Irish disciple and saint
Gall
(
Latin
:
Gallus
;
c.
550 ?
c.
645) according to hagiographic tradition was a disciple and one of the traditional twelve companions of
Columbanus
on his
mission from Ireland
to the continent. However, he may have originally come from the border region between
Lorraine
and
Alemannia
and only met
Columbanus
at the monastery of
Luxeuil
in the
Vosges
.
[2]
Gall is known as a representative of the Irish monastic tradition.
[2]
The
Abbey of Saint Gall
in the city of
Saint Gallen
, Switzerland was built upon his original hermitage.
[2]
Deicolus
was the elder brother of Gall.
[3]
Biography
[
edit
]
The fragmentary oldest
Life
was recast in the 9th century by two monks of
Reichenau
, enlarged in 816?824 by
Wettinus
,
[4]
and about 833?884 by
Walafrid Strabo
, who also revised a book of the miracles of the saint. Other works ascribed to Walafrid tell of Saint Gall in prose and verse.
Gall's origin is a matter of dispute. According to his 9th-century biographers in Reichenau, he was from Ireland and entered Europe as a companion of
Columbanus
. The Irish origin of the historical Gallus was called into question by Hilty (2001), who proposed it as more likely that he was from the
Vosges
or
Alsace
region. Schar (2010) proposed that Gall may have been of Irish descent but born and raised in the Alsace.
[5]
According to the 9th-century hagiographies, Gall as a young man went to study under
Comgall
of
Bangor Abbey
. The monastery at Bangor had become renowned throughout Europe as a great centre of Christian learning. Studying in Bangor at the same time as Gall was Columbanus, who with twelve companions, set out about the year 589.
[6]
Gall and his companions established themselves with Columbanus at first at
Luxeuil
in
Gaul
. In 610, Columbanus was exiled by leaders opposed to Christianity and fled with Gall to
Alemannia
.
[7]
He accompanied Columbanus on his voyage up the
Rhine River
to
Bregenz
but when in 612 Columbanus travelled on to Italy from Bregenz, Gall had to remain behind due to illness and was nursed at
Arbon
. He remained in Alemannia, where, with several companions, he led the life of a hermit in the forests southwest of
Lake Constance
, near the source of the river Steinach.
[8]
Cells were soon added for twelve monks whom Gall carefully instructed.
[9]
Gall was soon known in Switzerland as a powerful preacher.
When the See of Constance became vacant, the clergy who assembled to elect a new bishop were unanimously in favour of Gall. He, however, refused, pleading that the election of a stranger would be contrary to church law. Some time later, in the year 625, on the death of Eustasius, abbott of Luxeuil, a monastery founded by Columbanus, members of that community were sent by the monks to request Gall to undertake the government of the monastery. He refused to quit his life of solitude, and undertake any office of rank which might involve him in the cares of the world. He was then an old man.
[6]
He died at the age of ninety-five around 645?650 in Arbon.
[7]
Legends
[
edit
]
From as early as the 9th century a series of fantastically embroidered
Lives
of Saint Gall were circulated. Prominent was the story in which Gall delivered Fridiburga from the
demon
by which she was possessed. Fridiburga was the betrothed of
Sigebert II
, King of the
Franks
, who had granted an estate at Arbon (which belonged to the royal treasury) to Gall so that he might found a monastery there.
[8]
Another popular story has it that as Gall was travelling in the woods of what is now Switzerland he was sitting one evening warming his hands at a fire. A bear emerged from the woods and charged. The holy man rebuked the bear, so awed by his presence it stopped its attack and slunk off to the trees. There it gathered firewood before returning to share the heat of the fire with Gall. The legend says that for the rest of his days Gall was followed around by his companion the bear.
[10]
Veneration
[
edit
]
His feast is celebrated on 16 October.
[11]
Iconography
[
edit
]
Images of Saint Gall typically represent him standing with a bear.
[7]
Legacy
[
edit
]
When Columbanus, Gall and their companions left Ireland for mainland Europe, they took with them learning and the written word.
Their effect on the historical record was significant as the books were painstakingly reproduced on vellum by monks across Europe. Many of the Irish texts
destroyed
in Ireland during
Viking raids
were preserved in Abbeys across the channel.
[10]
Abbey of St. Gall
[
edit
]
For several decades after his death, Gall's hermit cell remained; his disciples remained together in the cell he had built and followed the rule of St. Columban, combining prayer with work of the hands and reading with teaching.
[12]
In 719,
St. Otmar
, the brotherhood's first abbot, extended Gall's cell into the
Abbey of St. Gall
, which became the nucleus of the
Canton of St. Gallen
in eastern
Switzerland
.
[2]
The abbey followed the rule of
St. Benedict of Nursia
beginning in 747.
[2]
As many as 53 monks joined the order under St. Otmar and the community grew to acquire land in
Thurgau
, the region of Zurich and
Alemannia
, up to the
River Neckar
.
[2]
In the second half of the 8th century, the community continued to grow but became legally dependent on the Bishop of
Constance
. After an extended conflict with the see of Constance, the Abbey of St. Gallen regained its independence in the 9th century when Emperor
Louis the Pious
made it a royal monastery.
[13]
The Abbey's monastery and especially its celebrated
scriptorium
(evidenced from 760 onwards) played an illustrious part in Catholic and intellectual history until it was secularised in 1798.
[2]
[8]
It is very likely that Gall kept a small library of books for himself and his disciples for their liturgical worship. Following his death and the establishment of his tomb, the brotherhood of priests gathered there likely added to this small collection of books. These books would become the basis for the
Abbey Library of Saint Gall
.
[2]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
St Gall
is the name of a wheel shaped hard cheese made from the milk of Friesian cows, which won a Gold Medal at the World Cheese Awards held in Dublin 2008.
[14]
Robertson Davies
, in his book,
The Manticore
, interprets the legend in Jungian psychological terms. In the final scene of the novel where David Staunton is celebrating Christmas with Lizelloti Fitziputli, Magnus Eisengrim, and Dunstan Ramsay he is given a gingerbread bear. Ramsay explains that Gall made a pact of peace with a bear who was terrorizing the citizens of the nearby village. They would feed him gingerbread and he would refrain from eating them. The parable is presented as a Jungian exhortation to make peace with one's dark side. This Jungian interpretation is however incompatible with Catholic Orthodoxy which Gall promoted.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Saint of the Day, October 16"
. St. Patrick Catholic Church
. Retrieved
8 March
2012
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Ubersetzer, Tremp, Ernst 1948- Mitwirkender Huber, Johannes Mitwirkender Schmuki, Karl 1952- Mitwirkender Horlent, Jenifer (13 January 2024).
The Abbey Library of Saint Gall the history, the baroque hall and the collections of the Abbey Library
. Verlag am Klosterhof. pp. 9?10.
ISBN
978-3-906616-82-7
.
OCLC
214366157
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Deicolus." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 2 June 2018
- ^
English translation in Throop, Priscilla, trans.,
The Life of Saint Gall
, Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2010.
- ^
Gallus und die Sprachgeschichte der Nordostschweiz, St Gallen, 2001. Max Schar, "Woher kam der heilige Gallus?",
Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige
vol. 121. St. Ottilien 2010, 71?94.
- ^
a
b
"Who was St. Gall", St. Gall's Church, Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland
- ^
a
b
c
"
"Who was St. Gall?", St. Gall School, Chicago, Illinois"
. Archived from
the original
on 10 April 2018
. Retrieved
14 May
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
Poncelot, Albert. "St. Gall." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 17 Apr. 2013
- ^
"Saint Gall", Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries
- ^
a
b
"St. Gall's Bear", St. Gall's Church, Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland
- ^
Butler, Alban.
The Lives of the Saints
, Vol. X, 1866
- ^
Butler, Alban (1808).
Vies des peres, des martyrs, et des autres principaux saints : tirees des actes originaux et des monumens les plus authentiques, avec des notes historiques et critiques
(in French). Chez Broulhiet, editeur, rue Saint-Rome. pp. 261?265.
OCLC
71811056
.
- ^
De Rijk, L.M. (1963).
"On the Curri cul um of the Arts of the Trivium at St. Gall from c. 850-c. 1000"
.
Vivarium
.
1
(1): 35?86.
doi
:
10.1163/156853463X00036
.
ISSN
0042-7543
.
- ^
The Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers Association
Archived
19 October 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Joynt, Maud, tr. and ed.,
The Life of St Gall
, Llanerch Press, Burnham-on-Sea, 1927.
ISBN
0-947992-91-X
- Schar, Max,
Gallus. Der Heikiger in seiner Zeit
, Schwabe Verlag, Basle, 2011.
ISBN
978-3-7965-2749-4
- Schmid, Christian,
Gallusland. Auf den Spuren des heiligen Gallus
, Paulus Verlag, Fribourg, 2011.
ISBN
978-3-7228-0794-2
- Music and musicians in medieval Irish society
,
Ann Buckley
, pp. 165?190, Early Music xxviii, no.2, May 2000
- Music in Prehistoric and Medieval Ireland
,
Ann Buckley
, pp. 744?813, in
A New History of Ireland
, volume one, Oxford, 2005
External links
[
edit
]
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Saint Gall
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