Saint Gall of Ireland

Our Saint, attached to his duties, spent several years in the silence and retreat of this holy place, until it pleased God to provide other trials for his virtue in the hardships and persecutions that were stirred up against Saint Columbanus. While Theuderic, King of Burgundy, son of Childebert II, at the instigation of his grandmother Brunhilda, tested the patience of Saint Columbanus through various exiles, Saint Gall, accompanied by Saint Eustasius, another religious of Luxeuil who later became its abbot, finding no safety in his community against the insults of this princess, took refuge with Theudebert, King of Austrasia, brother of Theuderic. Saint Columbanus arrived there shortly after, upon returning from the court of King Clotaire, where the vexations of Theuderic and Brunhilda had forced him to go. Theudebert received them as angels of the Lord, testifying that he was very satisfied to hear their instructions and very joyful to have such servants of God with him. Saint Columbanus then asked him for permission to go to Italy to find Agilulf, King of the Lombards. But Theudebert, unable to bear that he should leave his states, begged him to choose such a place as he deemed appropriate for his servant of God to live in peace and instruct the peoples under his protection. The Saint accepted this favor and traveled up the Rhine with Saint Gall, Saint Eustasius, and some other of his disciples who had come to join him in Metz. When they had arrived at the place where the Rhine receives the Aar river, between the dioceses of Basel and Constance, they entered Switzerland, advanced along the Limmat river to the end of Lake Zurich, and passed into the territory of Zug where they believed they had found a solitude suitable for their establishment, when they saw themselves driven out by the inhabitants. These peoples were entirely barbaric and idolatrous: our Saints, touched with compassion for their blindness and their disorders, set themselves to instruct them in the Christian religion, but they found them not at all disposed to listen to them. Saint Gall, unable to restrain his zeal, set fire to the temples of their false gods and threw into the lake that was nearby the offerings and other things destined for sacrifices. This action so irritated the barbarians that, to take revenge, they resolved to kill him and to whip Saint Columbanus, then to drive him from their country with all his own. Our Saints, having learned of this resolution, judged it appropriate to withdraw. They stopped at the town of Arbon, on Lake Constance, where they were charitabl y receiv Willimar Priest of Arbon who hosted Saint Gall during his illness and old age. ed by Willimar, who was a priest of great virtue.

Columbanus having asked this host if he knew of any remote place that could serve as a retreat for him and his company, he informed him that at the end of the lake, towards the east, there was a solitude very suitable for his design, because he would find old abandoned buildings there where he could lodge, and that the countryside was quite abundant in fruits. Following this advice, Saint Columbanus boarded a boat with Saint Gall and a deacon and arrived at the place that had been indicated to him. It was a place near th e city o Brégentz Mission site of Columbanus on the shores of Lake Constance. f Bregenz, quite deserted, but in a very pleasant solitude. They found there a chapel dedicated to Saint Aurelia, but Mass was no longer said there and it was profaned by an impious and idolatrous cult; for there were three bronze statues, attached to the wall, which the inhabitants worshipped as the ancient gods of the country to whom they held themselves indebted for their fortune and their preservation. Saint Columbanus, unable to suffer this abomination, ordered Saint Gall to announce the Gospel to them, because he knew well enough how to speak their language. The day of the great feast of the place having come, a multitude of people of all ages and both sexes gathered there, whose attendance was further increased by the desire to see these strangers. Saint Gall signaled his zeal there: he preached strongly against pagan superstition, and exhorted the people to recognize and worship the true God. Then, joining action to words, he broke the statues and threw the pieces into the lake. Several profited from these instructions and were converted; the others, remaining in their blindness, were very irritated by it, which did not prevent Saint Columbanus from purifying the chapel with holy water. He dedicated it while Saint Gall and his other companion sang psalms, consecrated the altar with holy oil, placed relics of Saint Aurelia there, and they then began to say Mass there. The other disciples of Saint Columbanus, who had remained at Arbon, came to join him at Bregenz. They built cells around the chapel; and besides the exercises of piety, some occupied themselves with cultivating a garden and others with fishing. The exercise of Saint Gall was to make nets for the fishermen or to fish often himself. By this means, he provided fish to those of his community and to the guests they received in their small monastery.

Hell was furious to see itself torn from a domain where it had reigned for so long. One night, our Saint heard the demon of the mountain cry out to the one of the lake: "Come to my aid, so that we may drive out these strangers; for they have expelled me from my temple, broken my simulacra, and drawn after them the people who followed me." The demon of Lake Constance replied: "What you announce of your misfortune, I feel by my own; for one of these strangers presses me in the waters and devastates my domain; I cannot ruin his nets nor deceive him himself, for the invocation of the divine name is always in his mouth, and, watching continually over himself, he laughs at our traps." The man of God, when he had heard these things, fortified himself on all sides with the sign of the cross and said to these demons: "In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I adjure you to leave this place and to do no harm to anyone." Then he hastened to tell his abbot what he had just heard. Immediately, Columbanus gave the signal to gather at the church. But, before they had begun the singing of the psalms, the howls of the demons and the groans of their departure were heard on the summit of the mountains. Whereupon the servants of God prostrated themselves in prayer and gave thanks to the Lord, who had delivered them from these evil spirits.

However, the infidels of the country, irritated that the servants of God had broken their idols, went to complain to Duk e Gunzo, w duc Gonzon Local duke or governor who eventually protected Saint Gall after the healing of his daughter. ho was either lord or governor of the place, that these foreigners had come to disturb the public liberty, and that one could no longer hunt in the vicinity of Bregenz because of them. Others took some cows from the monastery and even killed two of Columbanus's disciples. Gunzo, who was undoubtedly not an idolater, but who preferred politics to religion, ordered him to leave the country; and Columbanus, instead of going to justify himself as it was easy for him to do, preferred to obey, because he also feared the wrath of Theuderic, King of Burgundy, who, through the defeat and death of King Theudebert, his brother, had become King of Austrasia, upon which the place where he had settled depended. He decided to go to Italy with his disciples; but Saint Gall, finding himself indisposed when they were about to leave, excused himself from being able to follow him. The holy abbot believed that it was less the infirmity than the attachment that Gall had for this country that made him wish not to leave it. He imagined that this disciple, after having worked in this place, was quite happy to remain there and that he was tired of suffering in his company. He nevertheless permitted him to stay, but forbade him to say Mass as long as he knew he was alive. Saint Gall obeyed, and his illness, which was only too real, having increased after the departure of Saint Columbanus, forced him to return to Arbon, to the priest Willimar, who received him with great charity. He gave him two clerics of his church, Magnoald and Theodore, as guards and nurses, and took extreme care of him all the time of his illness, which was long.

After his recovery, the love of solitude, leading him to seek another retreat than that of Bregenz, made him ask for some remote place from Hiltibod, a deacon of Willimar, who had a very particular knowledge of the whole country. The latter replied: "Father, I know a solitude such as you say; but it is inhabited by ferocious beasts, bears, wild boars, and wolves without number. I fear, therefore, to lead you there, for fear that you might be devoured by these animals." Gall replied: "The Apostle said: If God is for us, who will be against us?" and also: "We know that to those who love God all things work together for good. He who delivered Daniel from the lions' den can also snatch me from the claws of the beasts." They both agreed to leave the next day. Saint Gall remained fasting all day and spent the whole night in prayer. The next day they walked until the hour of None, when the deacon said: "It is the hour for refreshment, let us take a little bread and water, in order to better complete the rest of the journey." The man of God replied: "Take, my son, what is necessary for your body. As for me, I will taste nothing until the Lord has shown me the place of the dwelling that I desire." The deacon replied: "Since we must share the consolation, we shall also share the hardship." And they both walked without eating until evening. They came to a small river called Stemaha, and followed it down to a rock, from where it plunged into a chasm where they saw many fish. They cast their nets there and caught them. The deacon having made a fire, roasted them and took bread from the scrip. The blessed Gall, having moved a little away to pray, became entangled in brambles and fell to the ground. The deacon ran to help him up; but the man of God said to him: "Leave me, this is my rest forever, this is the place I will inhabit, because I have chosen it." And, rising after his prayer, he took a dogwood branch, made a cross of it, and fixed it in the ground. Now, he had hung around his neck a box containing relics of the holy Virgin Mary (some fragments of the holy Virgin's garments), as well as of Saint Maurice and Saint Didier. He attached the reliquary to the cross, prostrated himself before it with the deacon, and said: "Lord Jesus Christ, who, for the salvation of the human race, deigned to be born of the Virgin and to suffer death, do not despise my desire because of my sins; but, for the honor of your holy Mother as well as of your Martyrs and Confessors, prepare in this place a habitation suitable for serving you."

When the prayer was finished, the two pilgrims took their food with thanksgiving at sunset, and then, having prayed again, they lay down on the ground to rest a little. When the holy man thought his companion was asleep, he prostrated himself in the form of a cross before the reliquary and prayed to the Lord with great devotion. Meanwhile, a bear, having descended from the mountain, was carefully gathering the crumbs dropped by the two guests. The man of God, seeing what the beast was doing, said to him: "I command you, in the name of the Lord, take some wood and put it in the fire." At this command, the beast went to take a very considerable piece of wood and threw it into the fire. Whereupon the holy man took a whole loaf of bread from the scrip, gave it to the new servant, and said to him: "In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, withdraw from this valley and have the surrounding mountains and hills in common, on the condition that you will do no harm here to any man or any beast." Meanwhile, the deacon, who was pretending to sleep, was observing with astonishment what was happening. He got up, came to throw himself at the feet of the holy man, and said: "Now I know that the Lord is truly with you, since the beasts of the solitude obey you." The Saint replied: "Take care not to tell this to anyone, until you see the glory of God."

In the morning, the deacon went toward the river's chasm to catch fish and give them as a gift to the priest Willimar upon his return. He was about to cast his nets there when he perceived on the banks two unclean spirits in the form of women, who threw stones at him and said: "It is you who brought into this solitude this wicked man full of envy, accustomed to defeating us by his sorcery." The deacon immediately returned to the man of God and told him what he had just seen and heard. They both began to pray, then went to the chasm. At their sight, the demons fled toward the neighboring mountain, while Saint Gall said to them: "Impure phantoms, I command you, by the power of the eternal Trinity, to leave this place, to go away into the desert mountains, and to never dare to return here again." They then cast their nets into the chasm and caught as many fish as they wanted. But they heard on the top of the mountain the voice as of two women in mourning saying to each other: "Alas! What shall we do? Or where shall we go? This stranger does not let us live among men, he does not even allow us to remain in the solitude." These voices, these complaints of the demons against Saint Gall, were heard other times as well.

The two pilgrims, then exploring the valley, found between two streams what they wished for: a beautiful forest, mountains all around, a plain in the middle; they judged this place excellent for building cells there. Gall, remembering Jacob's ladder and the angels who ascended and descended, said like him: "The Lord is truly in this place." Until then, there was an infinity of snakes in this valley. From that day on, they disappeared so much that not a single one was seen there in the time of Walafrid Strabo. This miracle agrees with the first ones, says this author, for the demon being driven from there, it was fitting that the animal by which he had deceived man should yield the place to holiness.

However remote he was from the commerce of men, he could not long remain unknown in that place. His reputation attracted disciples to him and carried the good odor of his virtue far and wide. Duke Gunzo himself had such a high opinion of him, based on the account given to him, that he entirely changed his disposition toward him. It is even said that, having a daughter possessed by a demon who tormented her horribly, he sent word to the priest Willimar to send Saint Gall to heal her. Two bishops had uselessly employed all their exorcisms, and the confusion they felt over their poor success was attributed to their lack of holiness and to certain particular irregularities of which they were suspected. Willimar therefore led Saint Gall to the Duke, whose daughter had taken no food for three days. She was lying on her mother's lap, eyes closed, limbs twisted, and as if dead. A smell of sulfur came from her mouth. The Saint began to pray and said with tears: "Lord Jesus Christ who, coming into this world, deigned to be born of a Virgin, and who commanded the winds and the sea and ordered Satan to turn back, who, finally, redeemed the human race by your Passion, command that this unclean spirit depart from this girl." Then he took the hand of the sick girl, placed his own on her head, and said: "Unclean spirit, I command you, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to depart and withdraw from this creature of God." At these words, she opened her eyes and looked at him, and the evil spirit said: "Is it you, Gall, who expelled me from my first dwellings? What! It is to take revenge on you that I entered this girl, because her father drove you away himself, and you expel me from it! If then you drive me from here, where shall I go?" The man of God replied: "Where the Lord has cast you, into the abyss!" Immediately, in the sight of all those present, it exited the mouth of the frantic girl in the form of a black bird, horrible to behold. The girl rose healed, and the man of God returned her to her mother.

The Duke, at the height of joy, offered the Saint all the gifts that King Sigebert had sent to his daughter. At the same time, he begged him to be willing to accept the bishopric of Constance. The Saint replied: "During the lifetime of my master Columbanus, I shall not celebrate Mass; if therefore you wish to raise me to this dignity, permit me to write to him. If he absolves me, I shall be at your orders." The Duke consented. After which the Saint distributed all the gifts to the poor of Arbon and returned to his dear solitude. He even attracted the deacon John there, and for three years, instructed him thoroughly in philosophy and in the science of the divine Scriptures.

Meanwhile, King Sigebert, having learned of the healing of his fiancée, begged her father to send her to him to make her his wife. She was received at Metz with the greatest honors, told the King how Saint Gall had healed her, and begged him to favor the man of God and his new establishment. Sigebert, having found that the monastery of Saint Gall was situated on public land, immediately granted him a charter of donation and royal protection.

During this time, the wedding of the King and Queen was being prepared. A large number of bishops and lords were summoned. The King having gone to invite the princess to come and reside at the palace, she threw herself at his feet and said: "Lord, I have been exhausted by a long and cruel illness, grant me seven more days so that I may regain a little strength and be able to be presented to you properly." The King condescended to her request. On the seventh day, Frideburga, accompanied by two m en and two Frideburge Betrothed of King Sigebert, healed of demonic possession by Saint Gall. girls, entered the cathedral church of Saint Stephen at the time of the morning office, stripped off her queen's garments behind the door, took on a nun's habit, grasped a horn or corner of the high altar, and made this prayer: "Saint Stephen, who shed your blood for Jesus Christ, intercede today for me, unworthy as I am, so that the heart of the King may turn to my will and that this veil may not be removed from my head." The King, informed of what was happening, assembled the bishops and princes to know what to do. One of the bishops said: "This girl, when she was delivered from the demon, appears to have bound herself by a vow to keep her chastity; take care, therefore, not to make her break it, for fear that something worse happens to her than before and that you yourself become guilty of such a great crime." The King, on the advice of the princes, acquiesced to the bishop's counsel. He entered the church, had the queen's garments and crown brought, and said to the princess: "Come to me." She, believing that they wanted to pull her out of the church, held the horn of the altar more tightly embraced. The King said to her more clearly: "Do not fear to come to me; for everything will be done today according to your will." But she, placing her head on the altar, said: "Here I am, the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to His will." King Sigebert ordered the priests to bring her, had her clothed in the queen's garments with the veil and crown, and commended her to the Lord in these terms: "With the same ornaments that you were prepared for me, I give you as a spouse to my Lord Jesus Christ." At the same time, he took her right hand and placed it on the altar; then he left the church to weep, for he loved the princess tenderly. Later, he gave her the government of a community of nuns.

After that, Duke Gunzo convened an assembly of bishops and lords at Constance, to elect a pastor for that church. One saw there the bishops of Augsburg, Verdun, and Speyer, with a crowd of ecclesiastics and faithful. The council lasted three days. Saint Gall went there with the deacons John and Magnoald. The Duke, seeing him enter, made this prayer aloud: "May the almighty God, whose providence increases and governs the whole body of the Church, be pleased, through the intervention and merits of the Blessed Virgin in whose honor this church is consecrated, to pour out the Holy Spirit upon us today, to choose a pontiff capable of governing the people of the faithful and of ruling the Church of God!" Then he exhorted the bishops and the clergy to choose, according to the canons, whomsoever they deemed appropriate. After a few moments of deliberation, the clergy cried out with one voice, along with the people: "Gall who is here is a man of God, enjoying a good reputation throughout the country, instructed in the Scriptures and full of wisdom, joining chastity to justice, at once gentle and humble, charitable and patient, father of orphans and widows: he is the one who is suitable for bishop!" The Duke then said to the Saint: "Do you hear what they are saying?" The man of God replied: "They speak well; if only what they say were true! But they do not think that the canons forbid ordaining a foreigner as bishop. However, there is here with me the deacon John, of your nation, to whom, by the grace of Jesus Christ, all t he praises diacre Jean Disciple of Saint Gall, elected bishop of Constance in his stead. you have given me are suitable, and who is capable of bearing the burden of government." Immediately the Duke questioned him about his name, his quality, his origin, and his homeland. As for his virtue and his capacity, Saint Gall asked to answer for his disciple. While he was speaking, John slipped away from the assembly and fled into the church of Saint Stephen, outside the city. But the clergy and the people ran after him and brought him back despite his tears, crying out: "It is the Lord Himself who has elected John as His pontiff!" John was therefore consecrated by the bishops and officiated pontifically. The people showed a great desire to hear the man of God. Saint Gall therefore mounted the pulpit with the bishop who served as his interpreter. He preached on the whole of religion, from the creation of the world to the Last Judgment. The people melted into tears and said to one another: "The Holy Spirit has truly spoken today through the mouth of this man!"

After having stayed a few days with the new bishop, to assist him with his counsel and prayers, he returned to his solitude, where he built the church he had planned, and surrounded it with twelve cells for his disciples. This was the origin of the famous Abbey of Saint Gall. It has since embrace abbaye de Saint-Gall Famous Benedictine abbey in Switzerland originating from the saint's hermitage. d the Rule of Saint Benedict; and, besides various privileges, its abbot holds his rank among the princes of the Empire. Our Saint then began to establish a regulated discipline in his community, without departing from the institute of Saint Columbanus, whom he still regarded as his master and his abbot. One day, when his brothers had returned to their beds after Matins, Saint Gall called his deacon Magnoald and told him to prepare the altar, because he wished to say Mass. The deacon, astonished at such a sudden resolution, thought that the Saint did not remember that this was forbidden to him, and that for more than two years he had not approached the altar. Saint Gall understood his thought, and, to relieve him of his trouble, he told him that he had to offer the sacrifice for the repose of his Father Columbanus, because he had learned in a vision during the night that he had passed from the miseries of this life to the bliss of heaven. After Mass, he sent Magnoald to the monastery of Bobbio to verify his vision. The historian of his life assures that it proved true, and adds that Magnoald brought back to the Saint letters from the religious of Bobbio, with the crozier or staff of Saint Columbanus, who had ordered that it be sent to him as a mark that he was absolved of his suspension, and that he had lifted the prohibition he had placed upon him from saying Mass. Ten years later, the religious of Luxeuil, having lost their abbot, Saint Eustasius, sent to ask Saint Gall to take his place, and deputed six of their confreres, all Irish by birth, believing that this choice of persons, all from his own country, would be more agreeable to him. The Saint, who had refused the episcopate, did not believe he should take charge of the Abbey of Luxeuil, which had already become considerable due to the great affairs and honors attached to it. The deputies pressing him too strongly to consent to his election, he declared to them that he preferred to serve others than to command them, and he appealed to their own testimony on this. He sent them away in peace, after having kept them for a few days during which he fed them with his fishing. For he had not made any difficulty about continuing that trade since the establishment of his community, no more than the Apostles after the resurrection of the Savior; which did not prevent them from living very poorly in all seasons, and that flour was often lacking there as much as other provisions.

He always maintained a very close bond with the priest Willimar, pastor of Arbon, his former host. Being both very advanced in age, they saw each other more rarely: Willimar complained of this, and, believing himself near his end, he compelled Saint Gall, by insistent prayers, to come once more to Arbon, so that he might have the consolation of embracing him before dying. He had taken the occasion of his parish feast to invite him there. The Saint went there and even preached before a multitude of people who had come for the solemnity. Three days later he fell ill at Willimar's, and died four days later, on October 16, in the arms of this host. The year of this death is highly contested, and one cannot deny that there is confusion in the calculations of those who have reported it to the year 623, and of those who have given Saint Gall ninety-five years of life. It suffices to ruin them to note that our Saint was younger than Saint Columbanus, his master, who was barely thirty years old when he came to France, around the year 590, and that he survived King Dagobert, who did not die before the year 638. This is what makes the opinion of those who place the death of Saint Gall around the year 646 quite probable, and which should make us judge that he lived little more than eighty-one years. After him, in a small box, were found various instruments of penance all bloody, especially a hair shirt and a brass chain, with which he tightened his body; which made it known that he had practiced many austerities of which his discretion had prevented him from giving the example to his brothers, so as not to make them exceed the bounds of the moderation he had prescribed for them.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS. — ABBEY OF SAINT GALL.]

John, Bishop of Constance, wished to oversee his funeral, and transported his body from Arbon to his hermitage, where God bore witness to the holiness of His servant through the miracles that occurred at his tomb. He was placed before the altar of the oratory, then buried between the wall and the altar. Later, the country was ravaged by troops of malcontents, and one of their officers, having plundered the church of our Saint, opened and further violated his sepulcher to see if there was any hidden money. But, having been seized by a sudden terror, he sought to withdraw abruptly, and injured himself so severely against the door that, after having much difficulty healing, he bore the marks of his sacrilege for the rest of his life.

Boson, Bishop of Constance, successor to John, replaced the Saint's relics in a more suitable place; but he could not gather back into his hermitage the religious whom the men of war had dispersed. He found there only his two oldest disciples, Magne or Magnoald, and Theodore. In a general scarcity of all things, he provided them with clothing and food; but, as the soldiers did not restore their former tranquility, they also left the hermitage of Saint Gall and went to build elsewhere, one at Kempten, the other at Fussen, both in the diocese of Augsburg, which were later expanded and converted into monasteries of the Congregation of Saint Gall. Meanwhile, Boson provided for the guarding of our Saint's relics by means of some ecclesiastics, who soon attracted people on pilgrimage based on the reputation of the miracles they publicized. In the time of Charles Martel, Wultramne, a wealthy lord of the region, having noticed that the offerings given to the church of Saint Gall were not being put to good use, wished to establish a community of religious there to remedy this disorder. He brought in a holy priest named Othmar, to whom he provided all the things necessary to build Othmar Restorer and true founder of the Abbey of Saint Gall in the 8th century. a monastery near the Saint's tomb. Othmar was thus the restorer, or rather the true founder, of the Abbey of Saint Gall.

This famous abbey no longer exists today; it was evacuated in 1805. After many vicissitudes, the abbey church was erected as a cathedral and its territory as a bishopric by Pope Leo XII in 1823.

The martyrologies of the 9th century mark the feast of this Saint differently. That of Wandalbert, in accordance with Walafrid, author of his life from the same period, places it on October 16. That of Notker conforms to it, and even that of Usuard, in the printed versions; but in that of Ado, as in that of Usuard which is not corrupted, it is marked on February 26. It seems that this is the feast of the elevation or re-establishment of his relics, performed by Bishop Boson, or that of some translation rather than that of his death, which cannot be moved from October 16 without authority stronger than that of Walafrid Strabo.

To complete this biography, we have used the Lives of the Saints of Franche-Comté, by the professors of the Saint-François-Xavier College of Besançon.