Saint Erhard on our St. ERHARD beer crown cap
In this blog post I am going to talk about our patron saint Saint Erhard. Being a Hindu, it was really interesting for me to get to know about Saints in Christianity. Saint Erhard was a 7th century bishop of the Bavarian city called Regensburg which is not far from Bamberg. Back in the times he was also knwon by the name of Erard or Herhard.
He was born in Ireland and he went to the continent as missionary bishop as many people at that time did. He then went to Vosges (a department of east of France) and met St. Hildulf (founder of Moyenmoutier Abbey and a reputed bishop of Trier) who lived there in seclusion from the society. He is called Erhard’s brother in terms of spiritual relationship.
Both the saints founded seven monasteries back then. Then Erhard went to Regensburg and founded the convent of Niedermuenster. He taught the sacred sciences at Triers, when St. Hydulphus was bishop of that city. When St. Hydulphus resigned his bishopric to end his days in retirement in 753, St. Erhard withdrew to Ratisbon, where he founded a small monastery, and is said to have been honoured with miracles, both living and after his death, which happened in that city. He was commemorated on this day in Scotland, but in Germany, on the 8th of January
His year of death is still unknown. His body was placed in a grave with the still intact Erhard-crypt at Niedermuenster. His corpse was guarded in the middle ages by a community of women who observed a perpetual round of prayer. They were called Erhardinonnen. On 7th Oct. 1052 the remains of the holy bishops Erhard and Saint Wolfgang (was also a bishop of Regensburg) were raised by Pope Leo IX in the presence of Emperor Henry III and many other bishops. The church in Niedermuenster, which is now a parish church, still has the crosier of the Saint Erhard, made of black buffalo-horn.
To sum up, Saint Erhard was an evangelist who missionized Bavaria. Just as he missionized Bavaria we now want to missionize other parts of the world with Bavarian beer culture through our brand St. ERHARD.
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