Gerold d'Einsiedeln

Gerold of Einsiedeln, also known as Gerold of Großwalsertal, was a tenth-century nobleman of Saxon origin who became a hermit and is venerated as a saint. The details of his life rest on later medieval tradition connected with the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln rather than on contemporary charters. According to that tradition he belonged to a comital family in Saxony. After the death of his wife he abandoned secular rank, donated his property to Einsiedeln—itself founded only a few decades earlier on the site of Saint Meinrad’s hermitage—and placed himself under the abbey’s spiritual care.

Accompanied by his two sons, named in the sources as Cuno and Ulrich, he withdrew to a remote alpine valley in what is now Vorarlberg. There he lived as a hermit. The valley subsequently took his name (Großes Walsertal) and the settlement that grew around his cell became Sankt Gerold. His sons later entered the monastic community at Einsiedeln, while Gerold himself remained in solitude until his death.

Tradition dates his death to 16 April 978 and places his burial at the hermitage. A local cult formed around the tomb. In later centuries Einsiedeln established a dependent priory at Sankt Gerold, thereby preserving an institutional link with the hermit. The priory served the valley for a long period.

Gerold’s veneration has always been essentially regional, centered on Vorarlberg and on Einsiedeln. He is commemorated on 19 April. No formal papal canonization in the later medieval or modern sense is recorded; his cult is of the pre-congregation type typical of tenth-century local saints. Historical certainty about his biography remains limited, yet the place-names and the long monastic connection attest to the antiquity of his memory.