Fintan of Rheinau ''(Findan, Findanus)'' (803/4 in

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

– 15 November 878 in

Rheinau, Switzerland Rheinau () is a municipality in the district of Andelfingen in the Canton of Zürich in Switzerland. It is located at a bend of the Rhine River which forms the Swiss-German border in this area. A bridge links Rheinau to Altenburg, part of the mu ...

) was an Irish Catholic hermit who settled in Rheinau. In the Catholic Church he is venerated as a

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

Life

Fintan was born in Leinster, Ireland into a noble family. He lost his parents and siblings in internal wars in Ireland and through abductions by the

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

. He himself was enslaved by the Vikings (possibly handed over by his Irish enemies) and taken to the

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

Islands, but was able to escape to

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. There he stayed with a bishop for two years, and became a clergyman. In 845 he made a pilgrimage through the

Frankish Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lomba ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. From there he went to the monastery of Farfa where he lived as a monk for some time, then via

Rhaetia Raetia or Rhaetia ( , ) was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire named after the Rhaetian people. It bordered on the west with the country of the Helvetii, on the east with Noricum, on the north with Vindelicia, on the south-west wit ...

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

, or to the landgraviate of

Klettgau Klettgau (High Alemannic: ''Chleggau'') is a municipality in the district of Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the center of the ''Klettgau'' historical region stretching across the Swiss border into the cantons of Aargau, Schaffhaus ...

, where he entered the service of the

Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE ...

c nobleman Wolvene. Wolvene persuaded him after a few years to join his monastery in Rheinau as a monk, which he did in 851. From the year 856 he lived there walled in as a recluse until his death. His bones are kept in the Rheinau monastery church in the reliquary in the Fintan altar. Shortly after his death, the ''Vita Findani'' was written by a confrere of the monastery; it is considered reliable. His attributes in church art are a dove, a ducal hat, and the monks' habit.Beatrix Zureich: ''Der heilige Fintan von Rheinau. Sein Leben und seine Spiritualität'' (Saint Fintan von Rheinau. His Life and Spirituality). Miriam, Jestetten 2003. . His biography, the ''Vita Findani'', is considered to be a relatively accurate description of the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

slave trade. Interwoven with the story of

Melkorka Melkorka (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ) is the name given in ''Landnámabók'' and ''Laxdæla saga'' for the Irish mother of the Icelandic goði Ólafr Höskuldsson. It is possible that her name represents the Irish ''Mael Curcaig''. Accordi ...

from the Icelandic Laxdaela-Saga, it has been the basis of the Austrian-German-French documentary "Victims of the Vikings" (ORF/ZDF/Arte 2021).

Literature

* Fintan Birchler: ''Der Heilige Fintan: ein Muster der Christlichen Vollkommenheit'', 1793, 643 S
Google Books
* Harald Derschka: ''Das Leben des heiligen Findan von Rheinau nach der St. Galler Vita Findani aus der Handschrift 317 der Vadianischen Sammlung, Kantonsbibliothek (Vadiana)''. In: ''Rorschacher Neujahrsblatt'' 84 (1994), S. 77–86
Digitalisat
. * Georg Gresser: Artikel "Findan", in: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (LThK) Band 3, Spalte 1293, Freiburg 1995. * * Beatrix Zureich: ''Der heilige Fintan von Rheinau'' Sein Leben und seine Spiritualität. Miriam, Jestetten 2003. . * Reidar Th. Christiansen, "The People of the North", ''Lochlann: A Review of Celtic Studies 2/Norsk tidsskrift for sprogvidenskap, supplementary volume 6'' (1962), 137–164. This reprints the early part of the Life of Fintan from

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The (Latin for "Historical Monuments of Germany"), frequently abbreviated MGH, is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of parts of Northwestern, Central and Souther ...

, Scriptores 15.1 (Hannover: Hahn, 1883), pp. 502–506, and includes a translation into English by Kevin Ó Nolan (pp. 155–164).

References

External links

*
Biografie im ökumenischen Heiligenlexikon

Video: Auf der Spur des Heiligen Fintan auf der Insel Rheinau
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fintan of Rheinau Irish Roman Catholic saints Medieval Irish saints 800s births 878 deaths Year of birth uncertain