It is around this church that the town of Sankt Goar am Rhein grew on the left bank of the Rhine between Wesel and Boppard. A life of Saint Goar ("Vita Sancti Goaris") was written in 839 by a monk, Wandalbert of Prüm. This semi-legendary account of Goar's life details various miracles relevant to the life of the saint. The first was the one by which Goar proved Rusticus's unsavory nature. A foundling, recovered in a nearby church, was brought to the saint. The bishop called upon Goar to name the father of the baby as a proof of his innocence. Goar did not fail the test; he named the bishop Rusticus his father, upon which Rusticus was shocked and begged for forgiveness. Another miracle explains Goar's depiction as hanging his hat on a sunbeam. When the saint refused Sigebert's invitation to the See of Trier, he threw his "cappa" over a sunbeam: the garment was suspended "as though the shaft of light were solid." The purpose of this miracle was not merely a display of bravado, but to show that the saint's action in refusing the position was divinely justified. Goar's feast day is 6 July. He is variously depicted in art as a hermit being given milk by three hinds, as holding a pitcher, with the devil on his shoulder or under his feet, and as holding the church of Saint Goar am Rhein.