The Plan of St. Gall :: :: University of Virginia Library

In 816, when Gozbert became abbot, the Monastery of
St. Gall must have consisted of an aggregation of unimpressive
and superannuated buildings. The houses of the original
cell, erected in the Irish tradition[56] had been substantially
remodelled by Abbot Otmar (719-759)[57] who in
compliance with an order issued in 747 by King Carloman
and his brother Pippin[58] converted the abbey from the
Irish to the Benedictine rule. This change in custom undoubtedly
necessitated the replacement of the loosely scattered
houses of the original settlement[59] by a more ordered
claustral complex where the monks slept in a single dormitory
and took their meals in a common eating hall. Just
precisely how this was done, remains obscure. The sources
make it fairly clear, however, that Otmar replaced the
modest timbered oratory of St. Gall with a masonry church,
the nave of which rose to a height of 40 feet.[60] This building
had beneath its presbytery a crypt sufficiently large to
accommodate not only the sarcophagus of St. Gall, but
also an altar and whatever additional space was needed for
the attendant monks and priests to celebrate religious
services at and around this altar.[61] As far as the rest of the
monastery is concerned, the sources simply tell us that
Otmar "adapted the layout of the monastery to the diverse
needs by erecting all around dwellings that were suited for
the use by the monks" (undique versum habitacula monachorum
usibus congrua disposite construens eiusdem sancti statum
loci utilitatibus diversis aptavit)[62] and that this program
included a hospice for pilgrims and paupers as well as a
special infirmary for lepers.[63] There is no evidence that
Otmar's successors continued this work or improved upon
it. But the history of succeeding decades shows that much

of the property of the abbey was unrightfully seized by the
Counts Warin and Ruthard, who imprisoned Otmar and
put him into exile, and that similar infractions were committed
by the Bishop of Constance, in whose diocese the
abbey was located.[64] Economically St. Gall entered into a
period of stagnation, if not actual decline.

[56]

The first settlement, built by St. Gall for himself and twelve companions,
consisted of a small wooden oratory, whose entrance was so low
that a thief called Erchuald smashed his head against the door lintel in
making a hasty escape from the sanctuary. The houses of the monks were
likewise built in timber. For a summary on what is known about the
original cell see Poeschel, 1961, 4-6. His sources are chaps. 29 and 30 of
the Vita Galli confessoris triplex, published by Krusch in Mon. Germ.
Hist., Script. rer. Merov., IV, 1902, 229-337.

[57]

The most recent discussion of the life and the accomplishments of
Abbot Otmar is to be found in Duft, 1959, where all of the basic sources
are compiled (Latin and German translation).

[58]

On this important event see Duft, op. cit., 24-25 and 42-43.

[59]

On the traditional layout of the Irish monastery see below, p. 243.

[60]

That it was built in stone can be inferred from the fact that when this
building was demolished in 830 to make room for Gozbert's new church.
its walls were destroyed by a battering ram (muros ecclesiae machinis
aggressi, crebris arietum ictibus ruere compulerunt). Vita sancti Otmari,
chap. 16; ed. von Arx, Mon. Germ. Hist., Script. II, 1829, 46-47. The
height of the church is mentioned in chap. 12 of this Vita where it is said
that a serf fell from the roof of the church with a load of shingles on his
shoulder and, after a fall of "not less than forty feet" landed on the
sarcophagus of the Saint unharmed (cum et altitadine tecti unde supradictus
home cediderat, non minus quadraginta pedum mensura a terra esset
suspensa). Op. cit., 45-60.

[61]

The sources are Vita sancti Golli, chaps. 13, 65, and 72. For more
detail see below, pp. 141ff and 169ff.

[62]

Liber de miraculis sancti Galli, chap. 10; ed. Duft, 1959, 41-43; and
Vita sancti Otmari abbatis, chap. 1; ibid., 24-25. Poeschel, 1961, 9 seems
to me to strain these sources when he expressed the view that the wording
of these passages suggests that Otmar did not abolish the Irish layout of
the original settlement with its scattered houses, where monks lived in
individual cells.

[63]

Vita sancti Otmari, chap. 2; ed. Duft, 1959, 26-29.

[64]

On the fraudulent alienation of many of the abbey's outlying estates
by the Counts Warin and Ruthard and the infractions committed by
Bishop Sydonius of Constance see Vita sancti Otmari, chaps. 5-7 (ed.
Duft, 1959, 32-35); Liber de miraculis sancti Galli, chaps. 14-17 (ibid.,
44-53); and Ratpert's De casibus sancti Galli, chap. 6 (ibid., 54-57).

University of Virginia Library

I.3.2

ST. GALL AT THE TIME OF GOZBERT'S ACCESSION

ST. GALL AT THE TIME OF
GOZBERT'S ACCESSION