University of Virginia Library

TOMB OF ST. GALL AND ITS RELATION
TO THE CRYPT

There has been considerable discussion on whether the
tomb of St. Gall should be interpreted as standing in the
presbytery above, or in the crypt below it; and whether, if in
the crypt, it should be thought of as standing behind or
underneath the altar.[64] It should be remarked that on the
Plan the tomb is entered on the east side of the altar, and
that the plurality of "holy structures" referred to in the
affixed hexameter as "shining above the crypt" should
lead one to think that the sarcophagus stood in the upper
sanctuary.

Despite these facts, it has generally been assumed that
the tomb of St. Gall was meant to stand in the crypt underneath
the presbytery, and for good reason, since it was the
desire to find appropriate protection for the relics, in the
first place, that had led to the invention of crypts. The
proper solution to this puzzle may have been found by
Willis when he speculated, "It is not impossible that
although the real sepulchre of the saint was in the confessionary
or crypt below, a monument to his honour may
have been erected above the altar."[65] That such a double-storied
structure actually existed in St. Gall is suggested by
two tales reported in the Miracles of St. Gall. One of these
tales speaks of a cripple who was taken by his friends to the
memoriam B. Galli and daily "laid close to the sepulcher in
the crypt" (cottidie juxta sepulchrum in crypta collocatus).
Another tale mentions "a lamp which burned nightly
before the upper altar and tomb and which also threw some
light through a small window upon the altar of the crypt"
(lumen quod ante superius altare et tumbam ardebat per
quandam fenestrum radios suos ad altare infra cryptam
positum dirigebat).[66] Some further information concerning
the topographical relation of tomb and altar at St. Gall can

[ILLUSTRATION]

93. PLAN OF ST. GALL. NAVE AND AISLES OF CHURCH

In the axis of the nave, west to east: baptismal font, altar of SS John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, altar of the Saviour at the Holy
Cross, ambo; and midway between the two latter, two crucial inscriptions designating the nave as 40 feet wide, and each aisle, 20 feet wide.

In the north aisle, west to east: altars of SS Lucia and Cecilia, The Holy Innocents, SS Martin and Stephen. In the south aisle: SS Agatha and
Agnes, St. Sebastian, SS Mauritius and Lawrence.

be extracted from the Life of St. Gall. The author of this
work informs us that on his death at Arbon, October 16,
about the year 646, the body of the Saint was taken to his
oratory at St. Gall and buried in a grave dug between the
altar and the wall.[67] Forty years later, his sepulcher was
violated by plunderers who mistook the coffin for a treasure
chest, but Boso, Bishop of Constance, replaced the coffin
"housing the relics of the sacred body, in a worthy sarcophagus
between the altar and the wall, erecting over it a
memorial structure congruent with the merits of the God-chosen."[68]
The chronicles of St. Gall report no further
translation of the Saint, and from this fact, as Willis concluded
correctly, it has to be inferred that the location of
the tomb remained the same, even in Gozbert's church.[69]
Nowhere in any contemporary allusions to the sepulcher of
the Saint, is the tomb reported to stand underneath the altar.