As his end drew near, he expressed to his pupils the desire to be buried with his fathers in Mainz, but fearing obstacles, they hesitated to promise to fulfill his wishes.
This they did, but no sooner was the body of the saint put into the boat than, to the great astonishment of all the people, it took its course up the Rhine, and without boatmen or rudder made for the city of Mainz and turned toward the shore.
Straightway the bishop ordered that a church should be built directly over the body of the saint, and set watchmen to guard it, lest the Jews should take it away by stealth.
This legend was still narrated at the beginning of the 19th century as an actual occurrence; and a pictorial representation on an old house near one of the gates of Mainz, close to the shore of the river, was shown to illustrate the fact.
9–15) refers in a note (p. 354) to the Shalshelet ha-Qabbalah and other sources, wondering how the same story could have been told of Rabbi Amram of Regensburg (instead of Cologne) in one of the Ma'ase bücher (books of legends).