Franz Lindenmayr / Cave-Religion-Psyche

The "Teigstein" and the legend of Saint Wolfgang

The "Teigstein"

In 1994 there had been the 1000 anniversary of the death of Saint Wolfgang. One of the most important sites, which played a role in his life, is situated near the Falkenstein at Wolfgangsee/Salzburg/Austria. As legend has it he erected a hermitage there, to retire from the turbulences of this world for a few years. In the rear part of the church is a small cave.

In the Salzburger Höhlenbuch, volume 5, the standard work for the specialists of this subject, this cave is only described with the following few words: "Through the hardly head-high entrance you arrive at a small chamber, whose only continuation is a very small rift. This rift is impenetrable after a few meters. It is a tectonic rift parallel to the slope. Three well-worn steps at the entrance indicate the old age of the hermitage."

cave survey by Czoernig, 1942

It's a real shame, because the part, which isn’t mentioned with even one word, xx this undescribed nothing xx between the "hardly head-high-entrance" and the "small chamber" is probably one of the most important places in the center of Europe, considering it historically. Obviously the knowledge about this place has nowadays almost withered away, so that it can only be regained very painstakingly and fragmentarily.

A single look at this short passage is sufficient to be able to find out that at lot must have happened there. The rock is polished and colored dark. Many, many people have squeezed through the small canyon and have left the small chamber by the "well-worn steps". It is said, that the pilgrimage to the nature shrine at the Falkenstein was outclassed by Rome, Aachen and Einsiedeln. Why did so many people do something like that?

A legend explains the creation of the canyon passage as follows: The devil chased the holy Wolfgang. Suddenly the rocks opened in front of the saint to let him in but not the devil. The canyon passage was to small for him. A painting in the church of Sankt Wolfgang near Erding/Upper Bavaria shows this scene.

When the hermitage became a place of pilgrimage, people reenacted this crossing for long long time, "without looking and shouting", which meant, they had to do it silently and without looking back. It was said, that even the thickest could pass the narrow passage if he was free of sins. Pregnant women hoped for an easier birth.

A relatively unknown continuation of this through creeping ritual is in the church of Sankt Wolfgang near Altenmarkt/Upper Bavaria. 3 red marble plates limit a smoothly polished rock surface in the center of the church in front of the altar. One of it has a hole in it, which just enables the through creeping. It is also called "Teigstein" (dough stone). Young married couples pray there for a blessing for children. Modern geomantics have also discovered this place and are publishing "energy sketches" of it.

Visitors of the tomb of Saint Wolfgang in Regensburg, will, after all that, not be surprised, to find a now locked creeping passage in the crypt.

The story of Saint Wolfgang is embedded in the whole micro universe of holes, holed stones and crawling through and other rituals, connected with holed stones.

Links:

Lochsteine und Durchkriechbräuche

Höhle-Religion-Psyche