280px, Gualfardo of Verona by I. Brint (1620) Gualfardo of Verona (or Wolfhard of Augsburg) (1070–1127) was a Swabian artisan, trader, and

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

who lived around

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

. A

hagiographical A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies mig ...

''vita'' (biography) was composed, according to the

Bollandists The Bollandist Society ( la, Societas Bollandistarum french: Société des Bollandistes) are an association of scholars, philologists, and historians (originally all Jesuits, but now including non-Jesuits) who since the early seventeenth century ...

, within decades of his death, probably towards the end of the twelfth century. In the early sixteenth century he was venerated as the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of the harnessmakers'

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

at Verona. Gualfardo was born in

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...

, the chief city of Swabia at the time. In 1096 he was on a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

—

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

''Wallfahrer'' means pilgrim, whence his

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

nameHis

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

name is Gualfardus, which alternatively may derive from the German name Wolfhard.—from Augsburg "with some journeyman merchants", according to his ''vita''. He stopped in Verona, where he lived for a time with a journeyman, though he was a master harnessmaker by trade. Of this brief period his ''vita'' says: ''In eodem vero loco beatissimus Gualfardus in sellarum exercitio (nam optimus sellator erat) parvo tempore moratus'' (in that very place the most blessed Gualfardo worked on saddles or the best saddler he wasbut for a short time). He eventually settled in a dense forest on the

Adige The Adige (; german: Etsch ; vec, Àdexe ; rm, Adisch ; lld, Adesc; la, Athesis; grc, Ἄθεσις, Áthesis, or , ''Átagis'') is the second-longest river in Italy, after the Po. It rises near the Reschen Pass in the Vinschgau in the pro ...

not far from Verona. There he lived for twenty years before he was found by hunters, who brought him back to Verona. He established a shop near the abbey of San Salvatore, but during a flood he left the city again and built a hermit's cell near the church of Santa Trinità in the countryside nearby. Until his death he was well sought after by the Veronese for his miracles. He does not seem to have been an especial aid to travelers, though his love of solitude did not interfere with his hospitality to city-dwellers, who also brought him food. He died at Curte-Regia near Verona in 1127.

References

*Vauchez, André. 1993 ''The Laity in the Middle Ages: Religious Beliefs and Devotional Practices''. Daniel E. Bornstein (ed.) and Margery J. Schneider (trans.) Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.

Notes

{{Authority control 1127 deaths People from Augsburg Medieval Italian saints Italian hermits 12th-century Christian saints 1070 births