Nuremberg has a real saint.

Indeed, one of the two city churches houses the shrine of the city patron: St. Sebald. And his relics are still in the shrine! This is more surprising than one might think, because the Free Imperial City of Nurember signed the "Augsburg Confession" and has traditionally been a Lutheran city from the get-go. In fact, one of my old professors at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg maintained in one of his “History of the Reformation” –lectures that if it had not been for the strong support for the Reformation by the burghers of the city of Nuremberg, the Reformation probably would have failed. Such was the importance of the city within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Indeed, each newly-crowned emperor had to hold his first diet in the city of Nuremberg. And, no, this had nothing to do with eating habits. (Neither did the Diet of Worms, by the way…).Yes, it is true: the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg (an independent territory answerable only to the Emperor) was one of the major players in the Middle Ages and might have been a prime candidate for an Imperial capital, if there ever had been one. But I do believe my professor’s assessment was a bit of an exaggeration.

One of the fascinating discovery for any newcomer and visitor tp Nuremberg are her city churches. And despite the Gothic splendour with altars and statues, the old city churches are almost exclusively Lutheran. The Lutheran Reformation was not iconoclastic and appreciated the beauty and the value of art. Martin Luther himself had some strong words against those burning icons and removing statues. No Puritan cleansing like the one that happened during the Reformation and the Commonwealth in Scotland and England. No smashing and stripping of altars like in Zurich, Geneva, or the Netherlands. It was all rather civil… and rather conservative. This is why in Nuremberg the shrine of St. Sebald was conserved (relics and all) in the church named after him.

But who on earth was St. Sebald? Well, there are all kinds of legends. Some say he was a Danish prince. Some say he was a pilgrim to Rome. We don’t really know. We don’t even really know when he lived. What is fairly certain though is that he was a hermit in the forests surrounding Nuremberg, a holy man living not far from where I was born and raised.

I like the idea of having a holy hermit as the patron saint of a busy and industrious city. It is a subtle reminder that wealth and success are not all that matter and cannot be taken to the grave. There are larger and more profound truths. There are eternal truths to which St. Sebald gave witness. He was signpost pointing towards the eternal truth of our triune God.

That his veneration developed quickly and in large ways, is both an attribute of St. Sebald’s holiness and an indicator that he was not a hermit totally disconnected from the world. People sought his advice and he probably interacted with people inside the city walls too, retreating to the trees on a regular basis. In a way he balanced the essentials of the Christian faith and of God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ: he reached out both to God and to his neighbour.

I have been drawn to St. Sebald for a while now. Of course, this has to do with local patriotism. I am a child of the city of Nuremberg. But it also has to do with the person of St. Sebald and with my biography. I am city dwell and I live in a busy and industrious place. In fact, years ago I read an article in a German news-magazine that stated that Vancouver will be the New York City of the 21^st century. So, Vancouver’s importance might be similar to Nuremberg’s importance in medical Europe. And in places like this, saints like St. Sebald are needed. We are in dire need for holy women and men that can retreat to a silence that is flooded with the love of God and that proclaim that there is a truth much larger than what we see, experience, and accomplish, or indeed fail to accomplish. And we equally need people who because they are grounded in the love of our triune God can recognise the face of Christ in whomever they encounter, can embrace stranger and friend as fellow sojourners alike, and can reach out to those who are hurting. And sometimes these holy women and men have to come from the outside, have to be aliens first before they settle and identify with a certain location. St. Sebald seems to fit this profile. Which makes him definitely a saint worth venerating n my book.

The city of Nuremberg had bit of a hard time to convince the Pope, though. The process of canonisation did move like molasses and only after some substantial sums of money had exchanged hands, did the Pope declare St. Sebald officially a saint. The citizens of Nuremberg and many others could not be perturbed though and pilgrimages to the shrine are well documented. It is only a bit of an irony that within a few generations after the canonisation, Nuremberg introduced the Reformation. This ended a lot of ecclesiastical abuses and it ended the pilgrimages. However, the shrine was not destroyed and stands tall as a witness to the refined skills of medieval Nuremberg artists, to the power of the burghers of Nuremberg, and last but not least to the holiness of St. Sebald and his life, which he tried to live in accordance with the Gospel.

I have struggled with the veneration of saints for large junks of my life. And the veneration of any part of creation easily bears the danger of idolatry. But as I do think the way it is handled in the Anglican Church is for the most part “meet and right so to do.” Our prayers for saints’ days are not addressed to the saints, but they glorify God for what aspect of God’s love was revealed particularly through the life of the saint commemorated. And while I agree with N.T. Wright that saints have no better access to God than any Christian , dead or alive, I do believe they have access and just like I can ask my friends Heather, David, Marnie, Tanja, Anett, Ted, or Jonathan to pray for me, so I can ask deceased saints, who are as much members of the church as I am. But in the end, any veneration must be careful to make clear that only Jesus is Lord. In and though him, and only in him and through him are our prayers acceptable before God.

In this context I was looking forward to St. Sebald’s patronal feast day on 19 August with great anticipation and great expectation. I had prayed at the shrine (particularly for the unity of the church) a few times before, but there was to be an ecumenical vesper service on the actual day. The fact that the Lutherans, who really do not remember saints’ days in Germany anymore, and the Roman Catholics who no longer had jurisdiction of the shrine was intriguing enough. St. Sebald was bringing together Christians for worship even now…

I did, however, not anticipate many people. As I said above, there is no tradition in Lutehranism for this kind of thing anymore. And St. Sebald is too obscure for most Roman Catholics. Or so I thought. But the church was full, not packed, but full. What I didn’t know was that over the last few years the service has morphed from a celebration by some very committed Christians to an communal event, including politicians and other celebrities. It was the city at prayer, asking for God’s guidance and the revelation of God’s justice and mercy for the people of Nuremberg. And this is another accomplishment by the saint, methinks…

The service was held in a church that was heavily destroyed during World War II. Bombs rained all over Nuremberg, not just because there was heavy military industry in the city, but also because Nuremberg was the home to the annual party rallies, the “Reischparteitage.” The fire-storm, not the least kindled by the so-called “Nuremberg laws,” which codified the oppression of those who did not fit into the Third Reich, burnt down the Church of St. Sebald and many of her parishioners, too. Only the bare skeleton survived. The church was rebuilt and restored with its art, which, thankfully, had been stored in basements during the war. After twelve years of God-less terror in Germany, new life had to be brought back, not unlike in the vision of Ezekiel. Even to churches… And I believe the restoration of the shrine was an important aspect of this resurrection. (I have been thinking about this particularly since I read the second Merrily Watson mystery novel, which was recommended to me by a parishioner). Today, the parish is a member of the Reconciliation fellowship, started at the Cathedral in Coventry, which was destroyed by German bombs. The church stands as a witness to God’s love and as a symbol for peace.

Almighty and everlasting God,

we thank you for your servant Sebald,

whom you called to preach the gospel

to the people of Nuremberg.

Raise up in this and every land,

heralds and evangelists of your kingdom and of your peace,

that your Church may make known the immeasurable riches

of our Saviour Jesus Christ,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(adapted from, Book of Alternative Services, Anglican Church of Canada, p. 434)