Saint Goar

Hermit and Confessor
(c. 510–c. 575)

Saint Goar was a Frankish priest, born around the year 510, who renounced the privileges of his clerical position to live as a hermit on the banks of the Rhine River at the place now called Sankt Goar in Germany. He came from a devout Christian family in Aquitaine and received a thorough religious education, being ordained to the priesthood as a young man. But he felt drawn to a life of greater solitude and mortification, and he made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Martin of Tours before setting out for the Rhine valley.

He settled in a cave near the river and there lived in prayer and great austerity, supporting himself by cultivating a small garden. His reputation for holiness and for miraculous powers spread quickly through the region, and pilgrims, travellers, and those seeking counsel began to find their way to his hermitage. He practised an open-handed hospitality that was the wonder of all who witnessed it, sharing everything he had with those who came to him, and the multiplication of food and drink to supply his guests was among the miracles attributed to him.

His reputation came to the attention of Rusticus, Bishop of Trier, who summoned him to appear before a synod and answer charges that his manner of life was irregular. Goar appeared before the assembly and the suspicious charges against him were quickly dissolved when his evident holiness made itself felt. The bishop offered him the episcopate, which Goar refused absolutely, preferring to return to his hermitage and his life of prayer and simple service to the poor.

He lived to an advanced age and died around the year 575, having spent decades as a hermit and spiritual father on the banks of the Rhine. The town that grew up around his hermitage bears his name to this day, and his memory is deeply venerated in the Rhineland. He is commemorated on July 6th in the martyrologies.