Mercy Turns Enemies into Friends – (The Wood Bearer)

Holzbringer

In the early 7th century, the Irish monk St. Gallus withdrew into the forests of what is now eastern Switzerland. Around 625, a hungry bear wandered into his camp. Instead of driving it away, Gallus offered the animal a piece of bread.

The bear accepted the food and left peacefully. According to the earliest monastic accounts of Gallus’s life, the animal returned the next night—this time carrying firewood for the hermit. From then on, the bear continued bringing wood, helping Gallus survive the harsh Alpine winters.

Medieval monks preserved the event as a sign of moral clarity rather than spectacle:
Mercy turns enemies into friends. A wild threat became a helper simply because the hermit chose compassion instead of force.

The legend became one of the founding stories of the Abbey of St. Gallen, later one of the most important cultural and monastic centers in medieval Europe.