The Latin Life of *Gallus (hermit and disciple of Columbanus, ob. c. 650, S02573), surviving in fragmentary form, recounts some of his miracles and his death. Written probably at Sankt Gallen (eastern Gaul), in c. 680, with 8th-c. additions.
E06801
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Fragment of the oldest Life of Gallus (Vitae Galli uetustissimae fragmentum, BHL 3245)
Summary
(1) The fragment begins in the middle of speech by Gallus to a deacon: Gallus orders him to go to Bobbio and inquire as to whether his abbot (meus abbas) *Columbanus (monk and missionary in Ireland, Gaul and Italy, ob. 615, S01983) has died, 'as has been revealed to me in a vision' (sicut mihi reuelatum est per uisionem). On arrival, the deacon finds this to be the case, and the monks of Bobbio give him a letter detailing Columbanus' death, together with the abbot's staff (cambutta), explaining that, with this staff, Gallus is freed from his excommunication (per istum baculum Gallus fuisset absolutus ab excommunicatione). The deacon brings these to Gallus, who weeps and celebrates mass.
(2) Miracle stories: how a plank which was too short for the wall of the oratory grew to the correct size while the brothers departed for a meal, at which Gallus blessed the bread: 'and that plank up to this day [cures] tooth [pains]' (et ipsa axis usque in hodiernum diem ad dentium... [text missing]). (3) How Gallus turned down the offer of an abbacy from some visitors to his cell, and then went to the river and caught a huge fish, which he served to them; how he kept these visitors for a few days, telling them the whole story of the 'man of God' Columbanus (narrauit eis omnia, quae de uiro Dei Columbano gesta erant).
(4) On the death of Gallus: how, after preaching to the 'people' (plebs) at the 'fortress' (castrum = Arbon, on Lake Constance?) on the request of the priest Willimar, he was struck by a fever, returned to his cell, and died on 16 October, aged ninety-five.
(5-11) 'The signs and miracles which God made manifest after his death' (signa et uirtutes eius quas Deus post transetum eius manifesta declarauit) - these later additions have not been included in our database.
Text: Krusch (1902)
Summary: B. Savill
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesCult building - oratory
Non Liturgical ActivityComposing and translating saint-related texts
Oral transmission of saint-related stories
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Miracle with animals and plants
Healing diseases and disabilities
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Revelation of hidden knowledge (past, present and future)
Power over objects
RelicsContact relic - other
Contact relic - saint’s possession and clothes
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Source
This oldest version of the Life of Gallus survives fragmentarily in a single ninth-century manuscript (Zürich, Staatsarchiv, C VI 9, II 8a). Its original composition may date back to c. 680, with further additions in 715/25, and again after 771 (Berschin 1988).Discussion
The Life's central purpose appears to have been to link the early cult of the hermit Gallus, and the incipient monastic community based around his shrine (modern-day Sankt Gallen, Switzerland) to the cult of Columbanus and the wider tradition of 'Columbanian' monasticism - by the later seventh century, an enormously influential force in the Merovingian kingdoms.Forging such an explicit connection between the two might have felt necessary, since the historical Gallus' links to the Irish saint may not have looked wholly secure. Jonas of Bobbio names in passing one Gallus as the source of a miracle story in his Life of Columbanus, composed 642/3 (Book 1, ch. 11: E07615). But Jonas does not describe his source as a contemporary holy man - nor really accord him much significance at all - and the identity of this figure with the culted Saint Gallus is now the subject of scholarly debate (see below, Further Reading). Considering the popularity of Jonas' work, it is not impossible that it had influenced the early Sankt Gallen community in their understanding of their own saint (note, moreover, that chapter 3 of the Life of Gallus, which depicts the hermit narrating the full gesta of his former abbot to visiting monks, may even be an attempt to outdo Jonas, by hinting at Gallus as the oral originator of the Life of Columbanus).
Carolingian sources later portrayed Gallus as an Irishman who had migrated to the continent as one of Columbanus' original disciples, but this text (as it survives) does not comment on the saint's background or ethnicity.
Bibliography
EditionKrusch, MGH Scr rer. merov., 4 (1902), 251-6.
Further reading
Berschin, W., 'Gallus abbas vindicatus,' Historisches Jahrbuch, 95 (1975), 257-77.
Berschin, W., Biographie und Epochenstil im lateinischen Mittelalter, 5 vols (Stuttgart 1988), ii. 92-9.
Fox, Y., Power and Religion in Merovingian Gaul: Columbanian Monasticism and the Frankish Elites (Cambridge, 2014), 114-18.
Heinzelmann, M., 'L'hagiographie mérovingienne: panorama des documents potentiels', in: M. Goullet, M. Heinzelmann, and C. Veyrard-Cosme (eds.), L'hagiographie mérovingienne à travers ses réécritures (Beihefte der Francia 71; Ostfildern, 2010), 27-82.
Müller, I., 'Die älteste Gallus-Vita,' Zeitschrift für schweizerische Kirchengeschichte, 66 (1972), 1-48.
Riain-Raedel, D., 'Gall (fl. 615),' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004): https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/10303
Schnoor, F., K. Schmuki, E. Tremp and K. Kuratli Hüebli, eds, Gallus und seine Zeit: Leben, Werken, Nachleben (St Gallen, 2015).
Benjamin Savill
15/10/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01983 | Columbanus, monk and missionary in Ireland, Gaul and Italy, ob. 615 | Columbanus | Certain | S02573 | Gallus/Gall, hermit and disciple of Columbanus, ob. c. 650 | Gallus | Certain |
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