St Fintan

Hermit. Born in Leinster, in the 9th century, Fintan was captured and made a slave by Vikings who took him to the Orkneys. He escaped and was protected by a Scottish bishop whose name has been lost.

To give thanks for his rescue, Fintan made a pilgrimage to Rome. On his way back he joined a group of Irish hermits on an island in the Rhine near Schaffhausen, where he spent the rest of his life.

The Sacramentary of Zurich contains a calendar of Irish saints which may have been his. He died in 879. The relics of St Fintan still survive at a shrine in Rheinau, built in 1446.