Fintan von Rheinau

St. Fintan of Rheinau, painting from the Monastery Mariastein

Fintan of Rheinau (Findan, Findanus) (803/4 in Leinster, Ireland – 15 November 878 in Rheinau, Switzerland) was an Irish Catholic hermit who settled in Rheinau. He lost his parents and siblings in internal wars in Ireland and through abductions by the Vikings. ) and taken to the Orkney Islands, but was able to escape to Scotland. In 845 he made a pilgrimage through the Frankish Empire to Rome.

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

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.

Beatrix Zureich: Der heilige Fintan von Rheinau Sein Leben und seine Spiritualität. Miriam, Jestetten 2003. . Reidar Th. Christiansen, "The People of the North", Lochlann: A Review of Celtic Studies 2/Norsk tidsskrift for sprogvidenskap, supplementary volume 6 (1962), 137–164. This reprints the early part of the Life of Fintan from Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores 15.1 (Hannover: Hahn, 1883), pp. 502–506, and includes a translation into English by Kevin Ó Nolan (pp. 155–164).