Rupert of Salzburg
Saint Rupert is the patron of salt miners because the prosperity of his beloved Salzburg flowed from its salt. As bishop he reopened and developed the salt mines and brine springs around the city in the late seventh century, and the salt trade became the wealth on which his monastic foundations and the whole region grew — so much so that the city itself bears the name “Salt-Castle” (Salzburg). The miners who drew that “white gold” from the earth naturally claimed as their protector the bishop whose labor first made it the lifeblood of the land. For the same reason he remains the principal patron of Salzburg, the city he founded as a center of Christian culture.
Rupert was a bishop and missionary who evangelized Bavaria and the lands along the Danube in the late seventh century. He founded the monastery of Saint Peter and the Nonnberg convent in Salzburg, establishing the city as a center of Christian culture. He is the patron saint of Salzburg and of salt miners.
