Biography
Gall belonged to the Irish-Columbanian missionary movement that carried monastic evangelization across continental Europe. The Diocese of St. Gallen places his birth around 550 and his arrival in the Steinach valley around 612. There he formed a hermitage, preached among the local people, and became the spiritual father of the settlement that bears his name.
The community that gathered around his cell and tomb endured after his death. A century later Otmar organized it into the monastery whose prayer, hospitality, scholarship, music, and manuscript culture made St. Gall one of medieval Europe’s great centers of Christian learning.
Gall died on an October 16, probably around the middle of the seventh century. The cathedral now standing above the historic location of his hermitage preserves his liturgical memory and relics according to the custody of the local Church.
How to read this pilgrimage
At St. Gallen, do not stop at the library’s beauty. Begin in the active cathedral, pray at the Gallus altar and crypt, and see the manuscript tradition as one long fruit of a missionary vocation rooted in prayer.
St. Gall, pray for us.