GALLO, Saint. — Monk and missionary, born in Ireland ca. 554 and died at Arbon, near Lake Constance, on 16 Oct. 627 (or 628?). As a child he was offered as an oblate to the monastery of Bangor, where he grew up alongside St COLUMBAN, with whom he moved to France around 590 and lived for some time in the new monastery of Luxeuil. Forced into exile by King Theuderic in 610, they resumed their apostolic wanderings toward the Rhine, evangelizing everywhere and destroying idols, sometimes provoking the anger of pagans, as at Tuggen near Zurich.
Near Lake Constance they were welcomed by the priest Willimar, who had them taken to Bregenz. When COLUMBAN left for Italy in 617, GALLO, weakened by illness, remained with the small group of monks. After recovering, he sought a solitary place on the banks of the Steinach near Arbon, where in 614 he built a cell, later called “St GALLO’s cell.” Having freed Friedburga, daughter of Duke Gunzo, from an evil spirit, the duke offered GALLO the episcopal see of Constance; but the saint secured it instead for his disciple JOHN (615) and devoted himself to forming the monks who gathered around him. When asked to govern the abbey of Luxeuil after the death of St EUSTASIUS (627), GALLO again refused and died the same year or the next. Around the middle of the 8th century a famous abbey of St Gall (v. cf. Anal. Bell., 54 [1936], p. 411) arose over his tomb.
The influence of the abbey itself and the miracles worked at his tomb helped to establish the cult of St GALLO, already widespread in the 10th–11th centuries. Feast: 16 Oct.