Att text: The Oldest Life of Saint Gall is an anonymous and fragmentary text, generally dated to the late 7^th or early 8^th century and understood to have developed in stages, incorporating miracle accounts up to c. 771 (Berschin 2012). While its author cannot be identified, the early monastic community at St Gall—organised under Abbot Otmar in the early 8^th century—provides a plausible institutional context for its composition and preservation.

Berschin, W. (2012) Gallus-Viten. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 6. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.

¹ …until you come to the monastery of Bobbio, and diligently inquire into all the things that have been done concerning my abbot, whether he lives or has departed, as has been revealed to me through a vision. Take note of the day and the hour, and when you return you shall make known to me everything." The deacon fell at his feet, saying: “Lord, where shall I go, for I do not know the way?” But he said to him: “Go, brother, do not fear, but proceed as I have said; for the Lord will direct your steps” [Prov 3:6]. He then, having asked for a blessing, went his way with haste and came to the above-named place and found everything just as it had been revealed to his master through a vision, and he remained with the brethren one night and received from them a letter concerning all the things that had been done regarding Abbot Columbanus. And they sent his staff, which he held in his hands, to the man of God, saying: “Our lord commanded us while he was still living that by this staff Gallus should be absolved from excommunication,” and they dismissed him. And he began to make his journey day and night; the mercy of God was present, so that on the eighth day he came to Saint Gallus, and he gave him the letter which he had carried from the brethren, and the staff with the absolution. And when he had read the letter, he wept bitterly and entered the oratory with the brethren; he began to celebrate Mass and to offer sacrifice for him.

² It happened, moreover, on a certain day, while he was working with the brethren and the people in the oratory, that one beam was being stripped from the wall, and it appeared shorter than the others by four palms, and the masters wished to throw it away. The man of God said to them: “Bear with it a little; let us go into the house and take the food which God has prepared for us.” And they did so. He then blessed the bread and gave them his blessing. After the food had been taken, they all rose together for the work. They found the beam, which was excessively longer than the others by as much as half a foot, and they glorified God and set the beam in its place, where it had been before. And that same beam remains even to the present day for a testimony.

³ …that they wished to have him as abbot over them. But they went straight on their way as far as the cell of the man of God. And when they had come to the place and knocked at the door, one of the brethren went out and announced to the man of God, saying: “There are here six brethren wishing to speak with you.” And he ordered them to be brought into the oratory. And when the prayer had been completed, they entered the house and showed him the letter. And when the man of God had read it, he said to them: “I fled all my acquaintances and kinsmen into this solitude, following the prophetic words, with David saying: “I have become a stranger to my brothers and an alien to the sons of my mother” [Ps 68(69):9]. I despised city and bishopric and looked down upon all earthly riches; for Christ I left parents and estates; and again, after renouncing the world, shall I take up riches, like that man of whom the Lord Jesus foretold, who put his hand to the plough and looked back [Luke 9:62], perhaps like dogs returning to their vomit? [Prov 26:11]. You know that I have always been your subject; now do you wish to have me as abbot and prince?” And when he had spoken these words and many others, he restrained their spirits. Then he called one of his disciples and asked him what they had for refreshment. And when he replied that they had nothing except only a sextarius of barley flour, he ordered loaves to be made, saying: “The Lord is able to prepare a table in the desert” [Ps 77(78):19], and he ordered vegetables to be gathered from the garden and brought into the house. Then the man of God, rising, taking his nets with him and one of his disciples and the brethren who had arrived, said to them: “Let us rise and go to the pool and see whether the Lord may will to grant us some little fishes.” And when they had come to the pool, they saw a great fish swimming through the river, and two otters following it, as though they wished to seize it. But they, stretching out the net, caught it and drew it to the bank. For it had a length of twelve palms and a width of four. The otters, however, said: “These things he has prepared for us.” Saying these things among themselves, they went on to the house. And when the man of God came to the cell, there appeared a certain man and offered him two skins full of wine with three modii of flour for a blessing. But he ordered them to be brought into the house, and they began to feast. Afterwards, indeed, they held conversations among themselves concerning the holy Scriptures. The man of God kept them with him for several days for the sake of charity, and refreshed them, and told them all the things that had been done concerning the man of God Columbanus. And afterwards, kissing one another with a holy kiss, the man of God dismissed them, and they returned to their own place.

⁴ After some time, moreover, a presbyter Willimar came to the cell of the man of God and begged him that he would go down together with him to the fortress, and he said to him: “Father, why have you left me desolate of your teaching? Or have I sinned in anything against you? Come, that you may teach us the way of truth, as you were accustomed, since it is very necessary and fitting for us to have your teaching.” And they went together to the fortress, and when the people had been summoned, he began to preach to them and to teach, and he remained there for two days. But on the third day a fever struck him, and he became very ill, so that he was not able to take food nor to return to the cell. And he lay in bed, weakened by sickness, for fourteen days, and on the sixteenth day of the month of October he departed from this life. The days and years of his life were ninety-five.

Here Begin The Signs And Virtues Of Him, Which God Manifestly Make Known After His Passing #

(This section is not original to the work, and was progressively added to up to 771AD)

¹ But when John, bishop of the city of Constance, heard that Gallus, his brother, was sick in the fortress of Arbon in the house of a presbyter, going up into a little boat … he took with him those whom he knew would accompany him, and … for a visitation … and when he had arrived at the harbor, he heard in the house of the presbyter a great lamentation taking place. He asked what it was, and they told him that “Gallus, our friend, has departed from this life.” The blessed bishop cast himself into the water and was unable to restrain himself because of his grief, until the little boat came to the shore; and those who came with him disembarked together with him, and they entered the house, weeping and mourning, and they found him wrapped in a coffin.

² John the bishop, opening the chest, and when he had seen him, began to weep bitterly and said: “Alas, alas, my father! Why did you lead me out from the house of my father to this place, and now at this very moment you have left me an orphan, desolate, since the whole city was set upon you?” But the presbyter of that fortress raised him up, saying: “Rise, lord, and let us pray for him.” And when they had made an end of their words, they entered the church, and the bishop began to celebrate Mass for him; and when these things had been done, looking behind him, he saw a pit made where they wished to bury him. Taking up the cross in the church, they entered the house of the presbyter with psalmody, wishing to bring him to the grave, and they placed his chest upon the bier, so that they might carry him into the church, and they were in no way able to move him. And when they had spoken among themselves about this matter, that they were wholly unable to lift him from that place, John the bishop said: “Truly now I know that this burial is not acceptable to my lord Gallus.” And he ordered the presbyter to bring in two untamed horses from his own stable. And it was done so; and with great labor they harnessed them with trappings and brought them to the place where the body of the man of God was lying. But the bishop, together with the clergy and the people, prayed to the Lord, saying: “Almighty God and Jesus Christ, his Son, in whose love and honor this man of God left his province and followed your commandments, bring in his little body with these untamed horses wherever your will shall be, that he may rest.” And when the prayer was finished, all the people answered: Amen.

³ Now there was a paralytic named Maurus, who was so contracted that he could not walk by his own steps. And when the same presbyter was distributing the garments of the man of God among the poor, he gave to that paralytic the stockings of the man of God together with his shoes. And when he put them on out of joy, the joints of his limbs were loosened; he cried out with a loud voice and, leaping up, blessed God and the man of God who had healed him. And the bishop and all the people, seeing him, when they saw him healed, glorified God and said: “Today God has deigned to show a manifest power for his servant,” and they gave a candle to him who had been paralytic, and he went on with the rest of the people. This was the first sign after his passing.

⁴ Another miracle also is reported. The man of God had a small leather casket under his keeping …

⁵ … of Saint Gallus, and for those worshiping at the tomb of that saint: whatever they asked of our Lord Jesus Christ there in his honor of the saint, who had faith in holy devotion; and if they so asked what was fitting, they received the very thing they requested without any delay, through the granting of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

⁶ Even now we pass over some things which we have heard or seen, while we hasten on to others which we ourselves have seen with our own eyes. Now in the time of Carlmann the mayor of the palace there was a certain poor man in the district called Bertoltespara, who out of the greatest devotion desired to go with his wife to the church of Saint Gallus. While he was pondering this, his wife began to weave a pall as an act of devotion, and when she had finished it, she wrapped in that little pall a small twisted candle of wax and placed it in her chest among other linens. It happened, however, while they were planning the journey itself, that their house was burned by fire, and nothing remained to them of what they had in the house; moreover, the chest itself in which the aforementioned little pall had been placed was consumed by the fire together with the wax. But when the fire had ceased, they came to search whether they might find anything there from among their household goods. And the mercy of the Lord was present: they found that same little pall with the wax wrapped in it in the ash of the cinders, unburned, and the fire had not touched them at all, but they were found unharmed. They, seeing the miracle, blessed God, went straight on their way to the predetermined place where they had first had the devotion to go, to the monastery of Saint Gallus, and told the brethren everything that had been done, and offered the little pall upon the altar, and it remained there as a sign for many periods of time, in the days when lord Audemarus was governing that monastery as abbot.

⁷ Another miracle also is reported, which occurred in that same aforementioned district in the time of King Pippin. A certain man named Willimar was sick with a severe illness and made a vow to God, that if the Lord should will to heal him, he would owe the gift of one horse and two oxen to the church of Saint Gallus; and from that very day he began to grow stronger and was made well. It happened, however, that his lord named Birhtilo hastened to the church of Saint Gallus the confessor for the sake of prayer, and the aforementioned man went with him, because he was under the authority of that ruler. And when they had arrived at the monastery and entered the church of Saint Gallus, after prayer had been made and a blessing requested, they wished to return to their own homes. As they were departing, when they were not far from the church, that horse which had previously been vowed to the church, upon which the man who had vowed it was riding, was unable to go any farther; and the one who was sitting upon it began to spur it until it bled, yet even so it did not move at all. When the ruler and those who were with him saw this, they began to inquire what the matter was. He, however, immediately, with shame, disclosed his fault to them, because he had sinned with regard to the vow which he had made, and confessed that he had turned back because of that very vow. At once they all returned to the church and offered that same horse at the doors of the church, and with a blessing they returned to their own homes.

⁸ Now a third miracle was still performed in that same aforementioned district, while lord Carlmann was reigning, in the fourth year of his rule. There was also a certain rather poor man from the vicinity of Rotuvilla, belonging to the public fisc. Because out of great devotion he wished to reach the church of Saint Gallus, and since he had nothing with which he might be able to offer something at the altar, persuaded by the devil, in the dead of night he entered the courtyard of the ruler, stole a small vessel with bees and honey, and brought it into his house and destroyed the bees, taking the honey and making wax from it. After this, together with his neighbors and kinsmen, he went to the church of Saint Gallus the confessor. But when they had arrived at the same church and came to the tomb, they offered there whatever they were carrying; and the aforementioned poor man, wishing to place the wax which he was carrying, when he proceeded, in his hand the wax itself appeared as a very hard stone. He, struck with fear, confessed his deed to one of those who had come with him; but he made it known to the keepers of the church, who in turn made the matter known to all. A thing very great and wondrous, unheard of among men, that the material of a liquid creature was turned into a very hard stone and the element changed, which is contrary to nature. That such a thing could happen is to be believed for no other reason than that offerings from theft or robbery are not acceptable to almighty God, and it pleased him to make his power known in honor of that saint, as is known to all. That stone is clearly seen in that same church even to the present day.