Translation project Vita sancti Otmari

The oldest extant copy of the vita of St. Othmar in the version of Walahfrid Strabo, around 890–900 (St.Gallen, Abbey Library, Cod. Sang. 562, p. 97)

The Miracles at the Tomb of Abbot Otmar

Around 834/838 the Reichenau monk Walahfrid Strabo wrote a biography of the St.Gallen abbot Otmar (abbot 719–759). The first nine chapters recount the abbot’s life and death. The second half of the work (chapters 10–17) is devoted to the miracles that occurred at Otmar’s tomb.

The miracle tales were very important for the Abbey of St Gall, as they enhanced its reputation as a shrine and brought in pilgrims – a potential source of revenue. In scholarly research, by contrast, the chapters about the miracles have been badly neglected. The only German translation so far, by August Potthast, dates from 1857.

To plug this gap with a more contemporary translation, school students from four Latin classes in the Canton of St Gall (Kantonsschule Heerbrugg, forms 2LaLe, 3 LaLe and 4 LaLe; Kantonsschule am Burggraben, St.Gallen, form 3abL) spent 2019, which was an Otmar commemoration year, studying the miracle chapters in depth and translating them into German.

The translations are tagged with the participants’ names. Dr Franziska Schnoor at St.Gallen Abbey Library performed the final edit.