St. Gall, Irish monk and enlightener of Switzerland (646)
Commemorated on October 16
He was born in Ireland to wealthy parents, who sent him to be
educated at the Monastery of Bangor. There he embraced the ascetical life and
became a monk. He was one of the twelve monks who traveled with his spiritual
father St Columbanus (November 23) as missionaries to Gaul. In time some of the
group traveled into pagan lands, up the Rhine river to Lake Zurich. The monks
settled on Lake Constance around a chapel dedicated to St Aurelia, which had
been taken by the pagans as a shrine; they cleansed and reconsecrated the
chapel, which became the center of their new monastery. Saint Gall lived as a
hermit, serving the brethren by making nets and catching fish. In 612 St
Columbanus went on to Italy with most of his disciples, leaving St Gall and a
few others to continue their life. When St Gall delivered Frideburga, the
daughter of a local duke, from a demon, he offered the saint a tract of land on
the shores of Lake Constance; here was founded the monastery that in later times
bore St Gall's name.
At various times, the holy Gall refused calls to become a bishop, or to take
over the abbacy of the great monastery at Luxeuil. To all such requests he
answered that he would rather serve than command. He continued living in his
isolated monastic community until he reposed in peace in 640, at the age of
ninety-nine. In later years, and continuing well into the middle ages, the
Monastery of St Gall became famed for the holiness of its monks and for its
library.