March 21st St. Nicholas of Flue.

Patron of Switzerland. Born in 1417, of a farming family, he was from an early age a member of the lay 'Friends of God', who took their inspiration from meditation on the Passion of Christ. He was a soldier and a public official in turn, and a married man, with ten children.

At the age of 50 his wife agreed to him taking up the life of a hermit, which he planned to do in Strasbourg, in neighbouring Alsace, where the Friends of God had their headquarters. Illness contrived that he should remain in Switzerland, however, and he established his hermitage at Ranft, in a lonely cottage situated in a gorge, where he divided his time between contemplation and receiving visitors for spiritual counsel. After the Swiss achieved independence from Burgundy, St. Nicholas was called upon to act as mediator in a dispute over the extent of the Swiss federation, which threatened to wreck the unity of the whole scheme. The saint's successful resolution of the dispute was sufficient to earn him the title of father of the nation. He died in 1487 but was not formally canonised until 1947. His tomb is at Sachseln, in Switzerland.