jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee) (12/10/84)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Salzburg Austria, often called Europe's city of music, is currently singing the praises of an Eighth Century Irish saint named Fergal. This missionary traveled from Ireland to the continent in 743 and soon after was assigned as Abbot in St. Peter's Monastery in Salzburg. He presided over the diocese of Salzburg and became its bishop in 749. Known eventually in Bavaria as Vergilius (or Virgil), this energetic Irishman was famous as an astronomer as well as a theologian. In tribute to Virgil, the people of Salzburg have been celebrating 1984 as "Virgil Year" to mark the 1200th anniversary of his death in 784. The culmination of the year's festivities occurred on November 27th with ceremonies at the Salzburg Cathedral. This was the finale of a program of more than eighty-five concerts and events, coordinated by a local history scholar and publisher named Alfred Winter. In September, Salzburg welcomed Ireland's Cardinal Tomas O'Fiaich, music groups and bagpipers along with Austrian counterparts. The Irish Cardinal, speaking in German, so charmed the audience that he received the first-ever standing ovation in the Cathedral. There was also an exhibit of treasures associated with Virgil and a three day symposium which attracted Virgilian scholars from Dublin, Galway, Vienna, Paris, Bonn, Belfast and the U.S. Many of the Virgil exhibits centered around the Cathedral known as the "Dom" to Salzburg residents. Virgil founded the city's first cathedral and presided over its consecration in 774. Excavations in 1956-1959 have shown that it was an impressive three-aisled basilica, 210 feet long and 105 feet wide. Virgil's original structure was destroyed by fire in 845. During reconstruction in 1181, Virgil's tomb was discovered there. The Cathedral was rebuilt twice in 1610 and 1959 on the same site. A shrine to Virgil, who was canonized in 1233 and declared a patron saint for Salzburg, has been preserved there despite the changes throughout the centuries. bonnie!jmm J. M. McGhee