Of several saints whose feast is March 27, I looked up Saint Rupert as being one I knew the least about. Well, that’s because I’m not Austrian, I guess. He is not some obscure monk, but rather the abbot/archbishop founder of Salzburg. And while we are on the subject, Salz — burg was a city whose fortunes were founded on salt. Duh. I only thought of Mozart. Saint Rupert is usually pictured with a keg of salt. Or if not a keg then some other useful receptacle.
Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
Saint Rupert had a reputation for holiness, and was brought into the general area of a decayed Roman town called Juvavum by Duke Theodo II of Bavaria. The Duke was trying to revive Christianity in his subjects. New Advent says about Rupert that
[he] was noted for simplicity, prudence, and the fear of God; he was a lover of truth in his discourse, upright in opinion, cautious in counsel, energetic in action, far-seeing in his charity, and in all his conduct a glorious model of rectitude.
Saint Rupert established Benedictine monasteries for both men and women. He brought his niece, Erindruda, to preside over the convent in Nonnberg. His first church honored Saint Peter.
Sonnabend — Gottesacker zu St. Peter in Salzburg (Saturday — graveyard of St. Peter’s in Salzburg). 1823. Ferdinand Olivier. lithograph, National Gallery of Art, Public domain.
Saint Rupert is listed on the Vatican News website as the saint for March 27, or I should have panicked as I reached the end of New Advent’s article. It says that his feast is celebrated on the 24th of September. In fact, in Austria, there is still a very public holiday on September 24, celebrating Saint Rupert with music, art, and fireworks. The September date memorializes the transfer of Saint Rupert’s remains to Salzburg Cathedral in 774 A.D., whereas in the new calendar from the 1960’s, saint days were transferred to the date of their death. However, a festival that has been celebrated for hundreds and hundreds of years in September cannot lightly be moved to March.
Another source of information, this guy likes to discuss relics so he/she is careful to explain the skeletons that were in the church where the movie, The Sound of Music was filmed near Salzburg.
This website has some lovely images of Saint Rupert but its history is at odds with the other stories I have read, beginning with the idea that Rupert converted Duke Theodo. No one agrees with this today. But the images are lovely… https://www.christianiconography.info/rupert.html
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