St. Columban

St. Columban (born c. 543, Leinster [Ireland]—died November 23, 615, Bobbio [Italy]; feast day November 23) was an Irish Christian abbot and writer and one of the greatest missionaries of the Celtic Church. He initiated a revival of spirituality on the European continent. He is venerated as the patron saint of European unity and motorcyclists and is invoked against floods.

Educated in the monastery of Bangor, County Down, Columban left Ireland about 590 with 12 monks (including Saints Attala, Gall, and Columbanus the Younger) and established himself in the Vosges Mountains at Annegray, then in Gaul. For the disciples who came to follow his rule, Columban built the nearby monasteries of Luxovium and Fontaines.

Unpopular because of his attacks on degeneracy in the Burgundian court and among local clergy, he was indicted in 603 before a synod of French bishops for keeping Easter according to the Celtic tradition (which used a different calculation from the Roman church for the festival’s date). He then wrote to Pope Gregory I for aid. A powerful conspiracy was organized against him at the court of King Theodoric II. Forcibly removed from his monastery at Luxovium in 610, he went with St. Gall and other monks to Switzerland, where he preached Christianity to the Alemanni, a Germanic people. Compelled to leave, he went to Italy and founded the monastery of Bobbio (c. 612–614).

Columban’s works include poems, letters, sermons, a monastic rule, and a penitential, proving him a man of learning acquainted with Latin and Greek classics. In 1957 his writings were edited by G.S.M. Walker, with an introduction and English translation.