According to the calendar on my computer, today is St. Arnold’s Day, and it is — just not the St. Arnold (the patron saint of hop-pickers and brewers, born in Flanders, now Belgium, around 1040 and died there in 1087) I had in mind, whose feast day is August 14. An earlier version of the beery St. Arnold’s Wikipedia page had him confused with St. Arnold of Arnoldsweiler (a musician — harpist and singer — who served at the court of Charlemagne and died around 800), whose feast day is in fact July 8 — though the current version of his Wikipedia page has a typo in which his feast day is listed as July 18.
But most of St. Arnold of Arnoldsweiler’s story seems to be florid invention, with only a few solid facts known about him, while St. Arnold (Lat. Arnoldus) or Arnoul of Soissons (in northwestern France), aka Arnold or Arnulf of Oudenburg (in Flanders), had a fairly well-documented life full of event and accomplishment, so today I’m going to write about him, again, anyway.
Summarizing the coverage in my 7/7/13 posting “My saint’s day”, which begins, alas:
Tomorrow is my saint’s day: St. Arnold’s Day, a day of beer.
and from which we learn that after he moved from a bishopric (of great significance) in Soissons to the monastery in Oudenburg:
As abbot in Oudenburg, Arnold brewed beer, as essential in medieval life as water. He encouraged local peasants to drink beer, instead of water, due to its “gift of health”. During the process of brewing the water was boiled and thus freed of pathogens, making the beer safer to drink.
As a young man, Arnold served in the military, then entered the priesthood, where he quickly rose to eminence; despite an explicit distaste for administration, he was clearly very good at it, an able organizer and leader — which is how I come to have a special feeling for this St. Arnold that I lack for the real July 8th St. Arnold (who was musical, which is a big plus for me, but otherwise is a cipher): several times in my university career, I was called upon to serve as department head in a time of crisis, and found these positions deeply uncongenial, but was able to make them work. (Stories for another day, some of them hair-raising.)
But for today, St. Arnold of Soissons / Oudenburg, as represented in a stained-glass window (from his Wikipedia article):
[Wikipedia caption:] St. Arnold of Soissons is often depicted with a bishop’s mitre and a mash rake
As for today’s St. Arnold, the beginning of his Wikipedia article:
Arnold of Arnoldsweiler (German: Arnold von Arnoldsweiler) (died c. 800 in Ginnizweiler, today Düren-Arnoldsweiler) is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Church and True Orthodox Church and was a musician (harpist and singer) at the court of Emperor Charles the Great, known as Charlemagne
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