Abbey of Saint Gall

Foundation Around 612 Gallus, according to tradition, an Irish monk and disciple and companion of Saint Columbanus, established a hermitage on the site that would become the monastery. He lived in his cell until his death in 646, and was buried there in Arbon (Canton of Thurgau). Afterwards, the people venerated him as a saint and prayed at his tomb for his intercession in times of danger. They aided and taught virtue to the many pilgrims who came to St. Gall's tomb. 747 and the middle of the 8th century. A gentleman and judge of Thurgau, Waltraf (possibly, Waltram or Gaudran), in order to use the alms and collections that were being given at St. Gall's tomb to found a more regular monastery, attracted a local Alemannic pastor Otmar. During his abbacy the St. Gall School was founded. Golden Age In the subsequent century, St. Gall came into conflict with the nearby Bishopric of Constance which had recently acquired jurisdiction over the Abbey of Reichenau on Lake Constance. It was not until Emperor Louis the Pious (ruled 814–840) confirmed in 813 the imperial immediacy (Reichsunmittelbarkeit) of the abbey, that this conflict ceased. By about 1353 the guilds, headed by the cloth-weavers guild, gained control of the civic government. In 1415 the city bought its liberty from the German king Sigismund. A final attempt to expand the abbey resulted in the demolition of most of the medieval monastery. The new structures, including the cathedral by architect Peter Thumb (1681–1766), were designed in the late Baroque style and constructed between 1755 and 1768. The large and ornate new abbey did not remain a monastery for very long. In 1798 the Prince-Abbot's secular power (the last to hold the title was Pankraz Vorster) was suppressed, and the abbey was secularized. The monks were driven out and moved into other abbeys. The abbey became a separate See in 1846, with the abbey church as its cathedral and a portion of the monastic buildings for the bishop. ==Cultural treasures==

(c. 820–830), the only surviving major architectural drawing from the Early Middle Ages The Abbey library of Saint Gall is recognized as one of the richest medieval libraries in the world. It is home to one of the most comprehensive collections of early medieval books in the German-speaking part of Europe. , the library consists of over 160,000 books, of which 2100 are handwritten. Nearly half of the handwritten books are from the Middle Ages and 400 are over 1000 years old. One of the more interesting documents in the Stiftsbibliothek is a copy of Priscian's Institutiones grammaticae which contains the poem Is acher in gaíth in-nocht... written in Old Irish. The library also preserves a unique 9th-century document, known as the Plan of St. Gall, the only surviving major architectural drawing from the roughly 700-year period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the 13th century. The Plan drawn sometime between AD 820–830 AD was never actually built, and was so named because it was dedicated to the then-abbot of Saint Gall and kept at the famous medieval monastery library, where it remains to this day. The plan was an ideal of what a well-designed and well-supplied monastery should have, as envisioned by one of the synods held at Aachen for the reform of monasticism in the Frankish empire during the early years of emperor Louis the Pious (between 814 and 817). A late 9th-century drawing of Paul lecturing an agitated crowd of Jews and gentiles, part of a copy of a Pauline epistles produced at and still held by the monastery, was included in a medieval-drawing show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York the summer of 2009. A reviewer noted that the artist had "a special talent for depicting hair, ... with the saint's beard ending in curling droplets of ink." St. Gall is noted for its early use of the neume, the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The earliest extant manuscripts are from the 9th or 10th century. In 1983, the Convent of St. Gall was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "a perfect example of a great Carolingian monastery". ==People of the abbey==

List of abbots There were a total of 73 ruling abbots (including six anti-abbots) between 719 and 1805. A complete collection of abbots' biographies was published by Henggeler (1929). A table of abbots' names complete with their coats of arms was printed by Beat Jakob Anton Hiltensperger in 1778. • Saint Othmar (719–759) • John II (bishop of Constance) (759/60–782) • Ratpert (782) • Waldo (782–784) • Werdo (784–812) • Wolfleoz (812–816) • Gozbert (816–837) Expanded the buildings, started collecting books for the library. • Bernwig (837–840/41) • Engilbert I (840/841) • Grimald (841–872) • Hartmut (872–883) • Bernhard (883–890) • Solomon (890–919), Abbot of 11 other monasteries and Bishop of Constance. • Hartmann (922–925) • Engilbert II (925–933) • Thieto (933–942) • Craloh (942–958) • Anno (953–954), anti-abbot • Purchart I (958–971) • Notker (971–975), nephew of Notker Physicus • Ymmo (976–984) • Ulrich I (984–990) • Kerhart (990–1001) • Purchart II (1001–1022) • Thietpald (1022–1034) • Nortpert (1034–1072) • Ulrich II (1072–1076) • Ulrich of Eppenstein (1077–1121) • Lutold (1077–c. 1083), anti-abbot • Werinhar (1083–1086), anti-abbot • Manegold von Mammern (1121–1133) • Heinrich von Twiel (1121–1122), anti-abbot • Werinher (1133–1167) • Ulrich von Tegerfelden (1167–1199) • Ulrich von Veringen (1199–1200) • Heinrich von Klingen (1200–1204) • Ulrich von Sax (1204–1220) Lord of Hohensax and first Prince-Abbot • Rudolf von Güttingen (1220–1226) • Konrad von Bussnang (1226–1239) • Walter von Trauchburg (1239–1244) • Berchtold von Falkenstein (1244–1272) • Ulrich von Güttingen (1272–1277) • Heinrich von Wartenberg (1272–1274), anti-abbot • Rumo von Ramstein (1277–1281) • Wilhelm von Montfort (1281–1301) • Konrad von Gundelfingen (1288–1291), anti-abbot sponsored by Rudolf I of Germany • Heinrich von Ramstein (1301–1318) • Hiltbold von Werstein (1318–1329) • Rudolf von Montfort (1330–1333) • Hermann von Bonstetten (1333–1360) • Georg von Wildenstein (1360–1379) • Kuno von Stoffeln (1379–1411) • Heinrich von Gundelfingen (1411–1418) • Konrad von Pegau (1418–1419) • Heinrich von Mansdorf (1419–1426) • Eglolf Blarer (1426–1442) • Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg (1442–1463) • Ulrich Rösch (1463–1491) Bought the county of Toggenburg. In 1487 he built a monastery at Rorschach. • Gotthard Giel von Glattburg (1491–1504) • Franz von Gaisberg (1504–1529) Abbot when the Reformation took place. • Kilian Germann (1529–1530) Elected to prevent the Reformation from entering the Abbey. • Diethelm Blarer von Wartensee (1530–1564) Expanded the Abbey, known as the Third Founder due to his work on the Abbey. • Otmar Kunz (1564–1577) • Joachim Opser (1577–1594) • Bernhard Müller (1594–1630) • Pius Reher (1630–1654) • Gallus Alt (1654–1687) • Celestino Sfondrati (1687–1696) • Leodegar Bürgisser (1696–1717) • Joseph von Rudolphi (1717–1740) • Cölestin Gugger von Staudach (1740–1767) • Beda Angehrn (1767–1796) • Pankraz Vorster (1796–1805) Nuns • Wiborada (died 926). Though many woman before her were venerated as saints, she is the first woman canonized by the Holy See of the Catholic Church in 1047. The first formal Canonization by the Holy See for a saint from outside of Rome being Saint Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg in 993 just 54 years earlier. ==See also==

• Walter William Horn's Papers Regarding The Plan of St. Gall : production materials, 1967–1979 are housed in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford University Libraries ==External links==