Gallus Jakob Alt (born 10 September 1610 in

Oberriet Oberriet is a municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. History Oberriet is first mentioned in 891 as ''Cobolo''. About 1290 it was mentioned as ''Chobilwalt'' and in 1417 it was ...

; died 4 March 1687 in St. Gallen) was prince-abbot of

Saint Gall Gall (; 550 645) according to hagiographic tradition was a disciple and one of the traditional twelve companions of Columbanus on his mission from Ireland to the continent. However, he may have originally come from the border region betwe ...

from 1654 until 1687.

Life

Born and raised in Oberriet in the St. Gallen

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

valley, he received his education in a Latin school in

Appenzell Appenzell () was a cantons of Switzerland, canton in the northeast of Switzerland, and entirely surrounded by the canton of St. Gallen, in existence from 1403 to 1597. Appenzell became independent of the Abbey of Saint Gall in 1403 and entered ...

. On 8 September 1628, Jakob Alt took his vows in the benedictine Abbey of Saint Gall and was given the monastic name Gallus. He was ordained

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

on 16 February 1636. He studied law with Placidus Bridler in

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

(1639/40) and Rome (1640/42) and graduated with the title of ''Doctor iuris canonici'' (doctor of Canonical Law). In Saint Gall, he started to climb the Abbey's administrative hierarchy. In 1645 he was made governor of monastic properties in Ebingen, he became subprior of Saint Gall in 1647, and prior and governor of Neu St. Johann in 1650. In 1652 Gallus was made deacon and thus proxy to his Abbot Pius Reher. After Pius' death on 9 September 1654, Gallus was elected next abbot on 17 December of the same year. He was the second bearer of that name after

, the founder of the monastery. He was confirmed in 1655 by Pope Alexander VII, the benediction followed on 7 May 1656. He was very intent on keeping a strict discipline within the abbey and even succeeded in increasing the number of conventuals from 45 to 70 on average. This increase in members of the monastery prompted him to have additional buildings raised.

References

External links

* Vogler, Werner
Gallus Alt
in: ''

Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz The ''Historical Dictionary of Switzerland'' (Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse; DHS) is an encyclopedia on the history of Switzerland. It aims to present the history of Switzerland in the form of an encyclopaedia, published both on paper a ...

''
Kanton St. Gallen: Gallus Alt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alt, Gallus 1610 births 1687 deaths 17th-century Swiss nobility Abbots of Saint Gall 17th-century Christian abbots