His origins are uncertain; he may have been a native of Ireland or of Northern France. In the 7th. century he took the Gospel to the Upper Rhine and on into modern Austria and the Danube basin. He was bishop of Worms and then of Salzburg, and also established an important missionary centre at Regensburg. He developed local industries, establishing salt-mines (no overtones of Stalin's punishment camps), helping local people to fend better for themselves. He died in about 710.