HRABANUS or RABANUS MAGNEN TIUS MAURUS (c. archbishop of Mainz, born of noble parents at Mainz, and educated at Fulda and Tours under Alcuin, who in recognition of his ability surnamed him Maurus, after St. Maur the favourite disciple of Benedict. In 8o3 he be came director of the school at Fulda, which under him acquired great fame. He was ordained priest in 814 but shortly afterwards, apparently on account of disagreement with Ratgar, he withdrew from Fulda, and made a pilgrimage to Palestine. He returned to Fulda on the election of a new abbot (Eigil) in 817, upon whose death in 822 he himself became abbot. Af ter an efficient and suc cessful tenure of office, he retired in 842, but five years later, succeeded Otgar in the archbishopric of Mainz, where he re mained for eight years. He died at Winkel on the Rhine, on Feb. 4, 856.
In politics, Hrabanus gave his support to Louis the Pious against his rebellious sons, and after the death of the emperor sided with Lothair, the eldest son. In theology and philosophy, a sphere in which he came into conflict with Gottschalk, he was one of the most learned men of his time. Besides his extensive commentaries on the Bible, his chief works were the encyclo paedic dictionary De Universo, the Glossaria Latino-Theodisca, and the pedagogical treatise De Institutione clericorum.
The 1627 Cologne edition of his works was reprinted in Migne's Pat rol. Lat. vols. 107-112. See Schwarz, De Rhabano Mauro primo Ger maniae praeceptore (18-I) ; Kunstmann, Hrabanus Magnentius Maurus (1841) ; Spengler, Leben des Neil. Rhabanus Maurus (1856) ; Kohler, Rhabanus Maurus u. die Schule zu Fulda (187o) ; Richter, Hrabanus Maurus (1882) and Hablitzel, Hrabanus Maurus (1906) . See also Pertz, Monum. Germ. Hist. (i. and ii.) ; and bibliography in Uberweg, Gesch. der Philosophie, vol. ii. (1928) .