The two windows
Inside the cell, the two windowsThe hermit Brother Claus is still very much in the world. The ambassador of Milan, Bernardo Imperiali, writes on 27th June 1483 to his Duke about Brother Claus: "lo trovato informato del tutto." (I found him informed about everything). The hermit is abreast of current developments. He has an alert mind and goes to the root of problems. Through one window of his cell the light shines onto the altar of the chapel. The other window opens out to the people. All that is brought from the world outside to Brother Claus he brings before God in prayer. All that he receives in prayer he gives back to the people. His counsel comes from the depths. Today we are exposed to a flood of information but we remain on the surface and consume more and more. Brother Claus did not consume, he fasted. Where men dig deeply new life grows for the world.
Life out of the centre
"Brother Claus is a simple layman who cannot read" (Heinrich Wölflin 1501). Yet the hermit speaks of his "book". It is a drawing with the structure of a wheel. The movement goes out from the centre and comes back to the centre. The wheel picture is made public in 1487 by an unknown pilgrim with an explanation from Brother Claus: "That is my book in which I learn and seek the art of this teaching." He calls the wheel the figure in which he contemplates the nature of God: "In the very centre is the undivided Godhead in which all the saints rejoice. Like the three rays the three Persons go forth from the one Godhead and have embraced the heavens and the whole world". An illustrated version of this wheel exists already during the hermit’s lifetime (see back side of this brochure). Both pictures bear witness to the deep wisdom and clear judgement of this "simple layman".
The peacemaker
Many people come to Brother Claus seeking advice: men and women, young and old, rich and poor. The Dukes of Austria, Milan and Venice keep in contact with him, likewise the cantons. In a time full of intrigues Brother Claus stands above all parties. His convincing life lends him the highest moral authority. After the victory over Burgundy when the confederation stands on the brink of civil war because of the rich booty and political rivalry Brother Claus makes a decisive contribution to peace. (Treaty of Stans 1481). From that time he is recognized as a peacemaker and is more and more often called upon to arbitrate in political and ecclesiastical disputes such as, for example, in the reform conflict about the renewal of the cloister Klingental in Basle (1482) or in the disagreement between the town of Constance and the Confederacy (1482).
Peace in justice
Thanks to Brother Claus the quarreling cantons came to a lasting confederal agreement in 1481. In his letter to the Council of Berne the hermit tells us what peace depends on: "Obedience is the greatest honour in Heaven and on Earth, therefore you must strive to be obedient to one another. Peace is certainly in God, for God is peace." You cannot command peace, it is a gift. Conflicts can only be fruitfully resolved in mutual respect and mutual obedience. This calls on the deepest in men and demands our greatest effort. There is no peace without justice. Ultimately peace is founded in mystical union with God (einig wesen). Since 1981 there is a Peace Village at Flüeli, near the saint’s cell: a place where young and old seek to learn peace.
My Lord and my God
On the 21st of March 1487 Brother Claus dies at the age of seventy. Over his whole life stands his personal prayer:
My Lord and my God,
take everything from me
that keeps me from Thee.
My Lord and my God,
give everything to me
that brings me near to Thee.
My Lord and my God,
take me away from myself
and give me completely to Thee.
The ecumenical Saint
Brother Claus lived before the Reformation but some of his earliest biographers are reformed. The hermit warns our church not primarily to watch over the frontiers, but to concentrate on the centre. In the middle, in the Trinitarian God, is the mystical union with God (einig wesen). The important thing is that we really live from faith. The Zürich Reformer Huldrych Zwingli sometimes cites Brother Claus, especially in connection with the struggle against mercenaries. Brother Claus stands above Parties. "He brings together the different confessions and cultures: he is the better self of Switzerland." (Thus the reformed theologian Georges Méautis.) And on the occasion of the canonization in 1947 wrote Karl Barth: "In spite of the canonization , which we absolutely refuse, Brother Claus is still our saint."
Brother Claus belongs to the whole world
Already during his lifetime his contemporaries call the hermit "a living saint". His fame spreads over all Europe. Probably the most impressive account of a journey to Brother Claus is from Hans Waldheim from Halle in Sachsen. On the 25th May 1474 he meets the hermit with his wife Dorothee and their youngest son. In 1487 an illustrated book about the wheel picture of Brother Claus appears in Nürnberg. Amongst the first pilgrims who seek the grave of the hermit after his death are a fisherman from Denmark and a goldsmith from Erfurt. Both come from Santiago de Compostela to Sachseln and are healed from their sickness. The Swiss poet Heinrich Federer writes in 1921: "Brother Claus is much too great to belong to Switzerland only… he belongs to the whole world." In four continents today there are hundreds of churches, chapels and schools consecrated to the peace-saint Nicholas of Flüe.