Saint Othmar of Saint Gall November 16

 Saint Othmar of Saint Gall

Also known as

Audemar, Audomar, Otmar

Profile

Educated in the ancient provice Rhaetia, an area in modern Switzerland and Germany. Priest. Presided over a church of Saint Florinus in Rhaetia, probably the same church where Saint Florinus worked and was buried. Appointed abbot at Saint Gall, Switzerland in 720, and united the area monks into a monastery under the rule of Saint Columban. As abbot, he added a hospital and school, and changed the monastery's rule to Benedictine. Legend says that when Othmar fed the poor from a barrel of provisions, it never became empty, no matter how much he took from it.

In 759, Counts Warin and Ruodhart unjustly tried to gain possession of property belonging to the abbey. Othmar resisted, they imprisoned him at the castle of Bodmann, then on the island of Werd-on-the-Rhine where he died. His cultus spread soon after his death, and he is now one of the most popular saints in Switzerland.

Died

• 16 November 759 at Werd-on-the-Rhine, near Echnez, Switzerland

• body transferred to monastery of Saint Gall in 769

• body entombed in the church of Saint Othmar at Saint Gall in 867

Representation

Benedictine abbot holding a barrel in his hand