He was chaste, as a disciple of (the famous
schoolmaster) Marcellus (of St. Gall), who shut his eyes before women.”
The only woman for whom he professed a great love was the Virgin Mary, and to
her he had a deep and tender devotion. And she also had a great love for this
monk, as we can see from the following story.
While Tuotilo was working at his sculpture in Metz, two pilgrims came to him as
he carved a statue of the Blessed Virgin and begged for alms.
He slipped some money into their hands, and as they moved outside the room
where he was working, they said to a cleric who passed by, “God bless that man
who has been so merciful to us today. But was that his sister? That lady of
wondrous beauty who is so serviceable to hand him his chisels and teach him how
to use them?”
The cleric marveled at their words, for he had but lately parted from
Tuotilo and had seen no such lady. Wherefore, he went back, and for one quick
moment, he saw what they had described.
Then he and the pilgrims went to Tuotilo and said, ‘Father, blessed art thou of
the Lord, who has so great a lady to instruct you in your work.”
But Tuotilo replied that he did not know what they were talking about, and he
forbade them most strictly to say any such thing to others. But the temptation
to tell what they had seen was too great, and the next morning many persons had
heard the report of this glorious thing. So Tuotilo withdrew himself from them
and departed, nor would he ever thenceforward continue his work in that city.
But on the gilded nimbus, where he left a plain flat surface, some other hand
has since carved these letters, ‘This holy object was carved by Holy Mary
herself’ Hoc panthema pia celeverat ipsa Maria.
Although it has disappeared from sight, this statue was still extant in his
time. Eckehard, who was writing 100 years after the monk Tuotilo’s death,
describes it: “The image itself, seated, and seeming as though it were living,
is an object of all beholders even unto this day.”
Finally, Eckehard expresses his belief that Tuotilo received the reward of his
blameless life in the next world. He was buried in the Chapel of St. Catharine,
which later on was dedicated to St. Tuotilo. It is uncertain whether he was
formally declared a saint, although he was considered as one in the Monastery
of St. Gall - for had he not exorcized the devils and wrought other wonders?
At right above, you see an ivory plate that he sculpted, which is
the cover of the Evangelium Longum. It pictures the Assumption of
the Virgin and St. Gall sleeping by the fire and St. Gall giving bread to the
bear.
Adapted from G. G. Coulton, Art and the Reformation, NT: Alfred Knopf, 1928, pp.55-57
Posted February 16, 2013
