Saint Othmar of Saint Gall
Also known as
- Audemar
- Audomar
- Otmar
- Otmaro
Profile
Educated in the ancient provice Rhaetia, an area in modern Switzerland and Germany. Priest, assigned to the parish of Saint Peter in Rhaetia, probably the same church in at Remüs (modern Ramosch) 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.
- 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
- Benedictine abbot holding a barrel in his hand
MLA Citation
- “Saint Othmar of Saint Gall“. CatholicSaints.Info. 16 February 2024. Web. 16 April 2024. <>