Fintan of Rheinau

Fintan of Rheinau (Findan, Findanus) (803–804 in Leinster, Ireland, 15 November 878 in Rheinau, Switzerland) was an Irish Catholic hermit who settled in Rheinau.[1] In the Catholic Church he is venerated as a saint.

St. Fintan of Rheinau, painting from the Monastery Mariastein

Life

Fintan was born in the Leinster, Ireland in a noble family.[2] He lost his parents and siblings in internal wars in Ireland and through abductions by the Vikings.[1] He himself was enslaved by the Vikings (possibly handed over by his Irish enemies[3]) and taken to the Orkney Islands, but was able to escape to Scotland.[1] There he stayed with a bishop for two years,[1] and became a clergyman.[4] In 845 he made a pilgrimage through the Frankish Empire to Rome.[1] From there he went to the monastery of Farfa where he lived as a monk for some time, then via Rhaetia to Swabia, or to the landgraviate of Klettgau, where he entered the service of the Alemannic nobleman Wolvene.[1] Wolvene persuaded him after a few years to join his monastery in Rheinau as a monk, which he did in 851.[1] From the year 856 he lived there walled in as an incluse until his death.[1] His bones are kept in the Rheinau monastery church in the reliquary in the Fintan altar.[1] 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.[1]

His biography, the Vita Findani, is considered to be a relatively accurate description of Viking age slave trade. Interwoven with the story of Melkorka from the Icelandic Laxdaela-Saga, it has been the been the basis of the Austrian-German-French documentary "Victims of the Vikings" (ORF/ZDF/Arte 2021).[5]

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.
  • Ekkart Sauser (2000). "FINDAN (Fintan): hl. Eremit". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). 17. Herzberg: Bautz. col. 382. ISBN 3-88309-080-8.
  • Beatrix Zureich: Der heilige Fintan von Rheinau Sein Leben und seine Spiritualität. Miriam, Jestetten 2003. ISBN 978-3-87449-326-0.

References
  1. Beatrix Zureich: Der heilige Fintan von Rheinau. Sein Leben und seine Spiritualität (Saint Fintan von Rheinau. His Life and Spirituality). Miriam, Jestetten 2003. ISBN 978-3-87449-326-0.
  2. Fintan Birchler: Der Heilige Fintan: ein Muster der Christlichen Vollkommenheit, 1793, 643 S. Google Books, p13
  3. Fintan Birchler: Der Heilige Fintan: ein Muster der Christlichen Vollkommenheit, 1793, p.30
  4. Fintan Birchler: Der Heilige Fintan: ein Muster der Christlichen Vollkommenheit, 1793, p.50-53
  5. "Victims of the Vikings – Stefan Ludwig". Retrieved 2021-01-19.
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