GALL, Saint. - Monk and missionary, b. in Ireland ca. 554 and d. at Arbon, near Lake Constance, on 16 Oct. 627 (or 628?). Given as an oblate in childhood to the monastery of Bangor, he grew up alongside St. Columbanus, with whom he moved to France around 590 and lived for some time in the new monastery of Luneuil. Forced into exile by King Theodoric, in 610 they resumed their apostolic wanderings toward the Rhine, evangelizing everywhere and destroying idols, at times provoking, as at Tuggen near Zurich, the wrath of the pagans.

Near Lake Constance, they were received by the priest Willimar, who accompanied them to Bregenz. When Columbanus departed for Italy in 612, G., detained by illness, remained with the deacon Hiltibold and, once healed, sought a solitary place on the banks of the Steinach near Arbon and there built (614) a cell, later called "cella s. Galli." For having freed from an evil spirit Fridoborga, daughter of Duke Gunzo, the latter offered G. the episcopal see of Constance; but the saint refused in favor of his disciple John (615) and devoted himself to the formation of the monks who gathered around him. Summoned to govern the abbey of Luneuil upon the death of St. Butasius (627), G. again refused and died that same year and the following. On his tomb, toward the middle of the 8th century, the famous abbey of St. Gall arose with Otmar (v. cf. Anal. Boll., 54 [1936], p. 411).

The influence of the abbey itself and the miracles worked at his tomb contributed to the establishment of the cult of St. G., already widely diffused in the 10th-11th centuries. Feast on 16 Oct.

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: BHL. 3245-58; episodes from the life of St. G. in Vita S. Colombani austere Jona, ed. B. Krusch in MGH. Script. ver. Merov., IV, pp. 1-152; Vita Galli confessoris triplex, ibid., pp. 229-337; W. Rettberg, Observations ad vitam s. Galli, Marburg 1842; Acta SS. Octobris VII, Turin 1869, pp. 866-900; G. Mayer v. Knouau, Die Galleiner Geschichtsquellen, II (1870), pp. 1-61; E. Foli, Eine neue Recension der Vita s. Galli mitgeteilt, in Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde, 21 (1896), pp. 359-71; C. J. Greith, Der hl. G., der Apostel Allemontium und seine G. Glandenslehre gegenüber den Deutschkirchen und ihren Irrthumor, St. Gallen 1865; L. Knappert, La vie de si G. et le paganisme germanique, in Revue hist. relig., 29 (1894), pp. 259-95; Fliche-Martin-Frusz, V, pp. 332, 550.

Stanislao Majorelli

@incollection{ec5_gallo_santo, author = {Majarelli, Stanislao}, title = {Gallo, santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {1908}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/gallo-santo} }

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Gall, Saint

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