St Nicholas von Flue

Nicholas von Flue is striking because the stages of his life seem almost impossible to hold together until grace makes them cohere. He is first a Swiss farmer, husband, father, soldier, and magistrate, a man with real public standing and ordinary domestic obligations. Then comes the inward call toward solitude, accepted only with painful seriousness and with the consent of those who would bear the cost of his absence. At Ranft he becomes a hermit, but not a useless one.

The hidden life does not cut him off from his people; it makes his judgment clearer and his authority deeper. Men come to seek counsel, and at a critical moment for the Swiss Confederation his advice helps prevent political rupture and bloodshed. Nicholas never feels like a saint patched together from incompatible roles. He feels like a man whose prayer purified every one of them.