Wetti of Reichenau (; c 775–824) was a Benedictine monk, scholar and educator at the monastery at Reichenau in modern-day Germany. He was one of the leading educators of his time, and an influential scholar among monks and laity throughout not only the Carolingian empire but also the Western European monastic community. His best known surviving work is his biography of Saint Gallus, the founder of Reichenau's sister monastery, St Gall.
Wetti is best known for the visions of heaven and hell he had shortly before his death in about November 4, 824, which were recorded in Latin (Visio Wettini) by Heito, former abbot of Reichenau, in 824 and by Wetti's disciple Walahfrid Strabo in 827. Walahfrid's version, in verse, reveals far more about Wetti's visions than Heito's does, leveling more detailed accusations of greed and sexual misconduct against monks, government and church officials – cautiously edited or omitted by Heito – even acrostically naming Charlemagne when he appears in purgatory. An example of dream literature, the Vision of Wetti reflects Carolingian afterlife conceptions of punishment and salvation; it was widely read throughout contemporary monastic communities and is generally considered one of the influences on Dante's Divine Comedy.
Early life and monastic career
Wetti was born in the 780s to a noble family. He was educated in both the classical tradition of the seven liberal arts and Irish monasticism at the Benedictine abbey of Reichenau, founded in 724 by the Irish monk Pirmin. He was apparently an "innocent boy" and a rebellious teenager before he settled down to teach at Reichenau's convent school.
Wetti officiated as master of the Reichenau monastery school for at least twenty years, training generations of monastic students; by all accounts, his students saw him as the ideal of monastic piety. Wetti's peers, furthermore, recognized him as Reichenau's "outstanding intellectual", which is "all the more impressive because [the eighth and ninth centuries were] Reichenau's golden age as a center of learning", a time in which Wetti, his reputation, authority, and opinions would have "had the power to lead (or mislead) not only his students but all of the monks."
Wetti also produced several written works, the best known of those that survive being his biography of Saint Gall, the founder of Reichenau's sister monastery, St Gall. Life of Saint Gall is divided into two books. The first book, dated to the early ninth century, briefly describes him as a studious, pious child, who in all likelihood "had been 'commended' to Columbanus at his parents' instigation" – commended in this sense denotes that Gall would have been entrusted to Columbanus, and does not suggest that he underwent the oblation rituals which became more common in the early ninth century. The second book is dated to the early 820s and was later redrafted by Walahfrid Strabo. It provides a more detailed account of the saint's work in establishing the monastery of St Gall, his later life, death, and the miracles around his grave until the end of the eighth century. While these biographies are the best known of Wetti's surviving work, he might have produced a larger body of work, although evidence to substantiate this is lacking.
The Vision of Wetti
In late October 824 Wetti drank a potion – supposedly medicinal – and became violently ill, suffering "terrible pains, vomiting up undigested food, and balking at being fed ..." On the third day, still unwell, Wetti had his bed moved to a private chamber. Under vigil of some of his brothers, he soon drifted off and his first vision began. He dreamed that a demon dressed as a cleric entered the chamber, bringing torture instruments to punish him for his sins. Before it began to torment him a swarm of demons pushed their way into the room, but they were turned away by the monks and an angel peculiarly dressed in purple robes.
On awaking Wetti told his dream to the other monks and asked them to read aloud passages from Gregory's Dialogues regarding the afterlife, something which may have influenced the next vision. Shortly afterwards Wetti was again asleep. The same angel, this time in white, entered the room and led him through to purgatory, where Wetti was made to witness sinners suffering contrapasso punishments. He was first shown the fate of those guilty of sexual misconduct. He saw priests and their concubines bound to stakes, standing hip-deep in a river of fire, their genitals being flogged every third day.