Died c. 869-887. Although Saint Marcellus was born either in Scotland
or Ireland, he was a monk of Saint-Gall in Switzerland. It seems that he
and his uncle, the learned Bishop Marcus, were among a group of pilgrims
who stopped at Saint-Gall on their return to the islands. Instead of
continuing on, they placed themselves under the direction of Abbot
Grimwoald. Marcellus sent his horses and pack mules home, but kept the
gold, vestments, and books for the abbey. The 8th-century "Book of
Gospels" (manuscript 51), now housed in the Saint-Gall Cathedral
Library, may have been one of the books the bishop donated to the
monastery.
The young, brilliant Saint Marcellus was given charge of the cloister
schools. He is known for having tutored
Blessed Notker Balbulus (f.d. April 6),
who originated liturgical sequences, as well as other
celebrated figures. During this period, Saint-Gall's scribes supplied
all of Germany with manuscript books of Gregorian chant, often
illuminated.
The Irish with some merit claim him as the instigator of the cultural
eminence of Saint Gall. The 11th-century German historian Ekkehard
wrote: "It is delightful to recall how Saint-Gall began to increase and
flourish under the auspices of Moengal and his colleagues." In the 19th
century, H. Zimmer wrote: "In my opinion, there were very few men who
in the middle of the 9th century exerted such a beneficent influence
upon the German mind in the cultivation of the higher arts and sciences
as Moengal and his followers." The abbey necrology calls Marcellus "the
most learned and excellent man" (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Fitzpatrick 2,
Gougaud, Henry, Montague, Tommasini).