Gerold d'Einsiedeln

Who they were

Geroldus came from the Rhaetian family of the counts of Sax. In middle age he withdrew from the world and lived as a recluse in a forest hermitage on land given by his friend Count Otto, having given his own land to the abbey of Einsiedeln, where his sons Cuno and Ulric were monks.

After his death in 978 his sons took over his cell and kept his tomb; a church was later built there, wrecked at the Reformation and replaced in 1663. His tomb at Sankt-Gerold still draws pilgrims.

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

A tenth-century nobleman turned forest hermit, linked with Einsiedeln.