In order to avoid bloodshed the Austrian’s reluctantly handed over the remains. When his request was turned down he threatened to start a war. Perhaps with this in mind King Stefan of Hungary wanted the remains to be brought to Hungary. It was highly desirable for a nobleman to have holy relics in his kingdom and tended to increase his standing greatly. A Colman cult thrived and no less than four popes granted indulgences to those who evoked his name. Word spread of the saint’s remains and people travelled from afar to see them. Leopold II of Austria made Melk into a Benedictine monastery in 1089 and Colman, though never officially canonized became its patron saint. Thus the remains were transferred to Melk in 1014. It is said that when his grave was opened a smell arose that gave joy to all who smelt it and that the body still had shown no signs of decomposition. The local prince was deeply impressed upon hearing this and decided to the holy man’s body in re-interned in more suitable surroundings. The only place that the water shunned was Colman’s grave, which remained a green dry island. The following year The Danube broke its banks and flooded the entire area causing massive destruction. The village basilica was not to be Colman’s final resting place. Not long after this his origins could be established when one of Colman’s servants traveling from Ireland, trying to trace the whereabouts of his unfortunate master, turned up in the village. The least they could now do was to give him a decent Christian burial and he was buried it in a small church nearby. They realised then that they that they had being a bit hasty in hanging the stranger and had treated him with great injustice. The locals took this as evidence that Colman was no spy, but a holy man. Truly amazed by what had happed Rumaldus went back to where Colman was hanging and is reported to have seen that there was no trace of any incision made on the corpse. He brought it home and the afflicted area had scarcely been rubbed three times when the boy stood up and was cured. While he was cutting off a piece of flesh warm blood flowed out as if the body was still alive. This is exactly what Rumaldus did and the corpse he chose was Colman’s. Very often certain bodily parts were removed for this purpose. It was a common belief at the time that a hanged man’s body brought luck and cured certain ailments. Rumaldus could do nothing about it until one night he was told in a dream to rub the afflicted area with a piece of flesh from a hanged man’s body.

In the village there was a man called Rumaldus and his son suffered from severe gout. The villagers wondered at this but more was to come. The barren elder tree had also started to blossom. Nor had the ravens and crows plucked out his eyes. Unlike the other corpses however, it did not decompose and it appeared to be as fresh as the day he died. In the case of Colman his body hung on the elder tree for eighteen months. It was the usual practice of the time to leave the corpse hanging to act as a deterrent. He was dragged to barren elder tree and they hanged him there between two murderers. They brought him before the local judge but Colman’s attempts to explain himself as Gaeilge and with gestures made no impression on the judge who sentenced him to death by hanging. He wouldn’t talk their language and persisted in speaking his unknown language.

Perhaps bitter and angry with previous incursions a mob gathered around the Irishman and he was thrown into jail where they tortured him but to no avail. The neighbouring Bohemians had often attacked the area and the villagers took Colman to be one of their spies sent to do a reconnaissance. This particular stranger spoke a strange tongue and wore strange clothes. In a time when people did not venture far from their native villages and everyone knew everyone, strangers stood out. He was on his way to the Holy land when his horse lost a shoe and he needed the service of the local smithy. It was the year 1012 when a stranger calling himself Colman or Coloman wandered into the village of Stockerau, North of Vienna. Very little is known about who exactly he was though it is believed that he was a king’s son from somewhere in the south of Ireland. Until 1663 when he was replaced by Saint Leopold the patron saint of Austria was an Irish man, Saint Colman.

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