Heiligenborn
Near Rheinbollen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
To find:
Park at forest parking lot just east of Forsthaus Erbach. Follow the forest road about 500 meters to northwest. At first intersection of forest roads, turn right. After about 600 meters, a clearing will be on the right. The spring is by the large oak tree in the field. This field is extremely boggy, especially around the stock feeding shed.
This spring, known as the Heiligenborn or Holy Well or Spring, may be the one attributed to St. Werner.
From the Hunsruecker Zeitung:
Werner was born in the village of Womrath in the Hunsrueck district in 1273, and was know for his piety and virtue. His father died while Werner was still a child and his stepfather was a cruel and avaricious man who mistreated the boy and his mother. Werner fled, intending to go to the village of Steeg above Bacharach, where his mother had relatives. He got lost along the way. Finally, he came upon a herdsman with his flock who gladly shared his last bite of food with the boy. However, the herdsman had no water and Werner was very thirsty. The boy stuck his staff into the dry ground and a spring of clear, life giving water arose.
The herdsman pointed out the way to Steeg and the boy went on. But he was very disappointed to find his relatives refused him all aid. Finally, Werner found work with a vintner named Breitschied. However, the work was brutally hard, so the boy went first to Urbar, and then on to Oberwesel where he found work digging a cellar for a Jewish builder.
On Maundy Thursday of 1287, Werner received Holy Communion. Upon his return to the house of his Jewish employer, he was set upon by robbers and beaten to death. To hide their misdeed, the robbers put the body in a small boat and started up the Rhine toward Mainz. They soon abandoned this attempt, landed and hid the bloody corpse in bushes where it was found. The night watchman on the Furstenberg hill above Bacharach reported that toward morning he has seen a shining ray of light over the bushes where the body was found. Werner's body was brought to St. Kunibert's Chapel in Bacharach and buried there. On the site of this chapel a large church was later built by the Windelsbach Monastery, and the ruins are still to be seen in Bacharach, known as the Wernerkapelle or St. Werner's Chapel.
In Womrath, Werner's birthplace, there is also a St. Werner's Chapel. It possesses a beautiful, ancient altar picture of the youthful saint.
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