Fintan of Rheinau

Fintan was born in Leinster, Ireland into a noble family.^[2] He lost his parents and siblings in internal wars in Ireland and through abductions by the Vikings.^[1] He himself was enslaved by the Vikings (possibly handed over by his Irish enemies^[3]) and taken to the Orkney Islands, but was able to escape to Scotland.^[1] There he stayed with a bishop for two years,^[1] and became a clergyman.^[4] In 845 he made a pilgrimage through the Frankish Empire to Rome.^[1] From there he went to the monastery of Farfa where he lived as a monk for some time, then via Rhaetia to Swabia, or to the landgraviate of Klettgau, where he entered the service of the Alemannic nobleman Wolvene.^[1] Wolvene persuaded him after a few years to join his monastery in Rheinau as a monk, which he did in 851.^[1] From the year 856 he lived there walled in as a recluse until his death.^[1] His bones are kept in the Rheinau monastery church in the reliquary in the Fintan altar.^[1] Shortly after his death, the Vita Findani was written by a confrere of the monastery; it is considered reliable. His attributes in church art are a dove, a ducal hat, and the monks' habit.^[1]

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 Laxdaela-Saga, it has been the basis of the Austrian-German-French documentary "Victims of the Vikings" (ORF/ZDF/Arte 2021).^[5]