St Meinrad
The hermit in the gloomy wood (died AD 861)
Meinrad (Meginrat) was born about AD 797 near Rottenburg, went as a boy to the monastery school on the island of Reichenau, and became a priest and a monk. Later, he was sent to Babinchova (Benken SG) in the upper Lake Zurich region to run a small monastery school. From there he withdrew to a life of solitude, first to the Etzel mountain, then later into the “gloomy wood”, where he lived as a hermit until AD 861. On 21 January 861 he was killed in his cell. About a hundred years later, the present-day Einsiedeln Abbey was founded at the same place, and St Meinrad is still highly venerated there to this day.
Meinrad Day in Einsiedeln is on 21 January.