Coblenz
Riza
In the first quarter of the 9th century, when the
pious
Ludwig, son of Charlemagne, was struggling with his misguided children
for
the imperial crown, a church was built in Coblenz to St. Castor, the
missionary
who had spread Christianity in the valley of the Moselle. The
four-towered
edifice arose on a branch of the Rhine.
The palace of the Frankish king stood at this time
on
the highest south-western point of Coblenz, on the site of a former
Roman
fort, and near by was a nunnery, dedicated to St. Castor. In this
building
lived Riza, a daughter of Ludwig the Pious, who had early dedicated her
life
to the church. Every day this king's daughter went to mass in the
Castor
church on the opposite side of the Rhine. So great grace had Riza found
in
the sight of Our Lord, that like His disciple of old on the sea of
Genesareth,
she walked over the Rhine dry-footed to the holy sacrament in St.
Castor's.
One day, the sacred legend goes on to say, the stream was agitated by a
storm.
For the first time doubt entered the maiden's heart as her foot touched
the
waves. Prudently tearing a prop from a neighbouring vineyard, she took
it
with her for a staff over the troubled waters. But after a few timid
steps,
she sank like St. Peter on the Galilean lake. In this wretched plight
she
became full of remorse for her want of faith in God. She flung the
stick
far away, and lifting her arms towards heaven, committed herself to the
sole
protection of the Almighty. At once she rose up from the waves, and
arrived,
with dry feet as heretofore, on the other side. More than ever after
this
did Riza, this saintly daughter of a saintly king, strive to excel in
those
works which are pleasing to God. She died within the cloister, and her
bones
were laid in the Castor church, near the burial-place of the saint.
Soon the popular imagination canonized Riza, and her marble tomb is
still to
be
seen in the North transept of the Castor church at Coblenz.
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