Saint Alaric

Who they were

St. Alaric, monk of Einsiedeln, in Switzerland, was the son of duke Burkard II of Suabia and of his wife Regulinda, both generous patrons of that celebrated monastery and pilgrimage. Desiring to save his soul by leading a spiritual life in retirement, he withdrew to the island of Ufnau in the Lake of Zurich and dwelt there several years as a solitary. His mother, after the death of her second husband, also came to Ufnau for the purpose of devoting the rest of her days to prayer as a preparation for death. Alaric about this time decided that it would be more pleasing to God if he were to live under the obedience of a superior, and became a monk at Einsiedeln. But after his mother’s death, he returned to the island, resumed his former manner of life and died on this day about 973. Einsiedeln chose him as one of its patron saints.

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 Benedictine Martyrology (1922) remembers him on 29 September.