Kilian (+640)

Biography

He preached in Thuringia and Franconia; Then he arrived at Wurtzburg, where Gosbert, the reigning duke, gave him the best of reception. No one doubted that he would soon convert with all his people. He only needed to fix his marital situation because, like Herod, Gosbert lived with Geilana, his brother's wife. Keilán left for Rome to tell the Pope. He demanded that the duke abandon Geilana before receiving baptism. The duke does not ask for more: he was already fed up with this woman who was nothing new to him, and was as evil as the Herodias of the Gospel. But Geilana was not willing to abandon him in any way. Thus he took advantage of Gosberto's trip to have Kilian and his collaborators murdered. Their bodies were buried in a deep grave with their sacred vessels and ornaments. Thus, the duke was able to believe upon his return that the three missionaries had definitively left the country, since they had taken their liturgical vestments with them. It would be Saint Boniface to whom, fifty years later, the mission of implanting Christianity in Bavaria was reserved.