India, Dec. 7 -- It's a chilly day in St Gallen, but inside the cathedral, the air is warm with legends past. Instantly upon entering, I feel like a part of an era very different from the one I live in: a time when light was a luxury, patience was a virtue and art served a way of life.

We're at the Abbey of St Gall, an eighth-century cathedral in eastern Switzerland. My fellow travellers and I have been on a five-day roadtrip through the country, and there's nothing we won't see on this trip: mirror lakes, wild falls and museums for lessons in history. But here, in the absolute silence of this place of worship, I feel something I hadn't anticipated: devotion.

Centuries of devotion seem to have been cast in stone, stucco, and script (Ph...