Arnold of Arnoldsweiler

Arnold of Arnoldsweiler was, by tradition, a musician (harpist and singer) at the court of Charlemagne, and reposed around 800 at Ginnizweiler, now Düren-⁠Arnoldsweiler in Germany. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, and the source adds that the Orthodox Church also recognizes him. He is commemorated on 18 July.

The year and place of his birth are not known. Some sources say he came from Greece; others think that in an old copy of his Life the name Graetia referred to Graz, and Jacob Schmid suspected he came from Raetia. He died probably around 800 at Ginizuuilere, where he was buried; his grave is still revered in Saint Arnold's Chapel, and the place took the name Arnoldsweiler. A sure mention of the person appears only in a document of 1339 and in a copy of his Life, about five hundred years after his death, so that at times even the legitimacy of the cult was doubted. Pope Leo XIII recognized the cult for the archdiocese of Cologne in 1886, and since 1987 it is an optional memorial in the diocese of Aachen. He is considered patron of musicians, organists and instrument makers, and is asked for a good and gentle death.

The best-⁠known legend tells of the "ride around the Bürgewald". Arnold accompanied Charlemagne on hunts in the Bürgewald. Seeing the poverty of the villagers, who did not dare take even dead wood from the royal forest, he challenged the emperor to a bet: to give him as much forest as he could circle on horseback while the banquet lasted. With fresh horses arranged in the villages, he circled the whole forest before the meal ended. Charlemagne, who was fond of him, forgave the ruse and gave him a ring as a sign of the right. Arnold distributed the forest among the surrounding villages, and this deed led to his veneration as a saint. The story adds that an exhausted horse scraped the ground with its hoof and a spring arose, still called Saint Arnold's fountain. Another legend is tied to his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. How much of his Life is history and how much legend remains uncertain.