Blessed Eberhard

However, Evrard did not yet renounce the world. His first pilgrimage to Rome had brought him too many sweet joys not to undertake it again. Perhaps he also wished to obtain from the Sovereign Pontiff both his blessing and those special guarantees which were not always sufficient to protect the most pious foundations from theft and violence. Upon his return, he had the sorrow of finding his only remaining son, Burchard, ill; but God reserved for him the con Burchard Bishop of Würzburg who transferred the relics in the following century. solation of calling him as if a second time to life by healing him in a truly miraculous manner.

A circumstance which was on the part of our Saint a good work finally determined him to hide the rest of his existence in the monastery he had founded.

A certain Mangold, abbot of Saint-Georges, in Stein, near Schaffhausen, had left monastic life and returned to the world. Eberhard, meeting h im one Évrard Count of Nellenburg and founder of the monastery of Schaffhausen. day, reproached him so sharply on this subject that he repented of his fault, and requested from the convent he had abandoned the grace to be able to enter as the last of the brothers into that of Schaffhausen. The request was granted to him; he was absolved of the sin of having left his convent, and died in Schaffhausen, after having made every effort to expiate his error. Eberhard, to whom he owed this return to himself, interceded for the deceased through prayers and other works of piety. This is why Mangold appeared to him one day, and thanked him for having delivered him from purgatory through his good works. He told him at the same time that his conduct was pleasing to God and that it would be even more so if he continued to grow in virtues. It is this event that engaged Eberhard to ask for the consent of his virtuous wife Itta to e Itta Wife of Evrard and co-founder of the religious community. nter the convent he had himself founded. He pronounced his vows there, faithfully fulfilled the duties prescribed to him by obedience, humility, and the practice of all other virtues, and died in the Lord around the year 1075, on April 7, at the age of sixty, after having been a monk for six years. Many miracles, it is said, were performed at his tomb. His widow Itta, wishing to follow the example of her husband, entered Schaffhausen, into a community of nuns also founded by the two spouses, and died there in the odor of sanctity.

The convent of t he Order of Saint Ben Ordre de Saint-Benoît Religious order occupying the monastery of Honnecourt. edict in Schaffhausen produced a great number of saints and scholars.

Acta Sanctorum, new trans.