The first part of the manuscript reads as follows: Constat itaque beatum Domicianum ducem quondam Quarantane terre extitisse, ut in epitaphio tumbe illius in lapide ita exaratum invenimus »In nomine Patris et Fiìii et Spirìtus Sancti.

Hic requiescit beatus Domitianus dux, primus fundator huius ecclesie, qui convertit istum populum ad christianitatem ab infidelitate«.

Hic cum baptizatus a sancto Rudberto fuisset, ut quidam asserunt, sive ab aliquo successorum suorum, quibus magis favemus, locum adiit Milstatensem et culturam illic demonum non modicam invenit, quemadmodum etymologia nominis loci illius liquido ostendit.

Qui cum bona conversacione et felici consumacione cursum vite sue, prout modo merita ipsius declarant, sine querela coram deo et hominibus expleret, venerabile corpus eius in edicula iuxta maiorem ecclesiam est reconditum.It is generally known, that once lived blessed Domitian, prince of Carantanian territory, as we found in the inscription on his grave so carved in stone: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

When this without charge before God and man fulfilled the course of his life, which is well behaved and it ended fortunately, as it is evidenced by just his merits, they laid his body worthy of respect in the chapel next to the main church.According to this legend, Lake Millstatt in the 8th century AD was much larger than today and stretched up to the surrounding mountains.

When the young man did not return until the following morning, and the prince discovered his capsized boat, he ordered his subjects to drain water from the lake until they find his son's corpse.

[5] A more recent interpretation refers to the local brook once called Mils (today: Riegenbach or Leitenbach); its name being of Celtic origin, meaning "mountain stream".

Compiled in the 12th century, the legend served as a tool to shake off the yoke of the Vogts from the noble House of Gorizia (Görz), who derived the jurisdiction from their Aribonid ancestors as founders of the monastery.

While through several decades many historians agreed with Eisler, later generations clarified that in the vita of Domitian, the Bavarian count palatine Aribo II (d. 1102) is mentioned as the actual founder of the Millstatt convent and first proprietor.

Moreover, the supplement Domiciani ducis on the feast day of Saint Agatha on 5 February already appeared in a preserved liturgical calendar from about 1160; another entry Domicianus dux fundator huius ecclesiae is found in a 12th-century obituary.

It contains the basic historical message of a Carantanian chieftain; also a report on the – now outdated – folk etymology of the town's name Millstatt (mille statuae), as well as on the consecration of a pagan temple (possibly of Roman origin) for the Christian church.

He probably was baptized as a young man in Salzburg by the "Apostle of Carinthia", the Irish bishop Vergilius (d. 784), and returned to the Carantanian lands as a local ruler under Frankish suzerainty.

Latin: † Hic quescit Domitianus dux qui Karoli imp temporibus paganitatem devicit et populum ad fidem convertit Slovenian: Tukaj počiva vojvoda Domicijan, ki je v času cesarja Karla premagal poganstvo in privedel ljudstvo k veri.

Domitian's veneration as a provincial patron saint of the Duchy of Carinthia in 1761 inclined Jesuit father Matthias Rieberer (1720-1794)[18] to apply to the Roman Curia for official confirmation of the cult.

It seems that he acted on his own hand beside Jesuit leadership, as the negotiations involved the Inner Austrian bishops of Salzburg, Gurk, Seckau, Lavant, Ljubljana (Laibach) and Gorizia (Görz) with proper application, as well as even the Habsburg court of Empress Maria Theresa, but no official representatives of the order.