Othmar
monk and priest
Feast: 16 November (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Othmar, an Alemannian priest, was made superior of the cell of St Gall in 720 and gathered its monks into a monastery, becoming its first abbot; he added a hospital and a school.
He fearlessly resisted two counts who tried to seize the abbey's property. They captured and imprisoned him on the island of Werd in the Rhine, where he died after six months, on 16 November 759.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
The founding abbot of St Gall, who died a prisoner for defending his monastery.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Othmar
- Wikidata Q115719 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Saint Othmar (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.