Arnold von Arnoldsweiler

Arnold of Arnoldsweiler (died in Ginnizweiler, today Düren-Arnoldsweiler) is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Church and True Orthodox Church and was a musician (harpist and singer) at the court of Emperor Charles the Great, known as Charlemagne. His feast day is 18 July.

Biography Neither his exact year of birth nor his birthplace are known. Some sources maintain he came from Greece (Latin: Graecia); others suggest that in the oldest extant copy of the Latin Vita Sancti Arnoldi Confessoris a spelling mistake occurred: rather than Greece, the Latin name for the Austrian town of Graz (Graetia) was implied. Jacob Schmid, who had published an extensive collection of saint legends in the 18th century, including the Legend of Arnoldus, also questioned Arnold's Greek origins and suggested instead that he came from Raetia, an ancient Roman province reaching from the north of present-day Italy to the south of present-day Switzerland.