AMRAM OF MAINZ

AMRAM OF MAINZ, legendary medieval figure. According to the story R. Amram, who was born in Mainz, taught later in Cologne. He requested his pupils to send his body to Mainz for burial after his death. His corpse arrived in an unmanned boat on the Rhine but was seized by Christians who buried him as a Christian saint in a church named after him. A similar legend was current among Christians about the arrival of the corpse of the martyr St. Emmeram at Regensburg. The Jewish legend which originated at the end of the 16th century identifies Emmeram with Amram. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Gaster (tr.), Ma'aseh Book: Book of Jewish Tales and Legends, 2 (1934), 641–3; J.J. Schudt, Juedische Merckwuerdigkeiten, 1 (1714, repr. 1922), 441–4; R. Strauss, Urkunden und Aktenstuecke zur Geschichte der Juden in Regensburg (1960), nos. 111–2, 29–30.