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Icon of St. Notker Balbulus
("the Stammerer"), Monastic Father, Hymnographer
Feast:
Apr. 6
Our
holy father Notker was born at Heiligau, near Zurich in Switzerland. He
was given as a child to the abbey of St. Gall, where he was raised,
remained as a monk, and later held the offices of librarian,
guest-master, and precentor (head chanter). He composed many beautiful
hymns for the Church, many of which are perpetuated within the Sarum
liturgical use (his tropes and sequences, used universally across
Europe, were, sadly, stripped from the modern Roman rite called the
Tridentine). He also wrote a synthesis of the Holy Fathers of the
Church (holding the place, in the West, St. Theophylact of Ochrid holds
in the East), and a method for learning liturgical chant. O Holy Father
Notker, pray
for us!
Icons are of unknown
provenance.
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