Saint Columban

Abbot and Missionary
(c. 543–615)

Saint Columban was born around 543 in Leinster, Ireland, and received an excellent education in both classical literature and Sacred Scripture at the monastery of Bangor under the abbot Comgall, one of the strictest disciplinarians of the early Irish church. Around 590, at the age of nearly fifty, he left Ireland with twelve companions and crossed to Gaul to undertake the monastic mission to the continent that would make him one of the most important figures in the evangelisation of early medieval Europe.

He settled first in the ruins of a Roman fort at Annegray in Burgundy, then established the great monastery of Luxeuil, which became the most important centre of monastic and intellectual life in Gaul and the mother of numerous daughter houses. His rule, which combined the severe asceticism of the Irish tradition with a comprehensive programme of prayer, work, and study, attracted hundreds of monks and transformed the religious life of the region.

His confrontations with the Frankish bishops and with the royal court over the Irish tradition for calculating Easter and over the sins of the Burgundian royal family led to his expulsion from Burgundy. He wandered through Gaul, preaching among the pagan Alemanni in what is now Switzerland, where he was accompanied for a time by his disciple Gall, and eventually crossed the Alps into Italy. He settled at Bobbio in the Apennines, where he founded his last and most famous monastery and where he died on November 23, 615.

He is venerated as one of the great missionaries of early medieval Europe and as a founder of the Irish monastic tradition on the continent. His feast is celebrated on November 23rd.