The life of St Gall of Switzerland
When part of that group later made their way up the Rhine to Lake Zurich and on to Lake Constance, they came upon a chapel that had fallen into pagan use; they cleansed and reconsecrated it, and around it grew a new monastic settlement. In 612, when Columbanus moved on toward Italy with most of the community, Gall stayed behind with a few companions in the region later known as Alemannia, taking up the life of a hermit in the forested country near the source of the river Steinach.
It should be said plainly that the earliest full accounts of Gall's life were written well after his death, and while they describe him consistently as Irish-born and a direct disciple of Columbanus, not every modern scholar accepts this without question; some have argued he may instead have come from Alsace or another part of German-speaking Europe. His association with Columbanus and his mission in that region are not themselves in serious doubt, whatever his precise origin. The hermitage he built by the Steinach became, long after his death, the center of the city and abbey that still bear his name. He reposed sometime between 640 and 646, remembered as the one through whom the Christian faith took root in that part of the Alps.
