Old craft - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2000 - 9 Shilling

The occasion for the publication of the stamp is the 800th anniversary of the city of Zwettl, which is in close contact with the Cistercian monastery for centuries. "However, it has always been worth while to describe the lives of the saints, so that they serve as a mirror and a model and are, so to speak, a spice for the earthly life of the people." This is stated in the foreword to the Vita Sancti Malachiae Episcopi - "Biography of the Holy Bishop Malachi". The important Cistercian Bernhard von Clairvaux wrote the Vita around 1149 in Latin. Lore with the representation of the figure of the bishop, which was selected as a motive for the stamp, are in the medieval manuscript collection of Abbey Library Zwettl. Malachias was born in 1094/1095 as the son of a lecturer at the monastery school of Armagh and consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Connor 1123/1124. He exercised his office strictly ascetic and in great modesty, indifference and charity. On a journey to Rome in 1140 he met Bernhard of Clairvaux, who recognized the special and supernatural abilities of the Bishop Malachias. In the further Vita of the Malachias one learns that this one accomplished numerous miracles in Ireland. Today, the remains of Bishop Malachi, who died in Clairvaux in November 1148, rest in the church of Troyes.