St. Gall

St. Gall was an Irish monk of the sixth and seventh centuries, born around 550 and dying around 646. He was one of the twelve companions who left Ireland with St. Columbanus to evangelize the Continent, sharing in the founding and life of the monasteries at Luxeuil and elsewhere and laboring among the still partly pagan peoples near Lake Constance.

When Columbanus was driven onward toward Italy, Gall, detained by illness, remained behind in the region of what is now northeastern Switzerland and withdrew to live as a hermit in the forested valley of the Steinach. Disciples gathered around his cell and his reputation for holiness, and though he declined the offer of the bishopric of Constance and preferred solitude, the site of his hermitage later grew into the great Abbey of St. Gall, a renowned center of medieval learning; the Swiss city of St. Gallen bears his name. He is venerated as a saint and an apostle of the region.