Saint of the Day

Nov 23 St. Columbanus: (3) Celts to the Creche

Summary: St. Columbanus, one of the early Irish monks who helped evangelize, educate, and transform pagan Western Europe. (This article came to us as a unsolicited but helpful response to our earlier items on St Columbanus.  Thanks to the anonymous supplier!)

Early Life and Education. 

St. Columbanus (Columban) was an Irish monk who was born about 543 AD in County Meath, now known as Leinster. While his mother was pregnant with him, she dreamed of a great light that spread throughout the world. She knew that her baby would be a servant of Christ.

It was written soon after his death that “Columbanus’s fine figure, his splendid colour, and his noble manliness made him beloved by all.” He also had a great sense of humour and loved puns. We know about Columbanus from the writings of The Venerable Bede in the fifth chapter of his Ecclesiastical History of the English People and from Jonas, a monk  of Bobbio who wrote about Columbanus three years after he died.

As a young man, Columbanus was afraid he was on the brink of giving in to the vain “lusts of the world,” so he sought the guidance of a local female hermit or Abbess. She advised this handsome young man: “Away, O youth, away!”  “Flee from corruption, into which, as you know, many have fallen.” Hearing those words of admonition, he was shaken so much that he left home over his Mother’s loud protest as she lay prostrate on the threshold of their home, begging him not to leave to study under a monk named Sinell on Cleenish Island in Lough Erne.

He later entered the famous Irish monastery of Bangor and studied with the renowned St. Comgall (a friend and student of St. Columba of Iona). While there he codified two Rules for living in community, one for the community and one for individual monks. When Columbanus was about 50 years old, Comgall finally gave him permission to go to Europe with twelve companions in about 589.

They landed first in Saint Malo, Brittany in France and then Columbanus set up a monastery at Annegray in the Vosges Mountains on an old Roman fort in Burgundy.

Established Monasteries. 

St. Columbanus founded numerous monasteries throughout Europe, most notably Annegray and Luxeuil in  France and Bobbio in Italy. At Luxeuil, his largest monastery in France, the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul stands on the site of Columbanus’ first church.

It is even said that he had his own personal retreat in a bear’s den!  Columbanus was very well educated and became quite popular with the French royalty and even St. Burgundofara (see Day 21 of Celts to the Creche), the first Abbess of Faremoutiers who was blessed as a child by Columbanus when he visited in their home.

All of Columbanus’ monasteries that he established and/or influenced followed Celtic customs and the Celtic calendar. His strict and severe Rule of Columbanus that was based on the Celtic way of monastic living and penitentials was later moderated by a mix with the kinder, gentler Rule of St. Benedict. 

Speaking His Mind with the French Royals
When King Theuderic II of Burgundy, France began living with a mistress and having illegitimate children, Columbanus  boldly objected, earning the displeasure of the king’s grandmother, Brunhilda.  Angered by the saint’s moral stand, Brunhilda stirred up the bishops and nobles to find fault with Columbanus’ monastic rules.

When Theuderic II finally confronted Columbanus at Luxeuil, ordering him to conform to the country’s conventions, the saint refused and was then taken prisoner to Besancon. Columbanus managed to escape his captors and returned to his monastery at Luxeuil. When the King and his grandmother Brunhilda found out, they sent armed soldiers to Nantes to deport  him back to Ireland by force.

Exile that Turned for Good.
His ship of deportation was prevented from setting sail as a storm came up, so Columbanus rowed up the Rhine River desiring to settle at Lake Constance, but there was opposition to him there also. His companion, St. Gall who had come with him from Bangor, Ireland remained in Switzerland and it seems they may have gotten “sideways” with each other. St. Gall stayed in Switzerland as a hermit and a large monastery and community grew up in that area bearing his name, St. Gall. Many Irish came to the monastery at St. Gall and it accumulated a large collection of early manuscripts, some with Irish poetry scribbled in the margins.

Columbanus ended up in  northern Italy where in 613, he established the famous monastery of Bobbio on the site of a ruined church in the foothills of the Appenines. Bobbio became famous for its scriptorium and its vast library of manuscripts.

His Place of Resurrection
His last years were spent copying manuscripts and writing sermons. This wanderer for Christ, Columbanus died at Bobbio on November 21, 615 AD. On his deathbed, he sent his abbot’s staff as a token of forgiveness and reconciliation to  one of his former twelve companions, St. Gall whom he had a falling out with earlier.

Influence
Columbanus’ Celtic love of nature and God’s creation influenced St. Francis who lived for awhile at Bobbio Monastery.  As Columbanus walked in the woods, it was not uncommon for birds to land on his shoulders to be caressed, or for squirrels to run down from the trees and nestle in the folds of his cowl. He is often shown with a bear because of two stories. One is that the monks at Luxueil Abbey found themselves shorthanded at planting time. Columbanus went into the woods, rounded up a bear, and yoked him to the plough. Another time later in his life, Columbanus wanted a quiet hermitage away from everything. He found a nice den in a mountain but discovered it had a bear in it, so her persuaded the bear to leave and let him have it.

Only three years after Columbanus died on November 21, 615, one of the monks of Bobbio, Jonas wrote the Life of Columbanus revealing that he was a scholar, poet, and a mystic. He founded or influenced the establishment of sixty monasteries in Ireland and Western Europe. His Rule of Columbanus was the rule that many Irish and European monasteries followed for many years that was later moderated by the less severe Rule of Benedict. 

Six letters of his survive including correspondence with Pope Gregory I and Pope Boniface IV. At least thirteen sermons and five poems of Columbanus have also survived throughout the ages. Online links to Columbanus’ sermons, letters, autobiography, and the Rule of Columbanus are listed below.

Resources

Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Book. 5. ii.xix.   CCEL: Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Bitel, Lisa. Isle of the Saints: Monastic Settlement and Christian Community in Early Ireland. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994.

Columbanus’ Learning in Ireland.

Columbanus’ Life. From MonasticIreland.com

Columbanus’ Places of Ministry. From MonasticIreland.com

Dillon, Miles and Nora Chadwick. The Celtic Realms. Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 2006.

Duckett, Eleanor. The Wandering Saints of the Early Middle Ages. London: The Catholic Book Club, 1959.

Dunn, Marilyn. Belief and Religion in Barbarian Europe c.350-700. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.

Earle, Mary C. and Sylvia Maddox. Holy Companions: Spiritual Practices from the Celtic Saints. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2004.

Hen, Yitzhak and Rob Meens, eds. The Bobbio Missal: Liturgy and Religious Culture in Merovingian Gaul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Jonas of Bobbio. Life of Columban.  From Fordham University. (note: Book I is about Columbanus and Book II is about his disciples).

Jones, Andrew. Every Pilgrim’s Guide to Celtic Britain and Ireland. Ligouri, Missouri: Ligouri Publications, 2002.

Jones, Kathleen. Who are the Celtic Saints? Norwich, UK: Canterbury Press, 2002.

Lack, Katherine. The Eagle and the Dove: The Spirituality of the Celtic Saint Columbanus. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Triangle Press, 2000.

Lapidge, Michael, ed. Columbanus: Studies on the Latin Writings. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK. The Boydell Press, 1997.

Letters of Columbanus.(from CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts)

Mitton, Michael. The Soul of Celtic Spirituality in the Lives of Its Saints. Mystic, CT: Twenty Third Publications, 1996.

Moore, David. The Accidental Pilgrim: Travels with a Celtic Saint.T Dublin: Hodder, 2004. (a bicyclist on a pilgrimage to the places of Columanbus-a great read!)

Ní Mheara, Róisín. In Search of Irish Saints. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1994.

O’Fiaich, Tomás. Columbanus in His Own Words. Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1990.

O’Fiach, Tomás. Columbanus in His Own Words. . net. (online)

Ó’Ríordáin, John J. Early Irish Saints. Dublin: The Columba Press, 2004.

Pennick, Nigel. The Celtic Saints. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 1997.

Peters, Edwards, ed. “Jonias of Bobbio. Life of Columban” in Monks, Bishops, and Pagans: Christian Culture in Gaul and Italy, 500-700. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975.

Rees, Elizabeth. An Essential Guide to Celtic Sites and Their Saints. London: Burns & Oates, 2003.

 Celtic Saints: Passionate Wanderers. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000.

Richter, Michael. Bobbio in the Early Middle Ages. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2008.

The Rule of Columbanus. (from CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts)

The Rule of Columbanus (from Scroll Publishing)

Sawyers, June Skinner. Praying with Celtic Saints, Prophets, Martyrs, and Poets. Franklin, WI: Sheed & Ward, 2001.

Sellner, Edward C. Wisdom of the Celtic Saints, rev. and expanded. St. Paul, MN: Bog Walk Press, 2006.

Sermons of Columbanus.

Tristram, Kate. Columbanus: The Earliest Voice of Christian Ireland. Dublin: The Columba Press, 2010.

Wallace, Martin. Celtic Saints. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 1995.

Wood, Ian. The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751. London: Routledge, 1993.

Woods, Richard J. The Spirituality of the Celtic Saints. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000.

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Nov 23 – Saint Columban (2) the European

Summary: St Columban, missionary

Eugene Ryan writes about St Columban (543-615) and his contribution to Europe.

Robert Schumann, founder of the EU, said of Columban that he was “the patron saint of all those who now seek to build a United Europe”. Standing on the shore of the Island of lona, Lord Clark, the great historian of Western civilisation, said: “It was from here that the Irish monks set out to rekindle the lamps of western civilisation that had become extinguished all over Europe”.

End of the World
He was speaking of a time Europe was in a dark age. The Roman Empire had collapsed. The barbarian hordes had destroyed and looted everything in their path. To all reasonable people looking at the situation, the end was no longer in doubt – their world was in its last days. They could see no hope for the future. But hope would come from the most unlikely place, from an island at the western edge of Europe, an island that had escaped the ravages of the barbarians and had kept alive that faith and civilisation which was being destroyed in continental Europe.

   A Columban monastery in Europe

Monasteries were the universities of that time, so the influence of St Columban on western civilisation may be judged from the following quotation from the historian Thomas Cahill:
“At this great distance in time, we can no longer be sure exactly how many monasteries were founded in Columban’s name during his lifetime and after his death. But the number, stretching across vast territories that would become in time the countries of France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, cannot be less than sixty and may be more than a hundred.”

Common Faith 
In 1950 during the fourteenth centenary celebration in France of the birth of St Columban. Mr John L Brow who was representing the American Ambassador in Paris said in his address: “St. Columban would not have been out of place among the rugged and courageous men who colonised our Far West. But much more precious for us are those achievements of his which symbolise the unity of a civilisation, formed amid diversity, on the foundation of a common faith and common moral values.”

The best-known speaker to address the Congress was Robert Schumann, Prime Minister and later Foreign Minister of France, the man credited with being the founding father of the EEC. In his address he said:

“St. Columban, this illustrious Irishman who left his own country for voluntary exile, willed and achieved a spiritual union between the principal European countries of his time.

He is the patron saint of all those who now seek to build a United Europe”.

This article first appeared in Far East (Nov 2001), a publication of the Missionary Society of St Columban.

For the life of St Columban click
monasticireland.com/storiesofsaints/columbanus

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Nov 23 – St Columban (1) 543-615 abbot and missionary

Summary: St Columban, abbot, missionary. Born in Leinster (Ireland) about 543; died on this day in 615 at Bobbio (Italy). A monk and teacher at Bangor until middle aged who left with twelve companions as “exiles for Christ” to found monasteries in Burgundy (France). He maintained strict Celtic customs and usages, was expelled for denouncing royal misconduct but went on to extend the Irish mission through the Alps and into Italy. Author of a monastic rule and a penitential. Noted for his austerity of life, his missionary energy, and his role in the development of individual reconciliation.

St Columban (543-615 AD)
Born in Leinster, Columban receive a

Patrick Duffy tells Columban’s story.

Formation by Sinell at Cluain Inis and Comgall at Bangor

Already a monk at Bangor Columban set out from there with twelve companions as a wandering pilgrim for Christ. Passing to mainland Europe, he had enormous influence by setting up monastic foundations in France and Italy. A vibrant missionary society serving in fourteen countries worldwide today bears his name – the Columban Missionaries.

Saint Columban, abbot: “Seek then the highest wisdom, not by arguments in words but by the perfection of your life, not by speech but by faith that comes from God”.

In the kingdom of the Franks Columban travelled with a group of companions by sea and land across Cornwall, the English Channel, Brittany and pressed on in a south-easterly direction into the kingdom of the Franks, by then partitioned (since 561) and thoroughly lapsed from its earlier Christianity under Clovis (d. 511) and his his queen, St Clotilde.

The Irish monks found paganism, witchcraft, magic, and brutal ritual murder rife. On their way they had visited the court of King Childebert II of Austrasia (now roughly = Alsace) and then being given an old Roman fort at Annagray, in the foothills of the Vosges mountains, they established their first monastery. Soon they founded another eight miles to the west at Luxeuil.

Conflict with Frankish Bishops
Their austere way of life, codified in Columban’s own Rule, attracted many followers, but their Irish customs, with a bishop subordinate to the abbot, a different date for Easter, and the Irish tonsure across the front part of the head, and some very penitential practices based on those of the desert fathers, all annoyed the Frankish bishops, who summoned Columban to explain himself at a synod. Regarding them as negligent and lax, Columban refused to attend, but wrote them a letter effectively suggesting that they were bothering about trifles and should leave him, “a poor stranger in these parts for the cause of Christ”, and his monks in peace.

Here the abbot and his monks led the simplest of lives, their food often consisting of nothing but forest herbs, berries, and the bark of young trees. The fame of Columbanus’s sanctity spread far and wide.

But the bishops renewed their attacks, concentrating on the Easter question, and Columban wrote to Pope St Gregory I asking for confirmation of the validity of his tradition. Gregory sent him  a copy of his Pastoral Care and advised him consult the Abbot of Lerins.

A kind of truce ensued for some years, followed by renewed attacks and a fresh appeal for tolerance. The Irish introduced a practice of confession with the imposition of harsh penances according to a Penitential Book compiled by Columban.

Writes to Pope Gregory
But the bishops renewed their attacks, concentrating on the Easter question, and Columban wrote to Pope St Gregory I asking for confirmation of the validity of his tradition. Gregory sent him  a copy of his Pastoral Care and advised him consult the Abbot of Lerins. A kind of truce ensued for some years, followed by renewed attacks and a fresh appeal for tolerance.

Conflict with the Burgundian Royal Family

Columban then fell foul of the Burgundian royal family. The king respected him and used him as an adviser, but Columban could not tolerate the fact that the king kept concubines. He refused to bless the king’s illegitimate children. This incurred the wrath of Theodoric’s formidable grandmother, Brunhilda, who exercised a matriarchal rule and did not want Theodoric marrying and so introducing a legitimate queen who might be a rival. She harrassed the Irish monks until they were forced to leave the kingdom, though the Franks who had joined their monasteries were allowed to stay.

Deported… but sailed up the Rhine
Columban and his Irish compatriots first tried to settle at Tours but were were forced under military escort to Nantes, to be deported back to Ireland by sea. Their ship ran into a fierce storm and was forced to turn back. They then crossed Gaul once more, but by a more northly route, to Metz, where the Austrasian king, Theodebert II, received them kindly. Finally they rowed up the Rhine in the depths of winter, hoping to settle at Bregenz on Lake Constance, but the excessive zeal of their preaching made them enemies, and when Austrasia and Burgundy went to war and Austrasia was defeated, Columban moved on.

Columban, God’s wanderer and fierce defender of the faith.

Into Italy
By now aged about 70, he crossed the Alps to Milan, leaving his disciple in Gall and some other monks behind, after what may have been a quarrel. He was well received by the king of Lombardy, an Arian, though his wife and children were Catholics. He found himself caught up in the complex doctrinal issue of the writings (and writers) known as the Three Chapters, about which he knew little. Persuaded by the king’s wife, a passionate defender of the Three Chapters, he wrote a letter to Pope Boniface IV, ostensibly in their defence, but actually defending the orthodoxy of his own position: “We are disciples of Saints Peter and Paul and all the disciples who by the Holy Spirit wrote the divine canon. No one of us has been a heretic, no one a Jew, no one a schismatic… the Catholic faith is maintained unchanged.”

Death and influence
The royal couple gave Columban land at Bobbio, in an Apennine pass between Genoa and Piacenza, and here he built his last monastery. Invited to return to the Frankish kingdom, he declined, now nearing death.

St Columban’s tomb in Bobbio

He died at Bobbio on 3 November 615 and was buried there.

The next abbot commissioned a monk named Joncas, who had joined the abbey three years after Columban’s death, to write his Life. Joncas completed this with the help of many who had known him. Over the centuries Bobbio acquired a great library and became a major influence on learning in northern Italy until the 16th century. It was finally suppressed by the French in 1803. Columban’s foundation at Luxeuil also flourished until the French Revolution.

Columban Missionaries today
In 1918 a missionary society under the patronage of St Columban was founded from the Irish seminary of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth sending missionaries especially to China. There are presently over 500 Columban priests of ten nationalities and many lay missionaries in the Society ministering in 14 countries.

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