{{Short description|Irish disciple and saint}} {{redirect|St. Gall}} {{EngvarB|date=November 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}} {{Infobox saint |honorific_prefix = Saint |name=Gall |birth_date=c. 550 |death_date=c. 645 |feast_day=16 October |venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church<br>Eastern Orthodox Church<br>Church of Ireland |image=Pfärrenbach Wandmalerei Hl Gallus.jpg (cropped).jpg |imagesize= |caption=Saint Gall |birth_place=Ireland |death_place=Arbon |titles=Patron of Saint Gall |beatified_date= |beatified_place= |beatified_by= |canonized_date= |canonized_place= |canonized_by= |attributes=Portrayed as an abbot blessing a bear that brings him a log of wood; may be shown holding a hermit's tau staff with the bear or carrying a loaf and a pilgrim's staff.<ref name="stpatrickdc">{{cite web |title=Saint of the Day, October 16 |url=http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1016.shtml#gall |publisher=St. Patrick Catholic Church | access-date=2012-03-08}}</ref> |patronage=birds, geese, poultry, Switzerland, St. Gallen<ref name="stpatrickdc"/> |major_shrine=Abbey of Saint Gall |suppressed_date= |issues= }} thumb|Stained-glass disc showing Saint Gall as dean, dated 1566
'''Gall''' ({{langx|la|Gallus}}; {{circa}} 550 {{ndash}} {{circa|lk=no}} 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Übersetzer |first=Tremp, Ernst 1948- Mitwirkender Huber, Johannes Mitwirkender Schmuki, Karl 1952- Mitwirkender Horlent, Jenifer |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/214366157 |title=The Abbey Library of Saint Gall the history, the baroque hall and the collections of the Abbey Library |date=13 January 2024 |isbn=978-3-906616-82-7 |pages=9–10 |publisher=Verlag am Klosterhof |oclc=214366157}}</ref> Gall is known as a representative of the Irish monastic tradition.<ref name=":0" /> The Abbey of Saint Gall in the city of Saint Gallen, Switzerland was built upon his original hermitage.<ref name=":0" /> Deicolus was the elder brother of Gall.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04678b.htm Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Deicolus." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 2 June 2018</ref>
==Biography== [[File:Columban und Gallus auf dem Bodensee.jpg|thumb|Columbanus and Saint Gall on Lake Constance (''Bodensee''), from a 15th-century manuscript]] The fragmentary oldest ''Life'' was recast in the 9th century by two monks of Reichenau, enlarged in 816–824 by Wettinus,<ref>English translation in Throop, Priscilla, trans., ''The Life of Saint Gall'', Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2010.</ref> 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. Schär (2010) proposed that Gall may have been of Irish descent but born and raised in the Alsace.<ref>Gallus und die Sprachgeschichte der Nordostschweiz, St Gallen, 2001. Max Schär, "Woher kam der heilige Gallus?", ''Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige'' vol. 121. St. Ottilien 2010, 71–94.</ref>
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.<ref name=bangor>[http://www.carnalea.down.anglican.org/St_Galls_Church/Who_was_St_Gall.html "Who was St. Gall", St. Gall's Church, Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland]</ref>
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.<ref name=chi>{{Cite web |url=http://www.stgallschool.com/who-was-st-gall.html |title="Who was St. Gall?", St. Gall School, Chicago, Illinois |access-date=14 May 2013 |archive-date=10 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180410174642/http://www.stgallschool.com/who-was-st-gall.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref name=poncelot>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06346b.htm Poncelot, Albert. "St. Gall." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 17 Apr. 2013]</ref> Cells were soon added for twelve monks whom Gall carefully instructed.<ref>[http://www.oodegr.co/english/biographies/arxaioi/Gall_apostle_switzerland.htm "Saint Gall", Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries]</ref> 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.<ref name=bangor/>
He died at the age of ninety-five around 645–650 in Arbon.<ref name=chi/> thumb|left|Gall, Columbanus, and Magnus: Autobahnkapelle
==Hagiography== From as early as the 9th century a series of ''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.<ref name=poncelot/>
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.<ref name=bear/>
==Veneration== His feast is celebrated on 16 October.<ref name=butler>[http://www.bartleby.com/210/10/161.html Butler, Alban. ''The Lives of the Saints'', Vol. X, 1866]</ref>
==Iconography== Images of Saint Gall typically represent him standing with a bear.<ref name=chi/>
==Legacy== [[File:Bell of St Gall Anderson 1881 Fig 80 scotlandinearlyc00ande 0250.jpg|thumb|200px|Bell of Saint Gall.<ref name="ScottBells">{{cite book |title=Scotland in early Christian times |last=Anderson |first=Joseph |date=1881|place=Edinburgh |publisher=D. Douglas|pages=186-187,199, 214-215}}</ref><ref name=BritGall/> Brought with him when he helped bring Christianity from Ireland to Switzerland, founding an abbey.<ref name=BritGall>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia= Encyclopedia Britannica online|title= Saint Gall: Irish saint |url= https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Gall}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= Abbey Cathedral St.Gallen |date= 28 September 2022 |first= Clarissa |last= Schwartz |url= https://www.thisismysaintgallen.com/abbey-cathedral/ |quote=preserved in the [St. Gall] cathedral...The bell brought by Gallus on his seventh-century journey from Ireland is one of the three oldest surviving bells in Europe...}}</ref>]]
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.<ref name=bear>[http://www.carnalea.down.anglican.org/St_Galls_Church/St_Galls_Bear.html "St. Gall's Bear", St. Gall's Church, Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland]</ref>
===Abbey of St. Gall=== 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.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Butler, Alban |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/71811056 |title=Vies des pères, des martyrs, et des autres principaux saints : tirées des actes originaux et des monumens les plus authentiques, avec des notes historiques et critiques |date=1808 |publisher=Chez Broulhiet, éditeur, rue Saint-Rome |pages=261–265 |language=French |oclc=71811056}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /> The abbey followed the rule of St. Benedict of Nursia beginning in 747.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=De Rijk |first=L.M. |date=1963 |title=On the Curri cul um of the Arts of the Trivium at St. Gall from c. 850-c. 1000 |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/viv/1/1/article-p35_3.xml |journal=Vivarium |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=35–86 |doi=10.1163/156853463X00036 |issn=0042-7543|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="poncelot" /> 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.<ref name=":0" />
===Church of St. Havel=== In Bohemian lands (modern day Czech Republic), Gall was known as St. Havel. Wenceslas I built a church in his honor in Prague shortly after his coronation in 1230, as well as the area of "Havel Town" around it.<ref name="Havel">[https://virtualni.praha.eu/towers/church-of-st-havel 360 Virtual Prague: Church of St. Havel]</ref>
==In popular culture== ''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.<ref>[http://www.irishcheese.ie/members/fermoy.html The Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers Association] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019130547/http://www.irishcheese.ie/members/fermoy.html |date=19 October 2013 }}</ref>
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.
==See also== *List of Orthodox saints *List of Roman Catholic saints
==Notes== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
==Bibliography== * Joynt, Maud, tr. and ed., ''The Life of St Gall'', Llanerch Press, Burnham-on-Sea, 1927. {{ISBN|0-947992-91-X}} * Schär, 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== {{commons category|Saint Gall}} * [http://www.standingstones.com/irishem.html The Origins of Traditional Irish Music] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981207005644/http://www.standingstones.com/irishem.html |date=7 December 1998 }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120425232613/http://allmercifulsavior.com/icons/Icons-Gall.htm Orthodox Icons of St Gall] * [http://www.christianiconography.info/gall.html St. Gall, Abbot] at the [http://www.christianiconography.info Christian Iconography] web site. * [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/268/] {{Portalbar|Saints}} {{catholic saints}} {{Catholic saints - missionaries}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gall, Saint}} Category:550 births Category:640s deaths Category:7th-century Frankish saints Category:Abbey of Saint Gall Category:Medieval Irish musicians Category:6th-century Irish Christian clergy Category:Medieval Irish saints Category:Medieval Irish saints on the Continent Category:Irish expatriates in France Category:Irish expatriates in Germany Category:Irish expatriates in Italy Category:Colombanian saints Category:6th-century Irish writers Category:7th-century Irish writers Category:People from Arbon Category:Year of death uncertain