Saint Rumbold (or Rumold, Romuold; Dutch: Rombout; French: Rombaut; Latin: Rum(w)oldus, Rumwaldus, Rumboldus, Rumbaldus; many variants overall) was an Irish or ScottishChristianmissionary, although his true nationality is not known for certain.[1][2][3]
He was martyred near Mechelen by two men, whom he had denounced for their evil ways.[4]
Saint Rumbold's feast day is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, and Western Rite Orthodox Churches, on 24 June;[4][5]
and it is celebrated in Ireland on 3 July.[6][7]
He is the patron saint of Mechelen,[4] where St. Rumbold's Cathedral possesses an elaborate golden shrine on its high altar, containing relics attributed to the saint. It is rumoured that his remains are buried inside the cathedral. Twenty-five paintings in the choir illustrate his life.
St. Rumbold's biography, written around 1100 AD by Theodoricus, prior of Sint-Truiden Abbey, caused 775 to be the traditional year of the saint's death. The surrounding areas of Mechelen however, had been Christianized much earlier.[1]
In 2004 a state-of-the-art examination of the relics assumed to be St. Rumbold's showed a death date between 580 and 655.[2][3][12]
This would make Saint Rumbold a Hiberno-Scottish rather than an Anglo-Saxon missionary, and not a contemporary of either St. Willibrord, St. Himelin, or St. Gummarus.[2]
St. Rumwold of Buckingham
There has been some historical confusion between Rumbold of Mechelen and the infant Saint Rumwold of Buckingham, who died in 662 AD at the age of 3 days. The latter has become referred to as Romwold, Rumwald, Runwald, Rumbald, or Rumbold. A compilation of three saints' lives as translated by Rosalind Love mentioned that on 15th-century records in Salisbury, an unknown author 'corrected' the attribution as "martyr" (possibly the Rumbold murdered in Mechelen) by annotating "confessor" (fitting in the miraculous infant Rumwold who was not a martyr). Also, the original dedication of churches to a St. Rumbold in Northern England appears uncertain.[13]
Gallery
St. Rumbold's statue in St. Rumbold's Cathedral, Mechelen, situated through the arch on the right side.
^ abcMark van Strydonck; Anton Ervynck; Marit Vandenbruaene; Mathieu Boudin (2006). Relieken, echt of vals? (in Dutch). Davidsfonds, Leuven. ISBN978-90-5826-420-6.
^ ab"De relieken van Sint-Rombout" (in Dutch). Torens aan de Dijle vzw (Cooperation between representatives of 8 historical churches at Mechelen, and the City). 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 5 Jul 2011.
^Mulder-Bakker, Anneke; Carasso-Kok, Marijke (1997). Gouden legenden : heiligenlevens en heiligenverering in de Nederlanden. Verloren. p. 145. ISBN9065502912.
^T. Paaps: Het leven van de heilige Gummarus. In Dutch, originally from 1940, but rewritten in 2008 by Hugo Neefs and republished by "de Gilde Heren van Lier".
^Dries van den Akker s.j. (10 August 2010). "Fredegand van Deurne" (in Dutch). www.heiligen.net. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
^van Eck, Xander (2015). "The high altar of the archiepiscopal cathedral of Mechelen: St Rumbold's grand reliquary and tomb". Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art. 38 (4): 213–227. ISSN0037-5411. JSTOR26382631.
