At the age of five Meinrad came to the famous monastery on the Bodensee of Reichenau as a student, where he was ordained a deacon, then a priest and, on the advice of his uncle, became a monk in the Benedictine order at the age of 25. His special love for solitude led him to live a hermit life on the Etzelpass south of Lake Zurich in 828. Because too many people came to see him there, he moved two miles further back to a hermitage in the dark forest at the site of today's monastery in Einsiedeln, where he lived for over 25 years.