BENOÎT XVI
AUDIENCE GÉNÉRALE
Mercredi 11 juin 2008
Saint Colomban, un saint "européen"
Chers frères et sœurs,
Aujourd'hui, je voudrais parler du saint abbé Colomban, l'Irlandais le
plus célèbre du bas Moyen-Age: il peut à juste titre être appelé un saint
"européen", parce que comme moine, missionnaire et écrivain, il a
travaillé dans divers pays de l'Europe occidentale. Avec les Irlandais de son
époque, il été conscient de l'unité culturelle de l'Europe. Dans une de ses
lettres, écrite vers l'an 600 et adressée au Pape Grégoire le Grand, on trouve
pour la première fois l'expression "totius Europae - de toute
l'Europe", avec une référence à la présence de l'Eglise sur le continent
(cf. Epistula I, 1).
Colomban était né vers 543 dans la province de Leinster, dans le sud-est
de l'Irlande. Eduqué chez lui par d'excellents maîtres qui l'orientèrent vers
l'étude des arts libéraux, il s'en remit ensuite à la conduite de l'abbé Sinell
de la communauté de Cluain-Inis, dans le nord de l'Irlande, où il put
approfondir l'étude des Saintes Ecritures. A l'âge de vingt ans environ, il
entra dans le monastère de Bangor dans le nord-est de l'île, où se trouvait
l'abbé Comgall, un moine très célèbre pour sa vertu et sa rigueur ascétique. En
pleine harmonie avec son abbé, Colomban pratiqua avec zèle la discipline sévère
du monastère, en menant une vie de prière, d'ascèse et d'études. Il y fut
également ordonné prêtre. La vie à Bangor et l'exemple de l'abbé influèrent sur
la conception du monachisme que Colomban mûrit avec le temps et diffusa ensuite
au cours de sa vie.
A l'âge d'environ cinquante ans, suivant l'idéal ascétique typiquement
irlandais de la "peregrinatio pro Christo", c'est-à-dire de se faire
pèlerin pour le Christ, Colomban quitta l'île pour entreprendre avec douze
compagnons une œuvre missionnaire sur le continent européen. En effet, nous
devons avoir à l'esprit que la migration de peuples du nord et de l'est avait
fait retomber dans le paganisme des régions entières déjà christianisées.
Autour de l'an 590, le petit groupe de missionnaires accosta sur la côte
bretonne. Accueillis avec bienveillance par le roi des Francs d'Austrasie (la
France actuelle), ils demandèrent uniquement une parcelle de terre
non-cultivée. Ils obtinrent l'antique forteresse romaine d'Annegray, en ruine
et abandonnée, désormais recouverte par la forêt. Habitués à une vie de
privation extrême, les moines réussirent en quelques mois à construire sur les ruines
le premier monastère. Ainsi, leur réévangélisation commença a avoir lieu tout
d'abord à travers le témoignage de leur vie. En même temps que la nouvelle
culture de la terre, commença également une nouvelle culture des âmes. La
renommée de ces religieux étrangers qui, en vivant de prière et dans une grande
austérité, construisaient des maisons et défrichaient la terre, se répandit
très rapidement en attirant des pèlerins et des pénitents. Beaucoup de jeunes
demandaient à être accueillis dans la communauté monastique pour vivre, à leur
manière, cette vie exemplaire qui renouvelle la culture de la terre et des
âmes. Très vite la fondation d'un second monastère fut nécessaire. Il fut
édifié à quelques kilomètres de distance, sur les ruines d'une antique ville
thermale, Luxeuil. Le monastère allait ensuite devenir le centre du rayonnement
monastique et missionnaire de tradition irlandaise sur le continent européen.
Un troisième monastère fut érigé à Fontaine, à une heure de route plus au nord.
Colomban vécut pendant environ vingt ans à Luxeuil.
C'est là que le saint écrivit pour ses disciples la Regula monachorum - qui fut
pendant un certain temps plus répandue en Europe que celle de saint Benoît -,
qui trace l'image idéale du moine. C'est la seule règle monastique irlandaise
ancienne aujourd'hui en notre possession. Il la compléta avec la Regula
coenobialis, une sorte de code pénal pour les infractions des moines, avec des
punitions assez surprenantes pour la sensibilité moderne, et qui ne
s'expliquent que par la mentalité de l'époque et du contexte. Avec une autre
œuvre célèbre intitulée De poenitentiarum misura taxanda, écrite également à
Luxeuil, Colomban introduisit sur le continent la confession et la pénitence
privées et répétées; elle fut appelé la pénitence "tarifée" en raison
de la proportion entre la gravité du péché et le type de pénitence imposée par
le confesseur. Ces nouveautés éveillèrent le soupçon des évêques de la région,
un soupçon qui se transforma en hostilité lorsque Colomban eut le courage de
les critiquer ouvertement en raison des mœurs de certains d'entre eux.
L'occasion saisie pour manifester ce différend fut la dispute sur la date de
Pâques: l'Irlande suivait en effet la tradition orientale en opposition
avec la tradition romaine. Le moine irlandais fut convoqué en 603 à
Chalon-sur-Saône pour rendre compte devant un synode de ses habitudes relatives
à la pénitence et à la Pâque. Au lieu de se présenter au synode, il envoya une
lettre dans laquelle il minimisait la question en invitant les Pères synodaux à
discuter non seulement du problème de la date de Pâques, un problème mineur
selon lui, "mais également de toutes les règles canoniques nécessaires que
beaucoup - chose plus grave - ne respectent pas" (cf. Epistula II, 1).
Dans le même temps, il écrivit au Pape Boniface IV - comme quelques années plus
tôt, il s'était adressé à Grégoire le Grand (cf. Epistula I) - pour défendre la
tradition irlandaise (cf. Epistula III).
Intransigeant comme il l'était sur toute question morale, Colomban entra
par la suite en conflit avec la maison royale, parce qu'il avait reproché avec
dureté au roi Théodoric ses relations adultérines. Il en naquit un réseau
d'intrigues et de manœuvres au niveau personnel, religieux et politique qui, en
l'an 610, se traduisit par un décret d'expulsion de Luxeuil contre Colomban et
tous les moines d'origine irlandaise, qui furent condamnés à un exil définitif.
Ils furent escortés jusqu'à la mer et embarqués aux frais de la cour vers
l'Irlande. Mais le navire s'échoua non loin de la plage et le capitaine, y
voyant un signe du ciel, renonça à l'entreprise et, de peur d'être maudit par
Dieu, ramena les moines sur la terre ferme. Ceux-ci au lieu
de rentrer à Luxeuil, décidèrent d'entamer une nouvelle œuvre
d'évangélisation. Ils s'embarquèrent sur le Rhin et remontèrent le fleuve.
Après une première étape à Tuggen près du lac de Zurich, ils se rendirent dans
la région de Bregenz près du lac de Constance pour évangéliser les Allemands.
Mais peu de temps après, Colomban, à cause d'événements politiques peu
favorables à son œuvre, décida de traverser les Alpes avec la plupart de ses
disciples. Seul un moine du nom de Gallus demeura; à partir de son monastère se
développera ensuite la célèbre abbaye de
Saint-Gall, en Suisse. Arrivé en Italie, Colomban trouva un accueil
bienveillant auprès de la cour royale lombarde, mais il dut immédiatement
affronter de grandes difficultés: la vie de l'Eglise était déchirée par
l'hérésie arienne qui prévalait encore chez les Lombards et par un schisme qui
avait éloigné la majeure partie des Eglises d'Italie du Nord de la communion
avec l'Evêque de Rome. Colomban prit place avec autorité dans ce contexte, en
écrivant un libelle contre l'arianisme et une lettre à Boniface IV pour le convaincre
d'effectuer certains pas décisifs en vue d'un rétablissement de l'unité (cf.
Epistula V). Lorsque le roi des Lombards, en 612 ou 613, lui assigna un terrain
à Bobbio, dans la vallée de la Trebbia, Colomban fonda un nouveau monastère qui
allait par la suite devenir un centre de culture comparable à celui très
célèbre de Montecassino. C'est là qu'il finit ses jours: il mourut le 23
novembre 615 et c'est à cette date qu'il est fêté dans le rite romain jusqu'à
nos jours.
Le message de saint Colomban se concentre en un ferme rappel à la
conversion et au détachement des biens terrestres en vue de l'héritage éternel.
Avec sa vie ascétique et son comportement sans compromis face à la corruption
des puissants, il évoque la figure sévère de saint Jean Baptiste. Son
austérité, toutefois, n'est jamais une fin en soi, mais ce n'est que le moyen
de s'ouvrir librement à l'amour de Dieu et de répondre avec tout son être aux
dons reçus de Lui, en reconstruisant ainsi en lui l'image de Dieu, en
défrichant dans le même temps la terre et en renouvelant la société humaine. Je
cite de ses Instructiones: "Si l'homme utilise correctement cette
faculté que Dieu a accordée à son âme, alors il sera semblable à Dieu.
Rappelons-nous que nous devons lui rendre tous les dons qu'il a déposés en nous
lorsque nous étions dans la condition originelle. Il nous a enseigné la manière
de le faire avec ses commandements. Le premier d'entre eux est celui d'aimer le
Seigneur de tout notre cœur, parce qu'il nous a aimés lui le premier, depuis le
commencement des temps, avant même que nous venions à la lumière de ce
monde" (cf. Instr. XI). Ces paroles, le saint irlandais les incarna
réellement dans sa propre vie. Homme de grande culture - il composa également
des poésies en latin et un livre de grammaire -, il se révéla riche de dons de
grâce. Il fut un inlassable bâtisseur de monastères ainsi qu'un prédicateur
pénitentiel intransigeant, en dépensant toute son énergie pour nourrir les
racines chrétiennes de l'Europe en train de naître. Avec son énergie
spirituelle, avec sa foi, avec son amour pour Dieu et pour le prochain, il
devint réellement un des Pères de l'Europe: il nous montre encore
aujourd'hui où sont les racines desquelles peut renaître notre Europe.
* * *
Je suis heureux de vous saluer, chers pèlerins francophones, notamment
vous les jeunes de Noisy-le-Grand et de Bayonne. Avec ma Bénédiction
apostolique.
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice
Vaticana
La Vie de Saint Colomban, Abbé. (543 - 615)
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I - En même temps que la clarté de l'Evangile
commença à paroître dans l'Irlande, Dieu y fit naître un nouvel astre qui fut
le B.Colomban, dont nous décrivons la vie. Auparavant qu'il fut au monde, sa
Mère vit en songe sortir comme un soleil de son ventre, qui était un heureux
pronostique de ce qu'il devoît estre un jour. Il employa ses premières années
en la pratique des vertus, & à l'étude des bonnes lettres, profitant
également en l'un & en l'autre, à cause de sa bonne inclination
naturelle, qui se trouvant heureusement favorisée de la Grace de Dieu, le
portoit puissamment au bien. Dequoy le diable envieux, luy dressa de puissans
combats, se servant de certaines femmes impudiques qui tâchoient de luy
arracher ce beau joyau de chasteté, qui, non seulement estoit enchassé en son
coeur, mais encore convenoit à son nom. Du commencement il leur résista avec
le glaive de la parole de Dieu, qu'il sçavoit fort bien manier de l'une &
l'autre main; mais ayant rencontré une femme Religieuse qui depuis quinze ans
vivoit en solitude, & ayant pris avis d'elle de ce qu'il devoit faire en
ce rencontre, il se résolut de se retirer hors de son pays, afin d'oster
toute occasion de perdre ce qu'il ne pourroit jamais recouvrer. Sa Mère
voyant sa résolution fondoit en larmes, et se servant de tous les artifices
qu'une Mère intéressée peut inventer, elle tâchoit de le retenir, mais tout
cela n'est point capable de gagner un jeune homme, qui a son salut en
recommandation & qui veut suivre la vocation de Dieu.
II - Sorti qu'il fut de la maison de ses Parens, il se soûmit à la discipline
d'un saint personnage nommé Senil, sous lequel il fit eu peu de temps un tel
avancement en toutes sortes de sciences, qu'il donna au public en sa
jeunesse, plusieurs doctes ouvrages, & entr'autres une riche exposition sur
les Pseaumes. Enfin après, désireux de se retirer, & de s'avancer
d'avantage en la vertu, il le quitta pour aller à Bencos ou Bensos, demander
l'habit de Religieux, qu'il obtint de l'Abbé Comogel; il se commît à sa
direction pour estre formé & instruit à la vie parfaite & Religieuse,
à laquelle il fit un tel avan-cement, que c'étoit un vray Prototipe de
sainteté & vertu. Il demeura long-temps en ce Monastère à son grand
contentement, & édification des autres Religieux; mais Dieu qui vouloit
se servir de ce saint comme d'une lumière éclatante, qui devoit éclairer
plusieurs, l'inspira de quitter l'Irlande, pour passer en France, afin d'y
faire revivre la piété & religion chrétienne, qui y étoit beaucoup
refroidie à cause des péchez qui s'y commet-toient. Il conféra ce dessein à
son Abbé, qui luy en accorda la permission; & luy donna douze Religieux,
tous Doctes, pieux, & capables de l'ayder à poursuivre heureusement ce
que le zèle & la piété luy faisoit entreprendre.
III - Par tout où il passoit, il faisoit merveilles, tant par ses doctes
Prédications, que par ses bons exemples, & la Sainteté de sa Vie. Il
étoit lors âgé de trente ans. Il arrive donc en France, ayant passé par
l'Italie sans s'y arrester. Pour lors Sigebert commandoit en toute
l'Austrasie, & par toute la Bourgogne; il receut honorablement S.Colomban
& ses Religieux, la bonne odeur de leurs vertus étant parvenüe à sa Cour,
longtemps aupara-vant qu'ils y fussent arrivez. Dans le dessein que le Saint
avoit d'anoncer les Volontez de Dieu dans ce pays, il crut qu'il luy estoit
nécessaire de chercher un lieu de retraitte, où après qu'il auroit jetté la
semence de la Parole de Dieu dans le coeur des fidels, il se pourroit retirer
afin d'atirer du Ciel par ses Prières, la rosée des Graces dans cette terre qu'il
venoit de cuttiver. Il obtint du Roy une vaste solitude pour lors apellée
Volge ou Vosage, où ils se retirent en un vieil château nommé Anagrata où ses
Religieux vécurent quelque temps en une si grande disette de vivre, qu'une
fois l'espace de neuf jours ils ne mangèrent que des fueilles d'arbres. Mais
Dieu qui a fait pleuvoir la manne au désert pour nourrir son peuple, pourveut
aussi à ceux-cy de vivres en abondance, par une Providence tout admirable.
IV - Plusieurs personnes édifiées de la Sainteté de leur Vie, s'adressèrent à
S.Colomban, le suppliant de les admettre en sa Compagnie; ce Saint voyant que
ce lieu n'était pas commode pour recevoir tant de personnes, en rechercha un
autre, qui fut le château de Luxeuil, distant de trois ou quatre lieues de
cette première solitude. Là ils dressèrent une Chapelle sous le nom du Prince
des Apôtres S.Pierre, avec de petites Celulles en façon de cabanes pour leurs
demeures; où jour & nuit ils vacquoirent à la Contemplation des choses
célestes, qui leur faisaient oublier celles de la terre. Et de la sorte
commença l'Abbaye de Luxueil, où les Miracles ne manquèrent non plus qu'en
tout le reste de sa vie; mais je les réserve à la fin de l'Histoire de sa
Vie, afin de n'en interrompre la suitte.
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V - Saint Colamban voyant que la bénédiction de
Dieu se repandoit si sensiblement sur son Monastère, & que le nombre de
ses Religieux grossissait, il travailla à bâtir un autre Monastère qu'il
nomma Fontaines, pour la grande quantité des sources d'eau vive qu'il y
trouva. Cette nouvelle maison se trouva, en peu de temps, peuplée de Saints
Habitans, Colomban leur Abbé leur prescrivait des Règles qu'ils observaient
ponctuellement. Pendant ce temps la renommée de Colomban voloit par tout,
tant à cause de ses Miracles que de la sainteté de sa Vie, & du
gouvernement de ses Monastères. Théodoric ou Tierry qui, pour lors, régnait
en Bourgogne, en entendit parler. Cette Province luy était tombée en partage
après la mort de Sigebert son Père. Théobert son Frère étant en possession de
l'Austrasie, Theodoric donc luy portoit beaucoup de respect, conversoit
familièrement avec luy, le venoit visiter & recommandoit à ses Prières,
& sa personne, et le Gouvernement de son Royaume. Ce Roy étoit un prince
voluptueux, qui scandalisoit tout son peuple par ses amours impudiques,
tenant en sa Cour des femmes de mauvaise vie, à la honte de sa femme
légitime.
VI – Colomban, comme un autre S. Jean-Baptiste, l'en reprenoit & luy
reprochoit librement l'infamie de son vice. Il refusa même de donner sa
bénédiction aux enfans de ses concubines, & jamais ne voulut accepter les
viandes qui luy furent envoyées de Sa part, donnant pour response cette
Sentence de l'Escriture: Le très-Haut rejette les offrandes des impies.
Disant cela, les plats & les flaccons se brisèrent entre les mains des
porteurs, tant le vin que les viandes furent répenduës par terre. Le Roy
saisi de crainte à cause de ce-cy, s'en alla de grand matin le trouver pour
luy demander pardon, avec promesse de se corriger, et peut-estre il l'eût
fait, étant persuadé par les vives raisons de ce Serviteur de Dieu; mais la
Reyne Brunehaut, ou autrement Brunechilde, qui était une femme impérieuse,
& qui était bien aise de gouverner l'Estat, entretenoit le Roy, qui étoit
son petit Fils, en ses mauvaises pratiques, craignant que s'il se voyoît plus
que la Reyne sa femme, son autorité ne diminuât, & que le pouvoir qu'elle
avait auprès de sa Majesté ne passât à la personne de la Reyne sa compagne.
Brunechilde donc mît en l'esprit du Roy, que l'Abbé Colomban étoit un homme
fâcheux & de mauvaise humeur, & qu'à la fin il se rendoit
insuportable. Elle fist couler ses meschantes persuasions avec tant
d'artifices dans l'esprit du Roy, que se dégoûtant de la conversation du
Saint, il luy fit commandement de se retirer de ses Estats, après y avoir
séjourné vingt ans & avancé le service de Dieu en toute diligence.
VII - Ce bon Religieux se voyant chassé de son Abbaye, se retira à Besançon,
où en faveur de plusieurs personnes, il fit voir le pouvoir & autorité
que Dieu lui avoit donné; car s'étant transporté en la prison où il exhorta
les prisonniers à la Contrition & au repentir de leurs fautes, ces
criminels l'écoutèrent, le Saint meu de compassion toucha leurs fers, qui se
brisèrent au seul attouchement de ses mains, il leur lava les pieds, les
essuya avec toute humilité, les conduit hors de la prison & de là à
l'Eglise afin d'implorer la Divine miséricorde pour l'abolition de leurs
crimes. Comme ils approchèrent de l'Eglise, ils trouvèrent les portes
fermées, & apperçurent une troupe de soldats qui les poursuivoient, pour
les reconduire en prison. Ils jettèrent les yeux sur leur Libérateur; qui eut
recours à l'Oraison, priant Dieu que puisque par la grace ces pauvres
misérables avoient été délivrez, qu'il ne permit pas qu'ils fussent repris.
Sa prière fut exaucée, car à l'instant les portes de l'Eglise s'ouvrirent
d'elles-mêmes pour introduire ces pauvres fugitifs. Quand ils y furent entrez
elles se refermèrent de façon que les soldats qui les poursuivoient, voyans
ce miracle, n'osèrent attenter à leur personne, le peuple voyant cette
action, loua hautement la Bonté de Dieu, qui se faisoit ainsi paroitre par le
moyen de son Serviteur. Le Saint séjourna en ce lieu quelque temps, néanmoins
épris d'un saint désir de revoir ses Religieux, & animé d'une sainte
confiance, il s'en retourna en son Monastère, espérant que peut-estre le Roy
changeroit d'avis & auroit égard à son innocence.
VIII - Brunechilde ayant entendu ce retour, résolut de s'en défaire, & abusant
de l'autorité du Roy, envoya des satellites qui se saisirent de sa personne
pour le conduire hors du Royaume. Comme ils arrivèrent pour exécuter le
dessein de cette Reyne passionnée, le Saint lisoit en un livre à la porte de
l'Eglîse; mais comme autrefois les soldats du Roy de Sirie furent aveuglez
aux aproches d'Elizée, de même ces soldats ou ezecuteurs des volontés du Roy,
ne pûrent jamais appercevoir l'homme de Dieu Colomban, quoy que souvent ils
luy marchassent sur les pieds, & lui touchassent su robbe, pendant qu'il
rendoit mille actions de graces au Ciel, qui rend les efforts des puissants
sans effet, quand il lui plaist. Par ce moyen les officiers de su Majesté
s'en allèrent les mains vuides.
IX - Le Saint craignant qu'il ne fùt lu cause de quelque trouble, il céda à
son banissement, & se laissa conduire hors la France selon les ordres du
Roy. Il partit donc de Luxeuil & vint à Besançon, d'où prenant le chemin
par Avalon & par Auxere, il se vint embarquer à Nevers sur la Loire, de
là il descendit à Orléans & à Tours, où passant bon-gré mal-gré ses
gardes, il luy fut permis de veiller une nuit au Tombeau de saint Martin,
& puis enfin ils abordèrent à Nantes, voulant par ce moyen honorer la
Bretagne de sa présence, non seulement pendant sa vie, mais encore luy donner
ses Reliques après sa mort, comme un gage de l'amour qu'il luy a porté,
permettant qu'elles y ayent esté transportées au grand contentement de tout
le Pays qui les compte au nombre de ses Thresors les plus précieux, & le
met au catalogue de ses Saints, à cause de l'honneur qu'il luy a fait de la
visiter dans une des plus fameuses de ses villes. Ce n'a pas esté sans raison
que j'ay nommé tous les lieux par où il passa, car il ny en a aucun qu'il
n'aye signalé par quelque signe ou prodige. Au partir d'Avalon il délivra
douze possédez par un demon enragé, & guérit cinq frénétiques. A Auxere
il délivra un autre démoniaque qui avoit couru plusieurs lieux sans se
reposer, afin de pouvoir trouver l'homme de Dieu. A Nevers un des gardes ayant
donné un coup d'aviron sur le bras d'un de ses Religieux, il l'en reprit
sevèrement, le menaçant de la colère de Dieu, qui le punit de mort & fut
noyé quelque temps aprês en la même place. A Orléans il donna la clarté à un
aveugle, & délivra autant dc possédez qu'on luy en amena.
X - A Tours, où comme nous avons dit, il passa la nuit au Sépulcre de S.
Martin, son passage n'y fut pas sans Miracle; car contre le gré des gardes,
qui ne luy vouloient pas permettre de poser le pied en cette Ville, la
nacelle s'arresta miraculeusement au milieu de l'eau. Un voleur ayant dérobé
les ustenciles de Ces Religieux, pendant qu'ils étoient en l'Eglise à prier
Dieu, & à leur retour ne les trouvant plus, ils en avertirent leur Abbé,
qui s'en retourna promptement au Sépulcre de S. Martin pour luy faire ses
plaintes, de ce qu'il n'avoit pas gardé ses hardes, & celles de ses
Religieux pendant qu'ils veilloient auprès de ses Reliques. Chose étonnante!
aussi-tost le voleur se sentant comme foüetté rudement par tout le corps, il
déclara le lieu où il les avoit cachées.
XI - J'en obmets plusieurs autres pour réciter celle qui nous touche plus de
près, qui est que s'étant embarqué pour se retirer de Nantes pour aller dans
l'Irlande, ce Grand Saint étant un peu éloigné sur la mer, & regrettant
de quitter si-tost la Bretagne, ne voulut pas luy dire adieu si promptement
& désireux qu'il étoit de luy faire du bien, voulut retourner d'où il
avoit parti. Ceux qui le conduisoient en Irlande au lieu de son exil, ne
purent jamais faire avancer le vaisseau, & les exécuteurs des arrêts de
sa Majesté, voyant tant de prodiges, n'osèrent davantage s'opposer à la
volonté de Dieu, qui vouloit que la Bretagne comptât au nombre des graces
& bien-faits qu'elle reçoit de luy, la faveur qu'il luy fist de permettre
qu'elle fut encore une fois honorée de la présence d'un si Grand Saint. Ces
satelittes donc font prendre terre & mettent S. Colomban en liberté
d'aller par tout où il luy plairoit. Le Saint tout joyeux prit le chemin vers
Nantes, où étant arrivé il y séjourna quelque temps. Je ne trouve point quels
Miracles il fist à son retour, soit qu'ils n'ayent pas esté remarquez, ou
bien que Dieu les reservât à la vertu de ses Reliques qui reposent en la
Bretagne où il s'opère plûtost une continuation de Miracle, qu'un Miracle
particulier, comme nous dirons à la fin de cette Histoire.
XII - Après son séjour de Nantes, il alla trouver Clotaire second fils de
Chilperic, qui pour lors régnoit en Loraine, qui le reçut honorablement,
& luy promit de le favoriser en tout ce qu'il seroit possible, à cause
des Vertus qui paroissoient en luy avec éclat. Ce Saint craignant que s'il
séjournoit plus long-temps en France cela ne fût cause de quelque dîfférent
entre luy & Théodoric Roy de Bourgogne, il voulut se retirer de son
Royaume, se contentant, qu'après luy avoir prédit que dans trois ans il
jouiroit des Estats de ses deux cousins : sçavoîr, Théodoric &
Théodebert, il le pria de luy moyenner le passage par les terres du même
Théodebert, pour passer en Italie. Clotaire n'y manqua pas, & luy donnant
des gens pour le conduire en Italie, ils prirent le chemin vers Paris. A la
porte de la Ville il chassa un démon fort furieux du corps d'un pauvre homme,
luy commandant avec autorité de ne pas rester davantage dans ce corps qui
avoit esté lavé par le Baptesme de Jésus-Christ. De là ils allèrent jusques à
Meaux, où le Comte Agneric renvoya les officiers de Clotaire, & se
chargea de conduire le Saint au Roy Théodebert, cependant il le retint chez
soy afin de joüir quelque temps de sa présence, & qu'il benît toute sa
famille, particulièrement sa Fille Fare que quelques-uns ont nommée
Bourgon-dofore, qui n'étoît encore qu'un Enfant, & qui depuis a esté une
sainte Religieuse & Abbesse. Il visita aussi le Seigneur Authaire en sa
maison de Vulsi sur Marne, où il donna sa bénédiction à trois de ses Enfans,
l'un desquels étoit saint Ouen, depuis Chancelier de France, &
Archevesque de Rouen.
XIII - Enfin, il alla au Palais de Théodebert, qui l'accueillit avec toute la
courtoisie possible, le conjurant de ne point passer outre, mais de demeurer
dans les terres de son Royaume, où il trouveroit des campagnes assez amples
pour semer la Parole de l'Evangile. Le Saint voyant l'occasion d'augmenter la
Gloire de Dieu, y consentit, à condition que le Roy suiveroit ses conseils.
Il choisit sa demeure près la ville de Brigents, le long du Rhin. Il se mit à
prescher l'Evangile par tout ces Pays, où des personnes à milliers se
rendirent au giron de l'Eglise, tant idolâtres que d'autres, qui après le Baptesme
s'étoient laissez infecter du venin de l'hérésie. Il employa trois ans en ce
pieux Exercice; & Nostre Seigneur confirma par tout la parole de son
Saint par des miracles, jusques à ce que la guerre s'allumant entre les deux
Frères Théodebert & Théodoric, celuy là fut vaincu en une bataille prés
Toul en Loraine; d'où s'étant échappé il eut recours à saint Colomban, pour
apprendre de luy ce qu'il devoit faire. Le Saint luy donna avis que s'il ne
vouloît pas perdre le Royaume Eternel avec le temporel, qu'il se fist
Religieux, & qu'aussi-bien s'il ne le faisoit de bon gré, maintenant
qu'il étoit libre, il y seroit bientost contraint par la force des armes.
Théodebert rejetta ce conseil comme l'avis d'un Hermite, qui ne void pas plus
loin que sa Cellule, & s'appuyant sur la force de son bras, leva une
nouvelle armée, qu'il bazarde de nouveau contre Théodorie près Tolbiac; mais
avec une issuë encore plus malheureuse que la première, parce que non
seulement il perdit la bataille, mais il y fut pris & livré à Brunechilde,
laquelle le fist raser & rendre Moyne à Châlons, & peu de temps après
par un horrible sacrilège, puis qu'elle l'avoit fait Clerc, elle le fit
massacrer, ainsi qu'il est porté dans la Chronique de Saint Benigne à Dijon.
Où il est à remarquer que ce saint Abbé étoit assis sous un chesne où il
lisoit dans un livre, & appellant le Religieux qui luy assistoit, il luy
commanda de prier Dieu pour les deux Roys qui étoient aux prises, avec
beaucoup de sang humain répandu. A quoy le Religieux repart: Mon Père,
employez vous même vos prières, pour le Roy Théodebert vôtre Ami, afin qu'il
emporte le dessus sur Théodoric vôtre ennemi. Ce que le Saint qui étoit
vrayemcnt une colombe sans fiel, rejetta comme une tentation, luy disant que
ce conseil n'étoit pas de Dieu, qui commandoit de prier pour les ennemis,
& qu'au reste il étoit en la disposition du Souverain Juge de donner la
victoire à qui il luy plairoit.
XIV - Après cela, Saint Colomban voyant le Roy Théodebert trépassé, il se
résolut de quitter la France & l'Allemagne, pour passer en Italie, où il
fut très-bien receu par Aigulphe Roy des Lombards, qui luy donna option de
choisir en ses terres, telle demeure qu'il luy plairoit. Il s'arresta donc à
Milan, pour s'opposer aux héritiques Arriens, qui infectoient alors cette
Ville, contre lesquels il écrivit un excellent livre rempli de la doctrine
qu'il avoit puisée du Ciel. A quelques jours de là on luy donna avis que dans
un rocher coupé de l’Apennin, qui est une Montagne, qui divise l'Italie, il y
avoit une vieille Eglise dédiée à Dieu sous le titre du Prince des Apôtres
Saint Pierre, où se faisoient de grands Miracles, & que ce lieu qui se
nonimoit Boby seroit fort propre à son dessein, parce qu'il y avoit des eaux
en abondance. Il se retira un ce lieu par le consentement du Roy Aigulphe. Il
fit premièrement rétablir l'Eglise, & y bâtir un fort beau Monastère où
il passa un an qui luy restoit à vivre en ce monde, il s'y prépara par la
méditation de sa fin, à la gloire qui l'attendoit au Ciel.
XV - Cependant le Roy Clotaire qui selon la prédiction du Saint vivoît
paisiblement dans tous les Estats de Théodebert & Théodoric, menda l'Abbé
Eustache qui étoit demeuré à Luxueil, & luy donna commission d'aller
trouver le B. Colomban, pour le prier de sa part de revenir un France, où
tous ses ennemis étoient morts, mesme l'impie Brunechilde, afin de joüir avec
luy du bon-heur de la paix. Mais ce grand Saint qui ne pensoit plus qu'au
voyage qu'il avoit à faire au Ciel & à la gloire qui l'y attendoit,
remercia le Roy de sa bonne volonté, & luy renvoya par le mesme messager
& Abbé Eustache, des Lettres pleines de bons avis, & salutaires
corrections pour les vices passez, l'exhortant à une vraye pénitence. Ce que
Clotaire prît en bonne part, en faisant paroître les reconnaissances par
plusieurs beaux Privilèges & faveurs qu'il accorda à l'Abbaye de Luxueil,
pour le respect qu'il portoit à son Prophète saint Colomban. Lequel ayant
passé un an à Boby en Italie, il y décéda chargé d'années & de merites,
& tout illustre de Miracles. Le jour de sa mort arriva le vingt et un de
Novembre environ l'an six cens.
XVI - Les Miracles de ce Saint sont quasi sans nombre, je me contenteray d'en
raconter quelques-uns pour m'acquiter de la promesse que j'avois faite
cy-devant. Comme il étoit encore à Luxueil, un jour comme il se promenoit par
la montagne tout seul pensant à l'explication de quelques passages de
l'Escriture Sainte, il luy vint en pensée, lequel des deux seroit le plus
facile, ou de souffrir les injures des hommes, ou la cruauté des bestes, en
une chose où on n'a point péché, attendu que les hommes perdent leurs Ames se
persecutant les uns les autres. Il se trouva incontinent environné de douze
loups, qui commencèrent a le tirer à sa robbe. Le Saint demeura ferme &
constant, faisant le signe de la Croix, il pria Dieu de le favoriser en ce
rencontre; Ces animaux ne l'ayant pû ébranler prirent eux-mesmes la fuite,
& luy il continua son chemin. Incontinent il entendit comme un bruit de
voleurs qui le ponrsuivoient, mais le Saint qui sçavoit fort bien que
personne ne luy pouvoit nuire, si Dieu ne luy permettoit, & s'il le
permettoit, se résignant à sa volonté, il ne s'avança pas plus viste, &
se trouva incontinent en seureté. Après quoy il ne peut connoître
véritablement si c'étoit une ruse de Sathan qui le vouloit épouventer, ou si
ce qu'il avoit veu étoit vray & réel. Un de ses Religieux étant travaillé
d'une grosse fièvre, & se voyant reduit en une grande necessité, n'ayant
de quoy luy donner aucun rafraichissement dans le désert, il mit ses
Religieux en Prières afin d'obtenir de Dieu quelque consolation en leur
disette, & trois jours après il arriva dans ce désert un homme qui
conduisoit des chevaux chargez de pain, & autres provisions, qui leur
dist que Dieu l'avoit intérieurement excité à venir soûlager ses Serviteurs
qui le servaient dans le désert. Cét homme avoit une femme qui étoit affligée
depuis un an de fièvres, hors d'espérance de pouvoir recouvrer sa santé; le
Saint pria pour elle & elle fut guérie.
XVII - Une autre fois comme luy & ses Religieux se trouvèrent réduits à
une telle nécessité, que pendant neuf jours n'avoient mangé que des herbes;
Dieu révéla à un autre Abbé d'envoyer à saint Colomban ce qui luy étoit
necessaire, il le fist, faisant vitement charger des chevaux pour leur porter
de quoy soûlager leur pauvreté. Le Religieux à qui il avoît donné charge de
conduire ces chevaux, ne sçachant de quel côté il devoit aller, ils se
trouvèrent miraculeusement au Couvent du Saint, dont ils remercierent Dieu
tous ensemble. Une autre fois se trouvant en une grande nécessité; les
greniers qui estoient vuides se trouvèrent remplis de bleds. Un jour comme il
avoit soixante de ses Religieux employez à semer du bled, il les rassasia
tous de deux pains & un peu de bière, après qu'il eut prié Dieu de les
multiplier. On ramassa beaucoup de fragments qui restoient, & demeura
deux fois autant de bière qu'il n'y en avoit du commencement. Un jour il
commanda à un de ses Religieux d'aller pescher en un certain ruisseau, &
de luy apporter tous les poissons qu'il prendroit; ce Religieux pensant
abréger son chemin alla à un autre, où ayant travaillé pendant le jour, il
fut obligé de s'en retourner les mains vuides, quoy qu'il y vît une grande
quantité de poissons. L'Abbé le reprît de ta désobéissance & le renvoya à
l'autre ruisseau où il prît autant de poisson qu'il en pût aporter Cecy
montre quelle doit estre l'obéissance que Dieu demande dans un inférieur au
regard de son Supérieur. Comme le dépencier du Couvent tîroit de la bière
d'un tonneau, il fut apellé par le Saint, il courut aussi-tost, s'oubliant de
tourner la canelle; mais la liqueur s'arresta de soy-mesme sans en répandre
une seule goutte. Il commanda un jour à un de ses Religieux de fraper un
rocher pour en tirer de l'eau, & aussi-tost la pierre se changea en une
fontaine, qui coule encore aujourd'huy. Il commanda une autre fois à ses
Religieux par obéissance d'aller sier du bled par un temps de grosse pluye,
ils s'y en allèrent & Dieu empescha qu'il ne tombast une seule goutte
d'eau en ce champ, quoy que les terres voisines fussent toutes innondées. Une
autre fois que tous ses Religieux de Luxueil étoient malades au lit, excepté
les infirmiers, le saint Abbé leur commanda à tous de se lever, d'aller
battre du bled dans l'aire; ceux qui obéirent se trouverent guéris le mesme
jour, & les désobéissans furent travaillez de leur fièvre toute l'année.
XVIII - Un corbeau luy prît un certain instrument avec lequel il travailloît
& l'emporta, le Saint luy commanda de le luy rapporter, ce qu'il fist,
& le mit au pied du Saint en présence de ses Religieux, s'arrestant comme
pour attendre la punition qu'il en voudroit prendre; le Saint luy commanda de
s'en aller, après quoy il prist incontinent le vol. Un jour une rivière
nommée Bosie se déborda tellement, que le moulin du Convent étoit en péril
d'estre emporté, le Saint averti de cecy, envoya un de ses Religieux qui
étoit Diacre, & se nommoit Sincald, auquel il donna son bâton, avec
commission de commander au torrent de prendre un autre chemin, l'eau obéit à
la voix de ce serviteur de Dieu qui faisoit le commandement de son saint
Abbé. Un de ses Religieux se trouva travaillé d'une grosse maladie qui le
menoît au tombeau; ce bon Religieux qui se nommoit Colomban, du nom de son
Abbé, priant continuellement Dieu qu'il luy pleust le délivrer de la prison
de son corps, il apperçut auprès de luy un homme revêtu d'une éclatante
lumière qui luy dist, que cela ne se pouvoît faire, attendu que son Abbé s'y
opposoît par ses prières & par ses larmes. Ce pauvre malade pria le Saint
de n'empescher point un bonheur qu'il souhaittoit avec tant de passion; le
Saint changea ses prières, & après luy avoir donné le Saint Viatique,
& sa bénédiction, il s'en alla au Ciel.
XIX - Comme il faisoît bâtir son Monastère de Boby, on avoit coupé des
poutres dans la forest prochaine qu'on ne pouvoit charroyer à cause de la
difficulté du chemin, qui étoit trop raboteux. Il commanda à deux ou à trois
de ses Religieux de les prendre, & de les apporter sur leurs épaules; ils
obéïrent & apportèrent tout ce qu'il en fut nécessaire, jusques à la
perfection de son ouvrage, trois hommes soûtenant facilement ce que quatre
boeufs n'auroîent à peine pû traîner. Un de ses Religieux s'étant fait une
grande playe avec une coignée, comme il coupoît du bois, il le rétablit en
pleine santé à la mesme heure.
Le Duc Valdon qui commandoit dans les Alpes, vînt avec sa femme Flavia
trouver le Saint à Besançon, pour le prier d'intercéder pour eux afin que
Dieu leur donnât des enfans; il leur promît, à condition qu'ils
consacreroient le premier qu'il leur donneroit au service de Dieu. Ils
acceptent cette condition, le Saint fit sa prière qui fut exaucée, car la
Duchesse accoucha au bout de neuf mois d'un fils qui fut nommé Donat, &
étant en âge fut donné au Saint pour l'instruire à la piété & aux
sciences, où il fist un tel progrès, qu'il mérita d'estre éleu Archevêque de
Besançon après saint Claude, où il se comporta tellement, qu'il y éclata
comme un grand Saint.
XX - Les Reliques de saint Colomban ont esté apportées en Bretagne, au grand
contentement de toute la province; car longtemps après sa mort, un de nos
Ducs revenant de Rome, passa à Boby, & ayant trouvé tout ce beau
Monastère désert de Religieux, emporta avec luy ce sacré dépost, & le plaça
avec beaucoup de respect dans la ville de Locminech, vulgairement dite
Locminé au Diocèse de Vennes; on célèbre sa Feste avec beaucoup de solemnité
en la dite Ville, avec un office propre, dont l'Hymne de Laudes commence de
la sorte:
|
Nascitur nobis Columbane Carmen
Locmini Custos vigil, atque Rector
Tu quibus laudes animis petisti
Suffire vires.
|
Ses Reliques sont un thrésor que la Bretagne
possède, & peut mettre au nombre d'un de ses plus précieux, tant à cause
de la dévotion qu'elle porte à ce grand Saint, qu'à cause du bien qu'elle en
reçoit, par les Miracles continuels qui s'y font en la personne des
phrénétiques, qui y viennent rendre leurs voeux, non seulement de la
Province, mais encore des Païs voisins, où après leurs voyages accomplis,
& leur neufvaines finies, ils se trouvent soûlagez dans leur affliction,
avec l'admiration de tous.
Frère Albert le Grand
Les Vies des Saints de la Bretagne Armorique.
Quimper, 1901
|
Saint Colomban
Abbé de Luxeuil et de Bobbio (✝ 615)
Vers 580, il quitta l'Irlande en compagnie du futur saint Gall et parcourut l'Europe Occidentale, entre Meuse et Rhin et jusqu'en Germanie, accepté, refusé, repoussé, mais toujours fondateur d'abbayes dont le rayonnement sera l'un des éléments les plus dynamiques de l'évangélisation durant l'ère mérovingienne. Il menait la vie dure à ses moines par une règle austère, mais grâce à cela bien des saints y ont trouvé le chemin de leur sainteté : saint Donat de Besançon, saint Faron de Meaux, saint Babolin de l'abbaye de Saint Maur des Fossés près de Paris, saint Omer de Thérouanne, saint Desle de Lure, saint Romaric de Remiremont, saint Wandrille, saint Achaire, saint Amand, saint Philibert, saint Valéry, etc… Le plus célèbre de ses monastères est sans aucun doute celui de Luxeuil dans la Franche-Comté où affluèrent des moines francs, gaulois et burgondes. Un monastère qui, pendant deux siècles, fut le plus grand centre de la vie monastique en Occident. En 610, il dut fuir la Gaule où la cruelle reine Brunehaut le poursuivait parce qu'il lui reprochait ses vices et ses crimes. Il avait envisagé de retourner en Irlande et, pour cette raison, nous le trouvons à Nantes. Obligé de revenir sur ses pas, il traverse les Alpes et se réfugia à Bobbio en Emilie-Romagne où il fonda son dernier monastère. Il y mourut. La règle monastique originale qu'il avait donnée à ses monastères fut très influente dans l'Europe pendant deux siècles.
Plusieurs localités se sont placées sous son patronage : Saint-Colomban-des-Villards-73130, Saint Colomban-44310. Un internaute nous signale: Saint Coulomb (35) tire son nom de Colomban.
Aux racines chrétiennes de l'Europe
Lors de l'audience générale du 11 juin 2008, Benoît XVI a dressé un portrait de saint Colomban, le célèbre moine irlandais du VI siècle qui "peut être considéré comme un saint européen". Né dans le Leinster en 543, il entra vers ses 20 ans au monastère de Bangor. La vie monastique qu'il y suivit et l'exemple de l'abbé Comgall forgèrent la conception du monachisme qu'il fixa et diffusa plus tard.
Puis le Pape a rappelé qu'à l'âge de 50 ans environ Colomban quitta l'Irlande "pour entreprendre avec douze compagnons une mission sur le continent, où les grandes migrations germaniques avaient fait retomber des régions entières dans le paganisme". Leur re-évangélisation était basée sur l'exemple de vie, "nombre de jeunes demandèrent à entrer dans la communauté, rendant nécessaire la constitution d'un second monastère" à Luxeuil, qui devint centre monastique et missionnaire de tradition irlandaise en Europe. Bientôt fut fondée une troisième maison, à Fontaine, tandis que saint Colomban allait vivre une vingtaine d'années à Luxeuil. Il y rédigea sa Regula Monachorum, la seule des anciennes règles irlandaises parvenue jusqu'à nous, a précisé le Saint-Père. Il introduisit notamment "sur le continent la confession personnelle et régulière, ainsi que la pénitence proportionnée à la gravité du péché commis".
"A cause de sa sévérité sur les questions morales, il entra en conflit avec la famille royale, ayant vivement admonesté le roi Thierry pour ses relations adultérines... En 610 il fut expulsé de Luxeuil avec ses moines irlandais, condamnés définitivement à l'exil". Rapatriés par mer, leur bateau échoua près du rivage" et, plutôt que de rentrer à Luxeuil, le groupe "décida d'entreprendre une nouvelle aventure d'évangélisation" d'abord à Tuggen, sur le lac de Zurich, puis près de Bregenz, sur le lac de Constance, en vue d'évangéliser les Alamans. Ayant ensuite passé les Alpes, Colomban fut favorablement accueilli par la cour lombarde. "Il dut immédiatement faire face à de graves difficultés. La vie de l'Eglise était empoisonnée par l'arianisme dominant chez les lombards, et un schisme avait détaché de la communion avec l'Evêque de Rome la plus grande partie de l'Eglise d'Italie du nord". Le saint irlandais "rédigea alors un libelle contre cette hérésie et une lettre au Pape Boniface IV l'encourageant à œuvrer activement au rétablissement de l'unité ecclésiale".
Colomban fonda à Bobbio un nouveau monastère qui devint un centre culturel comparable au Mont Cassin de saint Benoît de Nursie. Il y acheva sa vie le 23 novembre 615, qui est sa fête liturgique jusqu'à nos jours. Le message de Colomban, a souligné Benoît XVI, "se résume dans un vif appel à la conversion et au détachement des biens terrestres en vue de l'héritage éternel. Par sa vie d'ascèse et son engagement total contre la corruption des puissants, il rappelle la sévère figure du Baptiste. Mais cette austérité...est surtout le moyen de s'ouvrir librement à l'amour de Dieu, de répondre de tout son être aux dons reçus en reflétant en soi l'image de Dieu, tout en travaillant la terre et en réformant la société".
Le Saint-Père a conclu en rappelant combien saint Colomban fut "un homme de grande culture, riche de grâces, un formidable constructeur de monastères et un vif prêcheur de la pénitence. Il mit toutes ses énergies dans l'alimentation des racines chrétiennes de l'Europe naissante. Par son énergie spirituelle et sa foi, avec son amour de Dieu et du prochain, il est devenu l'un des Pères de l'Europe qui continue de nous montrer ce que sont les racines d'où le continent peut renaître". Source: VIS 080611 (600)
A lire aussi: Saint Colomban (Colombanus) (vers 540 – 615) Moine Irlandais, fondateur des monastères d’Annegray, Luxeuil, Fontaine (Haute-Saône), Bobbio (Province de Piacenza – Italie) - Rédacteur d’une règle monastique. (amis de saint Colomban)
Moine de Bangor en Irlande sous l’abbé saint Comgal, il se fit pèlerin pour le Christ et chercha à former à l’école de l’Évangile les peuples de la Gaule. Il fonda, parmi beaucoup d’autres, le monastère de Luxeuil en Bourgogne, qu’il gouverna lui-même sous une règle sévère. Forcé à l’exil, il franchit les Alpes et fonda en Emilie le monastère de Bobbio, célèbre par sa discipline et ses études, et c’est là qu’il mourut en paix, l’an 615, ayant bien mérité de l’Église.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/121/Saint-Colomban.html
VIE DE SAINT COLOMBAN DE LUXEUIL
d'après
le Synaxaire byzantin (édition FR épuisée)
Récemment convertie au Christianisme par saint Patrick et ses disciples,
l'Irlande connut au 6ieme siècle une floraison abondante de sainteté : les
moines se réunissaient par milliers pour s'offrir au martyre volontaire de
l'ascèse dans de grands regroupements monastiques semblables aux vastes
concentrations de moines d'Égypte, de Syrie et de Palestine. Leur amour ardent
de Dieu lié à un caractère fougueux leur faisait accomplir d'extraordinaires
exploits dans la mortification mais attirait aussi sur eux la Grâce de Dieu et
le pouvoir d'accomplir des miracles. Ces moines intrépides formaient le coeur
de l'Église d'Irlande et contribuèrent grandement à la diffusion et à
l'approfondissement de la vie chrétienne dans tout l'Occident d'alors. Parmi
eux, la figure la plus attachante est certainement celle de saint Colomban,
l'infatigable zélateur des commandements de Dieu.
Né vers 540 dans la province de Leinster, Colomban fut élevé dans l'étude des
sciences profanes, fort en honneur parmi les chrétiens irlandais, et montra de
grandes capacités. Mais, tourmenté par les ardeurs de la volupté et comprenant
la vanité des espoirs terrestres, il alla se mettre sous la conduite d'un saint
vieillard qui l'initia à la connaissance des saintes Écritures et à la vie
ascétique. Il devint moine ensuite à Bangor, la plus célèbre abbaye d'Irlande,
qui
Averti de sa renommée, le roi de Burgondie, Gontran, l'invita dans les Vosges
et lui offrit un terrain désert, où fut fondé le monastère d'Annegray. Les
vertus de Colomban attirèrent bientôt autour de lui un grand nombre de
disciples, qui voulaient, eux aussi, travailler à leur salut par les rudes
travaux de l'ascèse. Il fut donc contraint de fonder à proximité un second
monastère, Luxeuil; puis, un peu plus tard, un troisième, Fontaine. Le saint se
trouvait à la tête de plusieurs centaines de moines. Fixé à Luxeuil, il
supervisait ses trois communautés en s'appuyant sur l'autorité d'un prévôt dans
chacune d'elle; mais par sa prière, il était le père de chaque moine et son
intercesseur auprès de Dieu. Comme dans les laures orientales, l'organisation
du monastère restait souple et soumise au caractère charismatique de la paternité
spirituelle. On insistait fort sur l'ascèse corporelle, les jeûnes sévères, les
fustigations et les séjours dans l'eau glacée pour soumettre le tempérament
ardent des moines. Mais le monastère n'était pas seulement un lieu de combats
violents contre les passions, il était aussi une image anticipée du ciel, et
les moines, semblables aux anges, y célébraient une louange perpétuelle du
Seigneur de Gloire. Colomban avait organisé la vie de ses trois communautés de
manière à ce que les moines célèbrent sans cesse, nuit et jour, l'office divin,
en se relayant par groupes (Laus perennis). (Cet usage se trouvait aussi au
fameux monastère des Acémètes à Constantinople et connut une grande diffusion
dans de nombreux monastères d'Occident au Moyen-âge). On observait ainsi à la
lettre la recommandation de l'Apôtre : «Priez sans cesse !» (1 Thess 5,17).
Figure réaliste de Colomban de Luxeuil, moine irlandais
du VIè siècle, au musée de Navan. Cette représentation réaliste est typique du moine celtique
irlandais avec sa robe blanche, sa canne de pasteur et sa tonsure dégageant la
partie antérieure du crâne. Colomban a souvent été décrit comme un homme de
forte stature. Moine voyageur, il lui fallut une constitution robuste et
vigoureuse pour parcourir à pied les chemins de l'Europe.
Cette photo a été prise en 2002 au musée Awarness de
la communauté Saint-Columban's Dalgan Park à Navan en Irlande, par Alain Chauffaut.
Medieval Sourcebook:
The Life of St. Columban,
by the Monk Jonas, (7th Century)
The Life of St. Columban,
by the Monk Jonas, (7th Century)
[D.C. Munro: Introduction:]
During the sixth and
seventh centuries the greatest missionary activity was shown by the Scots who
dwelt in Ireland. In that country religion was cherished with greater zeal than
elsewhere, and learning was fostered for the sake of the Cchurch. But not
content with the flourishing state of Christianity in their own island, the
most zealous monks often passed over to the continent. There even the nominal
Christians were little inclined to follow the precepts of the religion which
they professed. Gaul especially attracted the attention of the bold missionaries
from Ireland,. and the Irish usages became well established in some parts of
lie country. Unfortunately almost all the accounts of the missionaries from
Ireland have been lost; consequently this biography of Columban is of great
value.
Jonas, the author of' this
life, became a monk at Bobbio, in northern Italy, three years after Columban's
death. He was soon employed on this biography, for which he obtained material,
as he himself said, from the stories told by the saint's companions. Living as
be did, among the, latter, his account reflects their feelings faithfully, and
we may be certain that he has recorded the events accurately, and s often
reproduced the saint's own words. As is usual in such biographies, the miracles
are numerous; for the contemporaries these formed the most valuable portions;
for modern students they are full of instruction, and throw much light on the
daily life of the monks.
The language of Jonas is
somewhat bombastic and difficult to put into English. In some cases, the translator
has been unable to determine the exact connection of certain clauses with the
context. In such sentences he has translated literally hoping that others might
see a connection which he missed. In general, where he suspected any mistake,
he has followed the Latin closely. A new and careful collation and
transcription of the manuscripts would undoubtedly remove any of the
difficulties. There has been no translation of this life into any modern
language before, except a very imperfect rendering of selected passages by Abel
in the "Geschichtschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit."
In this translation the preface, which has little or no importance for the life
of the saint, has been omitted from lack of space. All the rest is translated
in full. The names of places have generally been modernized, because readers
who live far from large libraries, might otherwise lose the geographical
information given here.
SAINT DATA: Columban, abbot and missioner, Born in Leinster (Ireland), c. 540; d.
at Bobbio, Italy, 640; feast day 23 November. [*Note that, despite Jonas'
assertion that Columban was also known as "Columba", he is distinct
from St. Columba, founder of Iona, born in 521, d. 597, and whose feast day is
June 9.]
THE LIFE OF ST. COLUMBAN
BY THE MONK JONAS.
BY THE MONK JONAS.
Mabillon: Acta Sanctorum
Ordinis S. Benedicti, Vol. I, Venice, 1733, pp. 3-26. Latin.
6.
Columban, who is also called Columba, was born on the island of Ireland.
This is situated in the extreme ocean and, according to common report, is
charming, productive of various nations, and free from the wars which trouble
other nations, Here lives the race of the Scots, who, although they lack the
laws of the other nations, flourish in the doctrine of Christian strength, and
exceed in faith all the neighboring tribes. Columban was born amid the
beginnings of that race's faith, in order that the religion, which that race
cherished uncompromisingly, might be increased by his own fruitful toil and the
protecting care of his associates.
But what happened before his birth, before be saw the light of this
world, must not be passed over in silence. For when his mother, after having
conceived, was bearing him in her womb, suddenly in a tempestuous night, while
she was buried in sleep, she saw the sun rise from her bosom and issuing forth
resplendent, furnish great light to the world. After she had arisen from sleep
and Aurora rising had driven away the dark shadows from the world, she began to
think earnestly of these matters, joyfully and wisely weighing the import of so
great a vision ; and she sought an increase of consolation from such of her
neighbors as were learned, asking that with wise hearts they should examine
carefully the meaning of so great a vision. At length she was told by those who
had wisely considered the matter, that she was carrying in her womb a man of
remarkable genius, who would provide what would be useful for her own salvation
and for that of her neighbors.
After the mother learned this she watched over him with so great care
that she would scarcely entrust him even to his nearest relatives. So the life
of the boy aspired to the cultivation of good works under the leadership of
Christ, without whom no good work is done. Nor without reason had the mother
seen the shining sun proceed from her bosom, the sun which shines brightly in
the members of the Church, the mother of all, like a glowing Phoebus. As the
Lord says: ct Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
their Father." So Deborah, with the voice of prayer, formerly spoke to the
Lord, by the admonition of the Holy Spirit, saying: But let them love Thee be
as the sun when he goeth forth in his might."
For the milky way in the heavens, although it is itself bright, is
rendered more beautiful by the presence of the other stars ; just as the
daylight, increased by the splendor of Phoebus, shines more benignantly on the
world. So the body of the Church, enriched by the splendor its Founder, is
augmented by the hosts of saints and is made resplendent by religion and
learning, so that those who come after draw profit from the concourse of the
learned. And just as the sun or moon and all the stars ennoble the day and
night by their refulgence, so the merits of the holy priests increase the glory
of the Church.
7.
When Columban's childhood was over and he became older, he began to
devote himself enthusiastically to the pursuit of grammar and ;he sciences, and
studied with fruitful zeal all through his boyhood and youth, until he became a
man. But, as his fine figure, his splendid color, and his noble manliness made
him beloved by all, the old enemy, began finally to turn his deadly weapons
upon him, in order to catch in his nets this youth, whom he saw growing so
rapidly in grace. And he aroused against him the lust of lascivious maidens,
especially of those whose fine figure and superficial beauty are wont to
enkindle mad desires in the minds of wretched men.
But when that excellent soldier saw that he was surrounded on all sides
by so deadly weapons, and perceived the cunning and shrewdness of the enemy who
was fighting against him, and that by an act of human frailty, he might quickly
fall over a precipice and be destroyed,-as Livy says, "No one is rendered
so sacred by religion, no one is so guarded, that lust is unable to prevail
against him," - holding in his left hand the shield of the Gospel and
bearing in his right hand the two-edged sword, he prepared to advance and
attack the hostile lines threatening him. He feared lest, ensnared by the lusts
of the world, he should in vain have spent so much labor on grammar, rhetoric,
geometry and the Holy Scriptures. And in these perils he was strengthened by a
particular aid.
8.
When he was already meditating upon this purpose, he came to the dwelling
of a holy and devout woman. He at first addressed her humbly, afterwards he
began to exhort her, as far as lay in his power. As she saw the increasing
strength of the youth she said: "I have gone , forth to the strife as far
as it lay in my power. Lo, twelve years have passed by, since I have been far
from my home and have sought out this place of pilgrimage. With the aid of
Christ, never since then have I engaged in secular matters ; after putting my
hand to the plough, I have not turned backward. And if the weakness of my sex
had not prevented me, I would have crossed the sea and chosen a better place
among strangers as my home. But you, glowing with the fire of youth, stay
quietly on your native soil; out of weakness you lend your ear even against your
own will, to the voice of the flesh, and think you can associate with the
female sex without sin. But do you recall the wiles of Eve, Adam's fall, how
Samson was deceived by Delilah, bow David was led to injustice by the beauty of
Bathsheba, how the wise Solomon was ensnared by the love of a woman? Away, 0
youth I away! flee from corruption, into which, as you know, many have fallen.
Forsake the path which leads to the gates of hell."
The youth, trembling at these words, which were such as to terrify a
youth, thanked her for her reproaches, took leave of his companions and set
out. His mother in anguish begged him not to leave her. But he said: "Hast
thou not beard, 'He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me?"' He begged his mother, who placed herself in his way and held the
door, to let him go. Weeping and stretched upon the floor, she said she would
not permit it. Then leaping over both threshold and mother he asked his mother
not to give way to her grief ; she would never see him again in this life, but
wherever the way of salvation led him, there he would go.
9.
When he left his birthplace, called by the inhabitants, Lagener-land,
(Leinster, in Ireland) he betook himself to a holy man named Sinell, who at
this time was distinguished among his countrymen for his unusual piety and
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. And when the holy man saw that St. Columban
had great ability, be instructed him in the knowledge of all the Holy
Scriptures. Nevertheless, as was usual, the master attempted to draw out the
pupils under false pretences, in order that be might learn their dispositions,
either the glowing excess of the senses, or the torpor induced by slothfulness.
He began to inquire into Columban's disposition by difficult questions. But the
latter tremblingly, nevertheless wisely, in order not to appear disobedient,
nor touched by the vice of the love of vainglory, obeyed his master, and
explained in turn all the objections that were made, mindful of that saying of
the Psalmist, "Open thy mouth wide and I will fill its, Thus Columban
collected such treasures of holy wisdom in his breast that he could, even as a
youth, expound the Psalter in fitting language and could make many other
extracts worthy to be sung, and instructive to read.
Then he endeavored to enter a society of monks, and went to the
monastery of Bangor. [*In Ulster, Ireland] The abbot, the holy Congall,
renowned for his virtues, was a faithful father to his monks and was held in
high esteem for the fervor of his faith and the order and discipline which he
preserved. Here Columban gave himself entirely to fasting and prayer, to
bearing the easy yoke of Christ, to mortifying the flesh, to taking the cross
upon himself and following Christ, in order that he who was to be a teacher of
others might show the learning which he taught teacher more fruitfully by his
own example in mortifying his own body ; and that he who was to instruct others
might first his own instruct himself.
After he had been many years in the cloister he longed to go into
strange lands, in obedience to the command which the Lord gave Abraham:
"Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
house, into a land that I will shew thee." Accordingly he confessed to the
venerable father, Congall, the burning desire of his heart and the longing
enkindled by the fire of the Lord, concerning which the Lord says: "I am
come to send fire on the earth ; and what will I, if it be already
kindled?"' [*King James Version translation of Luke 12:49, The Vulgate,
which is quoted here, reads "quem volo ut ardeat"]. But he did
not receive the answer which he wished, for it was hard for Congall to bear the
loss of so great a comfort. At length, however, the latter began to conquer
himself and to think that he ought not to consider his own need more than the
necessities of others. Nor was it done without the will of the Almighty, who
had educated His novice for future strifes, in order that He might win glorious
triumphs from his victory and secure joyful victories from the phalanxes of
slaughtered enemies.
The abbot accordingly called St. Columban and although sorrowful, he
considered the good of others before his own good, and bestowed upon him the
bond of peace, the strength of solace and companions who were known for their
piety.
10.
Having collected a band of brethren, St. Columban asked the prayers of
all, that he might be assisted in his coming journey, and that he might have
their pious aid. So he started out in the twentieth [*or thirtieth, MSS differ]
year of his life, and under the guidance of Christ went to the seashore with
twelve companions. Here they waited to see if the mercy of the Almighty would
allow their purpose to succeed, and learned that the spirit of the all-merciful
Judge was with them. So they embarked, and began the dangerous journey across
the channel and sailed quickly with a smooth sea and favorable wind to the
coast of Brittany. Here they rested for a while to recover their strength and
discussed their plans anxiously, until finally they decided to enter the land
of Gaul. They wanted zealously and shrewdly to inquire into the disposition of
the inhabitants in order to remain longer if they found they could sow the
seeds of salvation; or in case they found the hearts of the people in darkness,
go on to the nearest nations.
11.
Accordingly, they left Brittany and proceeded into the Gallic lands. At
that time, either because of the numerous enemies from without, or on account
of the carelessness of the bishops, the Christian faith had almost departed
from that country. The creed alone remained. But the saving grace of penance
and the longing to root out the lusts of the flesh were to be found only in a
few. Everywhere that he went the noble man preached the Gospel. And it pleased
the people because his teaching was adorned by eloquence and enforced by
examples of virtue.
So great was his humility and that of his followers, that just as the
children of this world seek honor and authority, so they, on the contrary vied
with one another in the practice of humility, mindful of that saying: "He
that humbleth himself shall be exalted," and of the text in Isaiah:
"But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite
spirit, and trembleth at my word." Such piety and love dwelt in them all,
that for them there was only one will and one renunciation.
Modesty and moderation, meekness and mildness adorned them all in equal
measure. The evils of sloth and dissension were banished. Pride and haughtiness
were expiated by severe punishments. Scorn and envy were driven out by faithful
diligence. So great was the might of their patience, love and mildness that no
one could doubt that the God of mercy dwelt among them. If they found that one
among them was in error, they strove in common, with equal right, to restrain
the sinner by their reproaches. They had everything in common. If anyone
claimed anything as his own, he was shut out from association with the others
and punished by penances. No one dared to return evil for evil, or to let fall
a harsh word; so that people must have believed that an angelic life was being
lived by mortal men. The holy man was reverenced with so great gratitude that
where he remained or a time in a house, all hearts were resolved to practice
the faith more strictly.
12.
Finally, the reports about Columban spread to the court of king
Sigibert, who at this time ruled with honor over the two Frankish 'kingdoms of
Austrasia and Burgundy. [*Sigibert died in 575 and was king only of Austrasia]
The name of the Franks was held in honor above that of any of the other
inhabitants of Gaul. When the holy man with his companions appeared before the
king, the greatness of his learning caused him to stand high in the favor of
the king and court Finally, the king begged him to remain in Gallic territory,
not to go to other peoples and leave him ; everything that he wished should be
done. Then he replied to the king that be did not wish to be enriched with the
treasures of others, but as far as he was not hindered by the weakness of the
flesh to follow the command of the Gospel "Whosoever will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
Then the king answered and said: "If you wish to take the cross
Christ upon you and follow Him, seek the quiet of a hermitage. Only Of be
careful, for the increase of your own reward and for our spiritual good, to
remain in our kingdom and not to go to the neighboring peoples." As the
choice was left to him in this manner, he followed the king's advice and chose
for himself a hermitage. At that time there was a great wilderness called
Vosagus, [*the Vosages] in which there was a castle, which had long been in
ruins, and which had been called for ages, Anagrates.[Anegray]. When the
holy man came to that place, he settled there with his followers in spite of
the entire loneliness, the wilderness and the rocks, mindful of the proverb
that, "Man shall not live by bread alone," but shall have sufficient
food from the bread of life and shall never hunger.
13.
While the man of God was in that place with his companions, one of the
brethren, either as a test or because of some sin, began to he chastised by a
violent fever. Since they had no food except such as the barks and herbs
furnished, they began with one mind to desire that all should give themselves
up to prayer and fasting for the sake of the welfare of their sick brother.
Having now fasted for three days and having nothing to refresh their wearied
bodies, suddenly they saw a certain man standing before their gate with horses
loaded with a supply of bread and condiments. He said that he had been led by a
sudden impulse of his heart to bear aid from his own substance to those who
were, for Christ's sake, suffering from so great poverty in the wilderness.
Therefore, having presented to the man of God what he had brought he began to
ask earnestly that the holy man should pray to God in behalf of his wife, who
for a whole year bad been burning with so violent a fever that it now seemed impossible
that she could be restored to health. As be made his request with an humble and
contrite heart, the man of God was unwilling to deny him any comfort, and
having called together the brethren he invoked the mercy of God in behalf of
that woman. When he and his companions had completed their prayer, the woman
who had been in such imminent peril of death, was immediately restored to her
health. When her husband had received the benediction from the man of God and
had returned home, he found his wife sitting there. He questioned her as to the
time when the fever left her and learned that she had been healed at the very
hour when the man of God had prayed to the Lord in her behalf.
14.
Therefore, after a brief space of time in which they piously endeavored
to propitiate Christ and to atone for their evil thoughts, through
mortification of the flesh and extreme fasting, they mortified their members to
the glory of God, and desired to preserve the inviolate state of their
religion. By their extreme severities every lust of the flesh was expelled, so
that the plunderer and robber of all virtues fled. Nine days had already passed
in which the man of God and his companions had taken no other food than the
bark of trees and the roots of herbs. But the compassion of the divine virtue
tempered the bitterness of the food. A certain abbot, named Caramtoc, who ruled
over a monastery of which the name was Salicis, was warned by a vision,
that be should bear the necessities of life to God's servant Columban, dwelling
in the wilderness. Therefore, Caramtoc rising called his cellarer, Marculf by
name, and told him what bad happened. The latter replied, "Do as you have
been told." Caramtoc therefore ordered Marculf to go and prepare
everything that be could, to carry to St. Columban. Marculf accordingly, having
loaded his wagons started out. But when the hour of darkness came on, he sought
in vain for a way to continue his journey. Nevertheless, he thought that if the
command was from God, the power of the Commander would show the way to the
horses, if they were left to their own guidance. Wonderful power! The horses,
advancing, followed an unknown road and in a direct course proceeded to Anegray
to the doors of St. Columban. Marculf amazed followed the tracks of the horses,
came to the man of God and presented what he had brought. The latter returned
thanks to his Creator because He did not neglect to prepare a table for His
servants in the wilderness. Therefore, having received a benediction from him,
Marculf returned by the path by which he bad come and disclosed to all what had
happened. Then crowds of people and throngs of the infirm began to crowd about
St. Columban in order that they might recover their health and in order to seek
aid in all their infirmities. When he was unable to rid himself of their
importunities, obeying the petitions and prayers of all, through his prayers
and relying upon the divine aid, he healed the infirmities of all who came to
him.
15.
While the holy man was wandering through the dark woods and was carrying
on his shoulder a book of the Holy Scripture, he happened to be meditating. And
suddenly the thought came into his mind, to which he would prefer, to suffer
injuries from men or to be exposed the rage of wild beasts. While he thought
earnestly, frequently signing his forehead with the sign of the cross and
praying, he decided that it was better to suffer from the ferocity of wild
beasts, without any sin on their part, than from the madness of men who would
lose their souls. And while he was turning this over in his mind he perceived
twelve wolves approaching and standing on the right and on the left, while he
was in the middle. He stood still and said: "Oh, God, come to my aid. Oh,
Lord, hasten to aid me!" They came nearer and seized his clothing. As he
stood firm they left him unterrified and wandered off into the woods. Having
passed through this temptation in safety, he continued his course through the
woods. And before he had gone far he heard the voices of many Suevi, wandering
in the hidden paths. At this time they were robbing in those places. And so at
length by his firmness, having dismissed the temptation, he escaped the
misfortune. But he did not know clearly whether this was some of the devil's
deceit or whether it had actually happened. At another time he withdrew from
his cell and entering the wilderness by a longer road he found an immense cliff
with precipitous There he perceived a hollow sides and rocky paths difficult for
men. in the rock. Entering to explore its hidden recesses he found in the
interior of the cave the home of a bear, and the bear itself. He ordered the
beast to depart and not to return to that place again. The beast mercifully
went, nor did she dare to return again. The place was distant from Anegray
seven miles more or less.
16.
At one time be was living alone in that hollow rock, separated from the
society of others and, as was his custom, dwelling in bidden places or more
remotely in the wilderness, so that when the feasts of the Lord or saints' days
came, he might, with his mind wholly free from disquieting cares, devote
himself to prayer, and might be ready for every religious thought. He was so
attenuated by fasting that he scarcely seemed alive - Nor did he eat anything
except a small measure of the herbs of the field, or of the little apples which
that wilderness produces and which are commonly called bolluca. His
drink was water. And as he was always occupied with other cares, he could not
get this regularly ; at least during the time when he was performing his vows.
A little boy named Domoalis was in his service. This boy went alone to
tell the father when certain events happened at the monastery and to carry back
his directions to the brethren. When this boy h ad remained for several days in
the hollow of this lofty rock, which was difficult of approach from all
directions, be began to complain because he could not get water quickly. It
tired his knees to bring it with so great labor through the difficult mountain
paths. Columban said to him : "My son, get to work ; make a little bole in
the back of the rock- Remember the Lord produced streams of water from a rock
for the people of Israel." He obeyed and attempted to make a hole in the
rock. The holy man immediately fell upon his knees and prayed to God that He
would aid him in his need. At length his prayers were heard; great power came
to him, piously praying. And soon the fountain of water began to flow regularly
and it remains to this day.
And not undeservedly has the merciful Lord granted the prayers of His
saints, who on account of His commands have crucified their own wills, and who
have so great faith that they do not doubt that they will obtain what they
demand from His mercy. Because He has promised. If ye have faith as a grain of
mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place ;
and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." And
elsewhere: "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
will receive them, and ye shall have them."
17.
As the number of monks increased greatly, he sought in the same
wilderness a better location for a convent. He found a place formerly strongly
fortified, which was situated about eight miles from the first abode, and which
had formerly been called Luxovium [*Luxeuil, in the department of Haute
Saône]. Here were baths constructed with unusual skill. A great number of
stone, idols, which in the old heathen times had been worshipped with horrible
rites, stood in the forest near at hand. Here then the excellent man began to
build a monastery. At the news of this people streamed in from all directions
in order to consecrate themselves to the practice of , religion, so that the
large number of monks scarcely had sufficient m. The children of the nobles
from all directions strove to come ,thither ; despising the spurned trappings
of the world and the pomp of present wealth, they sought eternal rewards.
Columban perceived that the people were rushing in from all directions to the
remedy of penance and that the walls of one monastery could with difficulty
hold of so great a throng of converts. Although they were of one purpose and
heart, yet one monastery was insufficient for the abode of so great a number.
Accordingly be sought out another spot especially remarkable for its bountiful
supply of water and founded a second convent to which he gave the name of Fontanas.
[*Fonataines]. In this he placed men whose piety could not be doubted. After he
had settled the bands of monks in these places, he stayed alternately at the
two convents, and full of the Holy Ghost, he established the rule which they
were to follow. From this rule the prudent reader or listener may learn the
extent and character of the holy man's learning. [*The rule can be found in
Migne, PL, 80]
18.
At that time a brother, named Autierin, asked to be allowed to make a
pilgrimage into Ireland. Columban said, "Let us go into the wilderness and
try to learn the will of God, whether you ought to go on the journey as you
desire or remain in the assembly of the bretheren." Accordingly they went
forth and took with them a third youth, named Somarius, who is still alive.
They went to the place in the wilderness that had been fixed upon, taking with
them only a single loaf. When twelve days had passed, and nothing remained from
the fragments of bread, and the time for breaking their fast was approaching,
they were commanded by the father to go through the rocky cliffs and down to
the bottom of the valleys and to bring back whatever they found that was
suitable for food.
They went joyfully through the sloping valleys, down to the Moselle and
found some fishes which had been caught previously by fishermen and were
floating about on the water. Approaching, they found five large fishes, and
taking three, which were alive, they carried them back to the father. But he
said, "Why did you not bring five?" They replied, "We found two
dead, so we left them." But he said, " You shall not eat of these
until you bring those which you left." They, struck with wonder at the
fullness of the divine grace, traversed again their dangerous path and chid
themselves for leaving the manna which they had found. Afterwards they were
ordered to cook the food. For, filled with the Holy Ghost, the father knew that
the food had been prepared for himself by God.
19.
At another time he was staying in the same wilderness, but not in the
same place. Fifty days had already elapsed and only one of the brethren named
Gall was with him. Columban commanded Gall to go to the Brusch and catch fish.
The latter went, took his boat and went to the Loignon river. After he had
gotten there, and had thrown his net into the water he saw a great number of
fishes coming. But they were not caught in the net, and went off again as if
they had struck a wall. After working there all day and not being able to catch
a fish, he returned and told the father that his labor bad been in vain. The
latter chid him for his disobedience in not going to the right place. Finally
he said, "Go quickly to the place that you were ordered to try." Gall
went accordingly, placed his net in the water, and it was filled with so great
a number of fishes, that he could scarcely draw it.
20.
At another time he was staying in the hollow of the rock mentioned
above, from which he bad expelled the bear, and for a long time he had been
mortifying the flesh with prayer and fasting. By a revelation he learned that
the brethren, who were near Luxeuil, were suffering from various diseases and only
enough remained to care for the sick. Leaving his den, he went to Luxeuil. When
he saw the afflicted, he commanded them all to rise and to thresh out the
harvest on the threshing ground. Then those whose consciences were 'kindled by
the fire of obedience arose and going to the threshing-place, attempted, full
of faith to thresh out the grain on the ground. The father seeing that they
were full of faith and the grace of obedience, said, "Cease and rest your
limbs, weakened by sickness." They ,obeyed, wondering at their recovery,
for no trace of the diseases remained and they prepared the tables as he
commanded, that all might be strengthened by a joyful banquet. Then Columban
chid the disobedient, showed them the inadequacy of their faith and announced The
long continuance of their illness. Wonderful revenge! For the disobedient were
so ill for an entire year that they barely escaped death. They accomplished the
full measure of penance, from the time :when they were disobedient.
21.
Meanwhile the time had come for gathering the crops into the
storehouses, but the violent winds did not cease to pile up clouds ;
nevertheless it was urgently necessary to gather the crops so that the ears of
grain should not rot upon the stalks. The man of God was at the monastery of
Fontaines, where a new field had yielded a very rich crop. Violent blasts piled
up the rain-clouds, and the heavens did not cease to pour down the rain upon
the earth. The man of God considered anxiously what he ought to do. Faith
strengthened his mind and taught him how to command the fitting thing. He
summoned all and ordered them to reap the crop. They wondered at the father's
command and no one understood his purpose. All came with their reaping-hoods to
cut the grain in the midst of the rain and watched to see what the father would
do. He placed at the four corners of the field, four very religious men,
Comininus, Eunocus and Equanacus, who were Scots, and the fourth Gurganus, a
Briton. Having arranged them, he himself with the others cut the grain in the
middle. Wonderful virtue! The shower fled from the grain and the rain was
scattered in every direction. The warm sun poured down upon those who were
reaping in the middle and a strong warm wind blew as long as they heaped up the
grain. Faith and prayer were of so great merit that the rain was driven off and
they had sunshine in the midst of the storms.
22.
At that time there was a duke named Waldelen, who ruled over the people
between the Alps and the Jura. He had no children; in order that, as Juvencus
says of Zachariah and Elizabeth, "the gift might be more welcome to those
who bad already given up hope." He with his wife Flavia, who was noble
both by her family and by her disposition, came from the town of Besançon to
St. Columban. Both of them begged of him that he would pray to the Lord on
their behalf, for they had great wealth, but no son to whom they could leave it
after their death. The holy man said to them: If you will promise to consecrate
His gift to the Lord and will give me the child so that I can raise him from
the baptismal font, I will invoke the Lord's mercy for you that you may have
not only the one whom you consecrate to the Lord, but as many more as you
desire." Joyfully they promised what he wished, asking only that he would
not cease to implore God to have mercy upon them. The man of God promised that
they should soon have what they wished, only they must not desire to break the
compact.
Wonderful to relate! hardly had they returned home when the wife felt
that she had conceived. When she had borne a son, she brought him to the holy
man and returned thanks to God, who had heard the prayers of His servants.
Columban consecrated the child to the Lord, raised him from the font and,
naming him Donatus, gave him back to his mother to be nursed. Later on, the
child was educated in the monastery and taught wisdom. He became Bishop of
Besançon, which he still is. Out of love for St. Columban he founded a
monastery under Columbarn's rule. From an ancient structure there it was named Palatium.
God fulfilled the promise made by His servant and gave to Waldelen a
second son named Ramelen, distinguished for his nobility and wisdom. This son,
after Waldelen's death, succeeded to his office, and although a layman be was
truly filled with the fear of God. For he, too, out of love for the holy man,
founded under his rule a monastery in the Jura Mountains on the Movisana River,
and placed Siagrius there as abbot. The Lord added to His previous gifts two
daughters, who were noble and perfect in the fear of Christ. After the death of
her husband Flavia founded a nunnery in Besançon, gave it full protection and
collected many nuns together. The grace of the man of God was so strong in
them, that despising all the vain pomp of this life, they were zealous in the
service of God.
23.
If we try to include some things which may seem of little importance,
the goodness of the Creator, who is equally merciful in very small matters and
in great, who does not delay to turn His pitying ear to trifling details, just
as in the very important matters He grants the desires of the suppliant, will
be manifest to those who bawl envious detractions. For on a certain day when
the excellent man of God had gone with the brethren to cut the harvest near
Calmem, which is called Baniaritia, and they were cutting the crop,
while the south wind blew, one of them, named Theudegisil, happened to cut his
finger with a sickle, and the finger hung by only a small strip of skin. The
man of God seeing Theudegisil standing apart, commanded him to continue the
work with his companions. But the latter told the reason for his actions.
Columban hastened to him, and with his own saliva restored the wounded finger
to its former health. Then he ordered Theudegisil to make haste and put forth
more strength. The latter who had grieved for a long time over his cut finger,
joyfully began to work doubly bard and to press on before the others in cutting
the grain. Theudegisil himself told us of this and showed his finger. A similar
thing happened on another occasion at the monastery of Luxeuil.
24.
For a parish priest, named Winnoc, the father of Babolen, who is now
abbot of Bobbio, went to St. Columban. The latter was in the forest with the
brethren, getting a supply of wood. When Winnoc arrived, and was watching with
wonder how they split the trunk of an oak so easily with their mallet and
wedges, one of the latter flying from the trunk cut him in the middle of his
forehead, so that great waves of blood ran from his veins. Columban, the man of
God, seeing the blood flowing, and the bone uncovered, immediately fell on the
ground in prayer, then rising healed the wound with his saliva, so that hardly
a sign of a scar remained.
25.
On another occasion when St. Columban had come to dine at the monastery
of Luxeuil, he laid his gloves, which the Gauls [*should be Franks, i.e.
German, who used this word] call Wanti and which he was accustomed to
wear when working, on a stone before the door of the refectory. Soon, in the
quiet, a thievish raven flew up and carried off one of the gloves in its beak.
After the meal, the man of God went out and looked for his gloves. When all
were enquiring who had taken them, the holy man said, "There is no one who
would venture to touch anything without permission, except the bird which was
sent out by Noah and did not return to the ark." And, he added, that the
raven would not be able to feed its young if it did not quickly bring back the
stolen object. While the brethren were looking, the raven flew into their midst
and brought back in its beak the object which it had basely stolen. Nor did it
attempt to fly away, but forgetful of its wild nature, humbly in the sight of
all, awaited its punishment. The holy man commanded it to go. Oh, wonderful
power of the eternal Judge who grants such power to His servants that they are
glorified both by honors from men and by the obedience of birds! [*Grote says
this miracle "is exactly in the character of the Homeric and Hesiodic
age." See his interesting remarks in History of Greece. Vol I. p.
473, note, (Ed. New York, 1865]
26.
Another miracle was wrought by St. Columban and his cellarer, which I
shall relate. When the meal-time came, and the latter was ready to serve out
the beer (which is boiled down from the juice of corn or barley, and which is
used in preference to other beverages by, all the nations in the world-except
the Scotch and barbarous nations who inhabit the ocean-that is, in Gaul,
Britain , Ireland, Germany and the other nations who do not deviate from the
customs of the above) he carried to the cellar ajar, called a tybrum,
and placed it before the vat in which the beer was - Having drawn the plug, he
permitted the beer to flow into the jar. Another brother called him suddenly by
the father's command. He, burning with the fire of obedience, forgot to put in
the plug, called a daciculum, and, carrying it in his hand, hastened to
the blessed man. After he had done what the man of God wished, he returned
quickly to the cellar, thinking that nothing would be left in the vat from
which the beer was running. But he saw the beer had run into the jar and not
the least drop had fallen outside, so that you would have believed that the jar
had doubled in size. Great was the merit of Columban commanding great the
obedience of the cellarer, that the Lord thus wished to avert sadness from both
of them, lest, if the either had diminished the substance of the brethren al of
without needful food ; so the just Judge hastened to wash away the faults of
both which had been committed by accident and with the Lord's permission, but
which each would have asserted was due to his own remissness.
27.
At that time the man of God, a lover of solitude, happened to be walking
through the dense thickets of fruit -trees and found a bear ready to devour the
body of a stag which wolves had killed, and the bear was licking up the blood.
The man of God approached be fore it had eaten any of the flesh, and ordered it
not to injure the hide which was needed for shoes. Then the beast, forgetting
its ferocity, became gentle, and fawning and drooping its head left the body
without a murmur, contrary to its custom. The man of God returning told this to
the brethren, and ordered them to go and strip the hide from the body of the
stag. When the brethren found the body they saw in the distance a great flock
of birds of prey approaching, but these did not dare to touch the body, on
account of Columban's command. The brethren waited at a distance for a time to
see whether any bease or bird would attempt to take the forbidden food. They
saw them come, attracted by the smell, stop at a distance, and , turning as if
it was something deadly, and fatal, fly swiftly away.
28.
While Columban on another occasion was staying at Luxeuil, Winnoc, the
priest whom we mentioned before, came to him and followed him wherever he went.
They came to the storehouse in which the grain was kept. Winnoc, seeing and
despising the smallness of the supply, said there was not enough to feed such a
multitude, and chid him for his slothfulness in procuring food. St. Columban
replied, "If men serve their Creator truly they will never feel need, for
as the voice of the Psalmist makes known, "have not seen the righteous
forsaken nor his seed begging their bread." He, who satisfied five
thousand men with five loaves, can very easily fill the storehouse with
grain." While Winnoc stayed there that night, the storehouse was filled by
the faith and prayers of the man of God. Winnoc, rising in the morning and
passing by, unexpectedly saw the storehouse open and the custodian was standing
what beasts of burden had brought this grain an before the door. He asked who
had ordered this or . The custodian replied, "It is not as you suppose.
For see if the tracks of any animals are imprinted on the ground. The keys did
not leave my person last night, but while the door was closed, the storehouse
was filled with grain by the divine aid." Winnoc began to search
carefully, with his eyes fixed on the ground, and to seek for traces of pack-animals.
When he found nothing at all resembling these, he said, "The Lord is able
to furnish a table for His servants in the wilderness."
A while after, Columban went to the monastery of Fontaines and found
sixty brethren hoeing the ground and preparing the fields for the future crop.
When he saw them breaking up the clods with great labor, he said, "May the
Lord prepare for you a feast, my brethren." Hearing this the attendant
said, "Father, believe me, we have only two loaves and a very little beer."
Columban answered, "Go and bring those." The attendant went quickly
and brought the two loaves and a little beer. Columban, raising his eyes to
heaven, said, "Christ Jesus, only hope of the world, do Thou, who from
five loaves satisfied five thousand men in the wilderness, multiply these
loaves and this drink." Wonderful faith! All were satisfied and each one
drank as much as he wished. The servant carried back twice as much in fragments
and twice the amount of drink. And so he knew that faith is more deserving of
the divine gifts than despair, which is wont to diminish even what one has.
29.
When at one time the man of God was staying at Luxeuil. one of the
brethren, who was also named Columban, was stricken with a fever and, lying at
the point of death, was awaiting instantly a happy release. When he wanted to
draw his last breath, confident of the eternal reward which he had sought in
his long service, he saw a man clothed in light coming to him, and saying,
"I am not able now to free you from your body, because I am hindered by
the prayers and of your father Columban". When the sick man heard this,
sorrowfully as if he had been awakened from sleep, be began to call his
attendant Theudegisel whom 'we mentioned above, and said, , Go quickly and
summon our father Columban to me." The attendant went swiftly to Columban
weeping in the church, asked him to hasten to the sick man. Columban came
quickly and asked him what he wanted. The latter told him, saying, " Why
do you detain me by your prayers in this sorrowful world? For those are
present, who would lead me away if they were not hindered by your tears and
prayers. I beseech you, remove the obstacles which retain me that the celestial
kingdom may open for me." Columban, struck with fear, made a signal that
all should come. His joy lessened his grief at the loss Of his holy companion-
He gave the dying man the body of Christ as a viaticum, and after the last kiss
began the death-song. For they were of the same race and name and had left
Ireland in the same company.
30.
And do not wonder that the beasts and birds thus obeyed command of the
man of God. the For we have learned from Chamnoald, royal chaplain at Laon, who
was his attendant and disciple, that he has often seen Columban wandering about
in the wilderness fasting and praying, and calling the wild beasts and birds.
These came immediately at his command and he stroked them with his hand. The
beasts and birds joyfully played, frisking about him, just as cats frisk about
their misstresses. Chamnoald said he had often seen him call the little animal,
which men commonly name a squiruis from the tops of a tree and take it
in his hand and put it on his neck and let it go into and come out from his
bosom.
31.
The fame of Columban had already penetrated into all parts of Gaul and
Germany, and everyone was praising the venerable man. Theuderich too came often
to hi m and humbly begged his prayers. For Theuderich had succeeded to the
kingdom in the following manner: Sigibert had been murdered in the royal estate
of Vitry, which is not far from Arras, at the instigation of his brother
Chilperich, who was then living in Tournay and was being hunted to death by
Sigibert. After the death of the latter, through the influence of his wife
Brunhilda, the kingdom passed to his son Childebert (II). When the latter died
in his youth, [*AD 596] he was succeeded by his two sons, Theudebert and
Theuderich, who ruled together with their grandmother Brunhilda. Austrasia went
to Theudebert, Burgundy, to Theuderich, who thought that he was fortunate in
having St. Columban in his kingdom.
As he very often visited Columban, the holy man began to reprove him
because he sinned with concubine and did not satisfy himself with the comforts
of a lawful wife, in order to beget royal children from an honored queen, and
not bastards by his concubines. After this reproof from Columban, the king
promised to abstain from such sinful conduct. But the old serpent came to his
grandmother Brunhilda, who was a from a second Jezebel, and aroused her pride
against the holy man, because she saw that Theuderich was obedient to him. For
she feared that her power and honor would be lessened if, after the expulsion
of the concubines, a queen should rule the court.
32.
St. Columban happened one day to go to Brunhilda, who was then on the
estate of Brocarica.[*near Autun]. As she saw him enter the court, she led to
him the illegitimate sons of Theuderich. When St. Columban saw her, he asked
what she wanted of him. Brunhilda answered, "These are the king's sons ;
give them thy blessing." He replied, "Know that these boys will never
bear the royal sceptre, for they were begotten in sin." Enraged, she told
the boys to go. When after this Columban left the court, a loud cracking noise
was heard, the whole house trembled and everyone shook with fear. But that did
not avail to check the wrath of the wretched woman.
From that time she began to persecute the neighboring monasteries. She
issued an order that none of the monks should be allowed to leave the lands of
the monasteries, no one should receive them into other houses or give them any
aid. When Columban saw that at the court all were arrayed against him, be
hastened to Spissia, where the king was then staying, in order to subdue
such defiance by his warnings. When he reached that place, about sunset, and it
was announced to the king that Columban was there but would not enter the
palace, Theuderich said it would be better with due reverence to offer the
needful services to the man of God, than to arouse the wrath of the Lord, by
insulting His servant. Accordingly be ordered suitable food to be prepared in
the royal kitchen and sent to the servant of God.
When the attendants came to Columban and, in accordance with the king's
command, offered him food and drink prepared with royal magnificence, he asked
what they meant by it. When they told him that it was sent by the king, he
pushed it from him and said It is written, "The Most High is not pleased
with the offerings of the wicked." For it is not meet that the mouth of
the servant of the Lord should be defiled by the food of him who shuts out the
servant of God, not only from his own dwelling, but also from the dwellings of
others." At these words all of the dishes broke into pieces, so that the
wine and liquor ran out on the ground and the food was scattered here and
there. Terrified, the servants announced this to the king. Full of anxiety, he,
together with his grandmother, hastened to Columban early in the morning. Both
begged him to forgive their past sins and promised amendment. With his fears
quieted by this, Columban returned to his convent. But they failed to keep
their promises, and very soon the persecutions were renewed With increased
bitterness by the king, who continued in his former sinful course. Then
Columban sent him a letter full of reproaches, and threatened him with the ban
if he did not amend his conduct.
33.
Now Brunhilda began again to incite the king against Columban in every
way ; urged all the nobles and others at court to do the same, and influenced
the bishops to attack Columban's faith and to abolish his monastic rule. She
succeeded so fully that the holy man was obliged to answer for his faith or
leave the country. The king, incited by Brunhilda, went to Luxeuil and accused
Columban of violating the customs of the country and of not allowing all
Christians to enter the interior of the monastery. To these accusations
Columban answered, for he was unterrified and full of courage, that it was not
his custom to allow laymen to enter the dwelling of the servant of God, but he
had prepared a suitable place where all who came would be received. The king
replied : "If you wish to enjoy any longer the gifts of our grace and
favor, everyone in the future must be allowed free entrance everywhere."
Columban answered : "If you dare to violate the monastic rule in any
particular, I will not accept any gift or aid from you in the future. But if
you come here to destroy the monasteries of the servant of God and to undermine
their discipline and regulations, I tell you that your kingdom will be
destroyed together with all your royal family." This the king afterward
found to be true. In his audacity, he had already stepped into the refectory ;
terrified by these words, be withdrew hastily.
But when Columban attacked him with bitter insults, Theuderich said:
"You want me to honor you with the crown of martyrdom ; do not believe
that I am foolish enough to commit such a crime. But I will follow a wiser and
more useful plan. Since you depart from the common customs, I will send you
back to the home from which you came." At the same time the members of the
court resolved unanimously that they would not put up with anyone who was
unwilling to associate with everyone. But Columban said that he would not leave
his monastery unless he was dragged out by force.
34.
The king now withdrew, but left behind a nobleman named Baudulf. The
latter drove the holy man out of his monastery and carried him to Besançon into
banishment, until the king had determined what further action to take. While
there Columban heard that the prison was full of condemned men awaiting the
death penalty. The man of God hastened to them and, having entered the gate
without opposition, be preached the word of God to the condemned. They promised
him that if they were liberated they would amend their lives and would do
penance for the crimes which they had committed. After this Columban commanded
his attendant, whom we have mentioned above [8ch. 16], to take in his
hand the iron to which their feet were fettered, and to pull it. When the boy
took hold of it and pulled, it broke into bits like the rotten trunk of a tree.
Columban ordered the condemned to leave the prison now that their feet were
free and, after preaching the Gospel to them, he washed their feet and dried
them with a linen towel. Then he commanded them to go to the church and do
penance for the crimes they bad committed and to wash away their faults by
their tears. They hastened thither and found the doors of the church-fastened.
When the captain of the soldiers saw the fetters of the condemned broken
by Columban, through the power of God, and that only the empty prison remained,
he started, although aroused from sleep, to follow the tracks of the condemned.
The latter, seeing that the soldiers were coming after them and that the doors
of the church were shut, hemmed in by the two-fold difficulty, reproached the
man of God for having released them. But he, breathing anxiously, raised his
face to heaven and prayed to the Lord that He would not permit those whom He
had released from the iron by His strength, to be again delivered into the
hands of the soldiers. Without delay, the goodness of the Creator opened the
doors, which had been securely fastened, and disclosed a way of escape to those
in peril. The condemned quickly entered the church. After their entrance the
doors were shut without human hands, before the eyes of the soldiers, just as
if a custodian with a key had quickly unlocked them and then locked them again.
Columban arriving with his followers and the captain coming up at the same time
with his soldiers, found the doors shut. They sought the janitor, Aspasius by
name, to get the key. When he came with the key and tried to open the doors he
said he had never found them more tightly closed. Nor did anyone, after that,
dare to do any injury to the condemned, whom the divine grace had liberated.
35.
As Columban now saw that be was not watched at all and that no one did
him any injury, (for all saw that he was strong in the strength of the Lord and
therefore all refrained from injuring him, in order not to be associated in
guilt) one Sunday he climbed to the top of the mountain. For the city is so
situated that the houses are clustered together on the side of a steep mountain.
Above, the lofty cliffs rise perpendicularly into the heavens. The mountain cut
off on all sides by the river Dou, which surrounds it, leaves no path open for
travelers. Columban waited till noon to see whether anyone would prevent his
returning to his monastery. Then he took the road leading directly through the
city.
When they heard of this, Brunhilda and Theuderich were embittered still
more. They again ordered a band of soldiers to carry off the man of God by
violence and to take him again to his former place of exile. Accordingly the
soldiers went with their captain and wandered through the precincts of the
monastery seeking the man of God. He was then in the vestibule of the church
reading a book. They came repeatedly and passed near him, so that some struck
against him with their feet and touched his garments with their garments, but
did not see him because their eyes were blinded. And it was a most beautiful
sight. He, exulting, perceived that he was sought and was not found. While he
saw them, they did not see him sitting in the midst of them. The captain came
and, looking through the window, saw the man of God sitting joyfully amid them
and reading. Perceiving the power of God, he said: "Why do you go
wandering about the vestibule of the church and do not find him? Your hearts
are wholly filled with the madness of insanity; for you will not be able to
find him whom the divine power conceals. Leave this undertaking and we will
hasten to announce to the king that you could not find him." By this it
was clearly shown that the captain of the soldiers had not come willingly to do
injury, to the man of God, and therefore had merited to see him.
36.
They told the king. He, impelled by the madness of his wretched purpose,
sent Count Bertarius, with the men of his guard, to :seek more diligently for
Columban, and at the same time Baudulf whom he had formerly sent. They finding
the holy man in the church praying and singing psalms with all the brethren,
said to him: "Oh man of God, we beg you to obey the king's orders and our
own, and to return to the place whence you came to this land." But
Columban answered, "I do not think it would be pleasing to my Creator if I
should go back to the home which I left because of my love for Christ."
When they saw that Columban would not obey them they withdrew. But they left
behind several men of rough disposition and character.
Those who remained urged the man of God to have pity on them, Since they
had been perfidiously left behind to perform such a task, and to think of their
peril. If they did not violently eject him they would be in danger of death.
But he, as he had very often asserted, said he would not withdraw unless he was
compelled to by violence. The men impelled by fear, since they were in imminent
peril in either event, clung to the robe which he wore; others upon their knees
besought him not to impute to them the guilt of so great a crime, since they
were not following their own wishes, but obeying the commands of the king.
37.
He finally decided to yield, in order not to imperil others, and
departed amid universal sorrow and grief. Escorts were furnished him who were
not to leave his side until they had conducted him to the boundary of the
kingdom at Nantes. Ragamund was their leader. All the brethren followed, as if
it was a funeral ; for grief filled the hearts of all. The father in anxiety
for the loss of so many members, raised his eyes to heaven, and said, "Oh
Creator of the world, prepare for us a place where Thy people may worship Thee."
Then he comforted the brethren, telling them to put their trust in the Lord and
to give great praise to omnipotent God. This was not an injury to him or his
followers, but an opportunity to increase the number of monks. Those who wished
to follow him and had courage to bear all his sufferings might come. The others
who wanted to remain in the monastery should do so, knowing that God would
quickly avenge their injuries. But since the monks did not want to be deprived
of the guardianship of their shepherd all resolved to go. But the king's
servants declared that only those would be allowed to follow him who were his
countrymen or who had come to him from Brittany ; the others, by the king's me
command, were to remain in that place. When the father perceived that his
followers were violently torn from him, his grief and that of his followers was
increased. But he prayed to the Lord, the Comforter of all men, to take those
into His own keeping, whom the king's violence tore from him. Among these was
Eustasius, the scholar and servant of Columban, who was afterward abbot in this
very convent, of which his uncle, Mietius, bishop of Langres, had charge.
38.
So, twenty years after he had come to this place the holy man departed
and went by the way of Besançon and Autun to the fortress Cavalo. On the
way the king's master of horse wanted to kill him with a lance. But the hand of
God hindered it and lamed the mail's hand, so that the lance fell on the ground
at his feet and be himself seized by a supernatural power fell prone before
Columban. The latter, however, cared for him till the next morning and then
sent him home healed.
39.
From Cavalo he went to the river Chora [*Probably the
Cure, a branch of the Jonne (Abel)] where he stayed in the house of a noble and
pious lady, named Theudemanda, and healed twelve demoniacs who came to him. On
the same day be went to the village of Chora where he healed five mad
men. In Auxerre, which he next went to, he said to his companion, Ragamund,
"Know that within three years Chlotar, whom you now despise, will be your
lord." But he answered, "Why do you tell me such things, my
lord?" The latter replied, "You will see what I have announced if you
are still alive."
40.
Then leaving Auxerre, Columban saw a youth possessed by a demon running
swiftly toward him. This youth had run twenty miles with all his might. Seeing
him, Columban waited until the man, wounded by the devil's art, should come.
The latter fell at the feet of the man of God and was immediately cured by his
prayers and visibly restored to health. Then with guards preceding and
following, Columban came to the city of Nevers in order to go in a boat on the
Loire to the coast of Brittany. When they had reached this point and bad gotten
into the boat with difficulty, one of the guards, taking an oar, struck one of
them, who was named Lua, a most holy and devout man.
The man of God, seeing that one of his followers was struck in his
presence, said: " Why, cruel man, do you add to my grief? Is not the guilt
of the crime which you have committed sufficient for your destruction ? Why do
you appear merciless against the merciful ? Why do you strike a wearied member
of Christ? Why do you vent your, wrath on the gentle? Remember that you will be
punished by God in this place, where in your rage you have struck a member of
Christ." The vengeance, soon following, executed the penalty inflicted by
that sentence. For as the man was returning again and came to the same place to
cross the river, struck by the divine vengeance, he was drowned. Why was it
that the just Judge delayed the vengeance a little, unless it was that His
saint might not be troubled by the sight of the man's punishment?
41.
From that place they went to the city of Orleans, where sorrowfully they
rested for a time on the banks of the Loire in tents, for by order of the king,
they were forbidden to enter the churches. When finally their provisions gave
out, they sent two men into the city to get food. One of these was Potentinus,
who later on founded a convent in Brittany, near the city of Coutances, [*in
the department of La Manches] and who is still alive. When these men entered
the city they found nothing, because the inhabitants, from fear of the king,
did not dare to sell or give them anything, and they went back on the road by
which they had entered the city. They met a Syrian woman in the street. When
she saw them, she asked who they were. They explained the state of the case,
and said that they were seeking food but had found nothing. She replied, "Come,
my lords, to the house of your servant and take whatever you need. For I, too,
am a stranger from the distant land of the Orient." They joyfully followed
her to her house and sat down to rest until she brought what they sought. Her
husband, who had long been blind, was sitting near them. When they asked him
who he was, his wife replied, "My husband is from the same race of the
Syrians that I am. As be is blind, I have led him about for many years."
They said, "If he should go to Columban, the servant of Christ, he would
receive his sight through the holy man's prayers." The man having faith in
the promised gift, regained his courage, rose and, led by his wife, followed
them. They told Columban of the hospitality given to pilgrims. They bad not
finished their story before the blind man came and prayed the man of God to
restore his sight by prayer. Columban, seeing the man's faith, asked all to
pray for the blind man, and after lying for a long time prone on the ground, he
rose, touched the man's eyes with his hand and made the sign of the cross. The
man received his longed-for sight. He rejoiced in his recovered sight, because
it was fitting that he, whose soul had been lighted internally by hospitality,
should not lack the external vision.
After that a band of mad men, whom demons tortured with savage fury,
hastened to the man of God to be cured. Health was granted them by the Lord ;
for all were healed by the man of God. The people of the city moved by these
miracles supplied Columban with gifts secretly, because they did not dare to
furnish anything openly on account of the guards, lest they should incur the
wrath of the king. Thence Columban and his followers continued on their way.
42.
And proceeding on the Loire, they came to the city of Tours. There the
holy man begged the guards to stop and permit him to visit the grave of St.
Martin. The guards refused, strove to go on quickly, urged the oarsmen to put
forth their strength and pass swiftly by the harbor, and commanded the helmsman
to keep the boat in mid-stream. St. Columban seeing this, raised his eyes sadly
to heaven, grieving at being subjected to great sorrow, and that he was not
permitted to see the graves of the saints. In spite of all their efforts the
boat stopped as if anchored, as soon as it got opposite the harbor, and turned
its bow to the landing-place. The guards seeing that they could not prevail,
unwillingly allowed the boat to go where it would. In a wonderful manner it
sped, as if winged, from mid-stream to the harbor, and entering this
accomplished the wish of the man of God.
He, truly, gave thanks to the eternal King, who does not disdain to
comply with the wishes of His servants. Landing, Columban went to the grave of
St. Martin and spent the whole night there in prayer. In the morning he was
invited by Leoparius, the bishop of the city, to break his fast. He accepted,
especially for the sake of refreshing his brethren, and spent that day with the
bishop. When he sat down at table with the bishop, at the hour of refection,
and was asked why he was returning to his native land, he replied, " That
dog Theuderich has driven me away from the brethren."
43.
Then one of the guests, named Chrodowald, who was married to one of
Theudebert's cousins, but who was a follower of Theuderich, replied in a humble
voice to the man of God, "It is pleasanter to drink milk than
wormwood," and declared that be would be faithful to king Theuderich, as
be had sworn, so long as it was in his power. Columban said to him, "I
know that you want to keep your oath of fidelity to king Theuderich, and you
will be glad to take my message to your lord and friend. if you serve king
Theuderich. Announce, therefore, to Theuderich that he and his children will
die within three years, and his entire family will be exterminated by the
Lord." "Why," said the man, "do you announce such tidings,
O servant of God?" "I dare no t conceal what the Lord has ordered me
to reveal." All the inhabitants of Gaul saw this fulfilled later, and this
confirmed what had been announced previously to Ragamund.
44.
After the repast, the man of God returned to the boat and found his
companions very sorrowful. On enquiring what had happened, be learned that what
they had in the boat had been stolen in the night, and also the gold which he bad
not given to the poor. Having heard this, be returned to the grave of the holy
confessor and complained that he had not watched by the relics of the saint in
order that the latter should allow him and his followers to suffer loss.
Immediately be who had stolen the bag of gold began to be tormented and
tortured, and cried out that be had concealed the pieces of gold in this place
and that. All his associates rushed to return all that had been stolen and
prayed the man of God to pardon the great crime. This miracle struck such
terror into all, that those who heard of it did not dare to touch any thing
which belonged to the man of God, believing that all was consecrated. After
supplying him with food Leoparius said farewell to St. Columban.
45.
Joyfully then they went in the boat to the city of Nantes and there
stopped for a short time. One day a beggar cried out before the door of the
cell in which the man of God was meditating. Calling an attendant, Columban
said: ,Give the beggar some food." The attendant replied: "We have
nothing except a very little meal." He asked: "How much have
you?" The attendant replied that he thought he did not have more than a
measure of meal. ,Then give it all," he said, "and save nothing for
the morrow." The servant obeyed and gave all to the beggar, reserving
nothing for the common need.
Already the third day had dawned since they had been fasting, and had
had scarcely anything except the grace of hope and faith, by which to refresh
their exhausted limbs. Suddenly they beard the door open ; when the doorkeeper
asked why the ears of the brethren were troubled by the din, he who bad opened
the door said he had been sent by his mistress Procula. She said she had been
divinely warned to send food to the man of God, Columban, and to his
companions, who were staying near the city of Nantes. The man said the food
would come immediately, and that he had been sent ahead to tell them to prepare
receptacles to receive it. There were a hundred measures of wine, two hundred
of grain, and a hundred of barley. The doorkeeper hastened to announce this to
the father. But the latter said, very well, he knew it, and ordered that the
brethren should come together to pray to the Lord in behalf of their
benefactress, and at the same time to return thanks to their Creator who never
fails to comfort His servants in every need ; and after that they would receive
the gifts.
Wonderful compassion of the Creator! He permits us to be in need, that
He may show His mercy by giving to the needy. He permits us to be tempted, that
by aiding us in our temptations He may turn the hearts of His servants more
fully to Himself. He permits His followers to be cruelly tortured that they may
delight more fully in restored health.
46.
Another equally noble and pious woman, named Doda, sent two hundred
measures of corn, and a hundred of mixed grain. This caused very great shame to
the bishop of that city, named Suffronius, from whom nothing could be obtained
as a gift or even by exchange. While Columban remained there, a certain woman
tormented by a demon came to him, together with her daughter who was also
suffering from a severe disease. When be saw them, he prayed to the Lord for
them ; after they had been healed, he commanded them to return home.
47.
After this Suffronius, bishop of Nantes, and count Theudebald made
preparations to send St. Columban to Ireland, in accordance with the king's
orders. But the man of God said: "If there is a ship here which is
returning-to Ireland, put my effects and my companions on it. In the meantime I
will go in my skiff down the Loire to the ocean." They found a vessel
which had brought Scottish wares and embarked all Columban's effects and
companions. When with a favorable wind the oarsmen were now rowing the vessel
down to the ocean, a huge wave came and drove the vessel on shore. It stuck
fast on the land, and the water receding, remained quietly in the channel. The
bark remained high and dry for three days. Then the captain of the vessel
understood that he was detained in this manner on account of the effects and
companions of the man of God, that be had taken on board. He decided to
disembark from the vessel all that belonged to Columban. Immediately a wave
came and bore the vessel out to the ocean. Then all, filled with amazement,
understood that God did not wish Columban to return home. Accordingly he
returned to the house in which he bad formerly dwelt and no one opposed him;
nay, rather, all aided the man of God with gifts and food, as far as lay in
their power. Nor did he lack defence, because in all things he had the aid of
the Creator, and He who keeps Israel under the shadow of His wings never
slumbers. Thus truly He shows by granting all things to all men, that He wishes
to be glorified by all in proportion to the greatness of his gifts.
48.
Not long after this Columban went to Chlotar, Chilperich's son, who
ruled in Neustria over the Franks who lived on the coast. Chlotar had already
heard how the man of God had been persecuted by Brunhilda and Theuderich. He
now received Columban as a veritable gift from heaven, and begged that he would
remain in Neustria, Columban refused and said he did not wish to remain there,
either for the sake of inereasing the extent of his pilgrimage of avoiding
enmities. But he remained some time with the king, and called his attention to
several abuses, such as could hardly fail to exist at a king's court. Chlotar
cording to Columban's command, for he promised to correct everything ac
zealously loved wisdom, and rejoiced in the blessing which he had secured.
In the meantime a strife arose between Theudebert and Theuderich over
the boundaries of their kingdoms, and both sent to Chlotar to beg aid. The
latter was disposed to aid one against the other, and asked Columban's advice.
He, filled with the spirit of prophecy, answered that Chlotar ought not to
unite with either, for within three years he would receive both kingdoms.
Chlotar seeing that such things were prophesied by the man of God, aided neither,
but full of faith awaited the promised time. Afterwards be triumphed
victoriously.
49.
Afterwards Columban asked Chlotar to aid him to go through Theudebert's
territory, if possible, and over the Alps to Italy. He received escorts who
were to conduct him to Theudebert, and entering upon his journey went to the
city of Paris. When he arrived there, he met at the gate a man having an
unclean spirit, who was raving and rending his garments, while babbling. The
latter addressed the man of God complainingly: "What are you doing in this
place, O man of God?" From afar he had been crying out for a long time
with his growling voice as he saw Columban, the man of God, approaching. When
the latter saw him, he said: "Depart, evil one, depart! Do not dare to
possess any longer the body washed by Christ. Yield to the power of God, and
invoked by the name of Christ." But when the devil resisted for a long
time with savage and cruel strength, the man of God placed his hand on the
man's ear and struck the man's tongue and by the power of God commanded the
devil to depart. Then rending the man with cruel violence so that bonds could
scarcely restrain him, the devil, issuing forth amid great purging and vomiting
made such a stench that those who stood by believed that they could endure the
fumes of sulphur more easily.
50.
Then Columban went to the city of Meaux. There he was received with
great joy by a nobleman Hagneric, who was a friend of Theudebert, a wise man,
and a counsellor grateful to the king, and was fortified by nobility and
wisdom. The latter promised that be would take care of Columban until the
latter reached the court of Theudebert, and said it was not necessary to have
the other companions who were sent by the king. He declined the aid of the
others in order to keep the man of God with himself as long as he could, and in
order that his house might be ennobled by the learning of the latter. Columban
blessed his house and consecrated to the Lord his daughter Burgundofara, who
was still a child, and of whom we shall speak later.
Thence he proceeded to Eussy on the river Marne. There he was received
by a man named Autharius, whose wife was named Aiga. They bad sons under ten
years of age, whom the mother brought to the man of God to be blessed. He,
seeing the faith of the mother, consecrated the little children with his
blessing. They later, when they grew up, were held in high esteem, first by
king Chlotar, afterwards by Dagobert. After they had obtained great glory in
the world, they made haste, lest in the glory of this world they should lose
the eternal. The elder, Ado, withdrew of his own accord and founded, under the
rule of St. Columban, a monastery near Mt. Jura. [*The monastery Jouarre, near
Meaux] The younger, Dado, founded, under the rule of the blessed man, a
monastery near Brieg, on the little river Rébais.
So greatly did the man of God abound in faith, that whomsoever he
consecrated, the last day found persevering in good works. And those whom he
warned, rejoiced afterward that they bad merited immunity. Nor did he, endued
with so great strength, undeservedly obtain an increase of grace, who guided by
his learning, was unwilling to deviate from the path of a just life.
51.
From that place Columban proceeded to Theudebert, who received him
joyfully. Many brethren had already come to him from Luxeuil, whom he received
as if they had been snatched from the enemy. Now the king promised to seek out
beautiful places, suitable for God's servants, where they could preach to the
neighboring people. Columban declared, that if the king was in earnest and
would actively support him, he would gladly remain there longer and try to sow
the seeds of faith in the hearts of the neighboring peoples. Theudebert
commissioned him to choose a suitable place, and, with the approval of all, he
decided upon a long-ruined city, which was in the German land commission not
far from the Rhine, and which was called Brigantia [* Bregnenz] But what the
man of God did, as he was ascending the Rhine in his boat, must not be passed over
in silence.
52.
As they journeyed, they came to the city which was formerly called
Maguntiacum. [*Mainz] The oarsmen who bad been sent by the king to aid the man
of God, told him they had friends in the city, who would supply needful food ;
for already they had long been fasting. The man of God told them to go ; but
they did not find any. They returned, and in reply to the questions of the man
of God said they had been unable to obtain anything from their friends. Then he
said "Let me go for a short time to my friend." They wondered how he
had a friend there, where he had never been before. But he wen to the church
and, entering, threw himself on the pavement, and in a long prayer sought the
protection of God, the source of all mercy. Immediately the bishop of the city
went from his home to the church and, finding Columban, asked who be was. The
latter said he was a pilgrim. The bishop answered "If you need food, go to
my house and take what you need." After thanking him and also the Creator
who had inspired him, Columban hastened to the boat and directed that all the
men, except one guard, should go and bring what they wished. But lest this
should seem to anyone mere chance, that bishop was accustomed to protest that
he had never before given food with so little thought. And he testified that he
went to the church that day by divine admonition, on account of the merit of
the blessed Columban.
53.
At length they arrived at the place designated, which did not wholly
please Columban ; but he decided to remain, in order to spread the faith among
the people, who were Swabians. Once as he was going through this country, he
discovered that the natives were going to make a heathen offering. They had a
large cask that they called a cupa, and that held about twenty-six
measures, filled with beer and set in their midst. On Columban's asking what
they intended to do with it, they answered that they were making an offering to
their God Wodan (whom others call Mercury). When he heard of this abomination,
he breathed on the cask, and lo! it broke with a crash and fell in pieces so
that all the beer ran out. Then it was clear that the devil had been concealed
in the cask, and that through the earthly drink he had proposed to ensnare the
souls of the participants. As the heathens saw that, they were amazed and said
Columban had a strong breath, to split a wellbound cask in that manner. But he
reproved them in the words of the Gospel, and commanded them to cease from such
offerings and to go home. Many were converted then, by the preaching of the
holy man, and turning to the learning and faith of Christ, were baptized by
him. Others, who were already baptized but still lived in the heathenish
unbelief, like a good shepherd, he again led by his words to the faith and into
the bosom of the church.
54.
At that time Theuderich and Brunhilda were venting their wrath not only
on Columban, but also on the holy Desiderius, bishop of Vienne. After they had
driven the latter into banishment and had done him much evil, they crowned him
at last with a glorious martyr's death. By his deeds, which have been narrated,
and by his great adversities he deserved to have a glorious triumph near the
Lord.
In the meantime Columban and his companions experienced a time of great
need near the city of Bregenz. But although they were without food, they were
bold and unterrified in their faith, so that they obtained food from the Lord.
After their bodies had been exhausted by three days of fasting, they found so
great an abundance of birds,-just as the quails formerly covered the camp of
the children of Israel, that the whole country near there was filled with
birds. The man of God knew that this food had been scattered on the ground for
his own safety and that of his brethren, and that the birds bad come only
because be was there. He ordered his followers first to render grateful praises
to the Creator, and then to take the birds as food. And it was a wonderful and
stupendous miracle ; for the birds were seized according to the father's
commands and did not attempt to fly away. The manna of birds remained for three
days. On the fourth day, a priest from an adjacent city, warned by divine
inspiration, sent a supply of grain to St. Columban. When the supply of grain
arrived, the Omnipotent, who had furnished the winged food to those in want,
immediately commanded the phalanxes of birds to depart. We learned this from
Eustasius, who was present with the others, under the command of the servant of
God. He said that no one of them remembered ever having seen birds of such a
kind before; and the food was of so pleasant savor that it surpassed royal
viands. Oh, wonderful gift of divine mercy! When earthly food was wanting to
the servants of Christ, celestial was furnished; as was said of Israel: "
He gave to them of the corn of heaven;" when earthly food was brought, the
celestial which had been mercifully granted was taken away.
55.
Then Columban was weakening his body by fasting, under a cliff in the
wilderness, and he had no food except the apples of the country, which we have
mentioned above. A fierce bear of great voracity came and began to lick off the
necessary food and carry the apples away in its mouth. When the meal-time came,
Columban directed Chagnoald, his servant, to bring the usual quantity of
apples. The latter went and saw the bear wandering about among the fruit-trees
and bushes and licking off the apples. He returned hastily and told the father,
who commanded him to go and set aside a part of the fruit-trees for food for
the bear and order it to leave the others for himself Chagnoald went in
obedience to the command, and dividing with his staff the trees and bushes
which bore the apples, he, in accordance with Columban's command, set aside the
part that the bear should eat, and the other part that it should leave for the
use of the man of God. Wonderful obedience, .of the bear! . It, did not venture
at all to take food from the prohibited part, but as long as the man of God
remained in that place, sought, food only, from the trees that had been
assigned to it.
56.
Once Columban though going to the land of the Wends, who are also called
Slavs, in order to illuminate their darkened minds with the light of the Gospel
and to open the way of truth to those who had always wandered in error. When he
proposed to make his vows, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a vision,
and showed him in a little circle the structure of the world, just as the
circle of the universe is usually, drawn with a pen in a book. "You
perceive," the angel said, "how much remains set apart of the whole
world. Go to the right or the left where you will, that you may enjoy the
fruits of your labors." Therefore Columban remained where he was, until
the way to Italy opened before him.
57.
In the meantime the compact of peace which Theuderich and Theudebert had
made was broken, and each one, priding himself on the strength of his
followers, endeavored to kill the other. Then Columban went to king Theudebert
and demanded that he should resign his kingdom and enter a monastery, in order
not to lose both earthly crown and everlasting life. The king and his
companions laughed; they had never heard of a Merovingian on the throne, who
had voluntarily given up everything and become a monk. But Columban said, if
the king was not willing voluntarily to undertake the honor of the priestly
office, be would soon be compelled to do it against his will. After these words
the holy man returned to his cell ; but his prophecy was soon verified by
events. Theuderich immediately advanced against Theudebert, defeated him near
Zülpich, and pursued him with a great army. Theudebert gathered new forces and
a second battle was fought near Zülpich. Many fell on both sides, but
Theudebert was finally defeated and fled.
At that time the man of God was staying in the wilderness, having only
one attendant, Chagnoald. At the hour when the battle near Zülpich began,
Columban was sitting on the trunk of a rotten oak, reading a book. Suddenly he
was overcome by sleep and saw what was taking place between the two kings. Soon
after be aroused, and calling his attendant, told him of the bloody battle,
grieving at the loss of so much human blood. His attendant said with rash
presumption: "My father, aid Theudebert with your prayers, so that be may
defeat the common enemy, Theuderich." Columban answered: "Your advice
is foolish and irreligious, for God, who commanded us to pray for our enemies
has not so willed.. The just Judge has already determined what He wills
concerning them." The attendant afterwards enquired and found that the
battle had, taken place on that day and at that hour, just as the man of God
had revealed to him.
Theuderich pursued Theudebert, and the latter was captured by the
treachery of his followers-and ent to his grandmother, Brunhilda. She, in her
fury, because she was on Theuderich's side, shut him up in a monastery, but
after a few days she mercilessly had him murdered.
58.
Not long after this Theuderich, struck by the hand of the Lord, perished
in a conflagration in the city of Metz. Branhilda then placed the crown on the
head of his son Sigibert. But Chlotar thought of Columban's prophecy and
gathered together an army to reconquer the land which belonged to him. Sigibert
with his troops advanced to attack him, but was captured, together with his
five brothers and great-grandmother Brunhilda, by Chlotar. The latter had the
boys killed, one by one, but Brunhilda he had placed first on a camel in
mockery and so exhibited to all her enemies round about then she was bound to
the tails of wild horses and thus perished wretchedly. As the whole family of
Theuderich was now exterminated, Chlotar ruled alone over the three kingdoms,
[*Neustria, Austrasia and Burgundy] and Columban's prophecy had been literally
fulfilled. For one of the kings and his whole family had been entirely
exterminated within three years; the second had been made a clerk by violence ;
the third was the possessor and ruler of all the kingdoms.
59.
When Columban saw that Theudbert had been conquered by Theuderich, as we
said above, he left Gaul and Germany and went to Italy. There he was received
with honor by Agilulf, king of the Lombards. The latter granted him the
privilege of settling in Italy wherever be pleased; and be did so, by God's
direction. During his stay in Milan, he resolved to attack the errors of the
heretics, that is, the Arian perfidy, which he wanted to cut out and
exterminate with the cauterizing knife of the Scriptures. And he composed an
excellent and learned work against them.
60.
At that time a man named Jocundus appeared before the king and announced
that he knew of a church of the holy Apostle Peter, in a lonely spot in the
Apennines ; the place had many advantages, it was unusually fertile, the water
was full of fishes ; it had long been called Bobium [*Bobbio] from the brook
that flowed by it. There was another river in the neighbourhood, by which
Hannibal bad once passed a winter and suffered the loss of a very great number
of men, horses and elephants. Thither Columban now went, and with all diligence
restored to its old beauty the church which was already half in ruins.
In this restoration the wonderful power of the Lord was visible. For,
when beams of fir were cut amid the precipitous cliffs or in the dense woods,
or those cut elsewhere, fell into such places by accident, so that beasts of
burden could not approach, the man of God going with two or three companions,
as many as the steep paths furnished footing for, placed, in a wonderful
manner, on his own and his companions' shoulders beams of immense weight, which
thirty or forty men could scarcely carry on level ground ; and where they had
hardly been able to walk before, on account of the steepness of the paths, and
had moved as if weighed down with burdens, they now walked easily and joyfully,
bearing their burden. The man of God, seeing that be was receiving so great
aid, urged his companions to finish joyfully the work which they had begun, and
to remain in the wilderness with renewed courage, affirming that this was God's
will. Therefore he restored the roof of .the church and the ruined walls, and
provided whatever else was necessary for a monastery.
61.
During this time king Chlotar, when he saw that the words of Columban had
been fulfilled, summoned Eustasius, who was then abbot of Luxeuil, and urged
him to go with an escort of noblemen, whom Eustasius himself should select, to
the holy Columban and beg the latter, wherever he might be, to come to Chlotar.
Then the venerable disciple went to seek his master, and when he found the
latter, he repeated Chlotar's words. But Columban declared, when he heard
Chlotar's request, that he could not undertake the journey again. Eustasius he
kept with himself for some time, warned him -not to forget his own labors and
work, to keep the band of brethren learned and obedient to increase their
numbers and educate them according to his own instructions.
To the king he sent a letter full of good advice, and begged him to
extend his royal protection and aid to the brethren at Luxeuil. The king
received the letter joyfully, as a most pleasing gift and as a pledge of his
compact with the man of God. Nor did he forget the latter's request, but showed
his favor in every way to the cloister, gave it yearly revenues, increased its
territory in every direction, where the venerable Eustasius desired, and aided
its inmates in every way that he could After a single year in his monastery of
Bobbio, Columban the man of God, ended his devout life on the XI. day before
the Kalends of December. [*November 21st, probably in 615] If anyone wishes to
learn of his activity, let him seek it in the saints writings. [*these are
printed in Migne Patrologia Latinae, Vol 80] His remains are buried there, [*in
Bobbio] where they have proved their virtues, by the aid of Christ. To Him be
glory for ever and ever, world without end. Amen.
END
Edited Dana C. Munro in University of Pennsylvania. Dept. of History: Translations
and Reprints from the Original Sources of European history, published for
the Dept. of History of the University of Pennsylvania., Philadelphia,
University of Pennsylvania Press [1897?-1907?]. Vol. II. No. 7
See also:
G. Metlake, Life and Writings of St. Columban (1914)
F, MacManus, St. Columban
(1963)
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© Paul Halsall June 1997
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halsall@murray.fordham.edu
St. Columbanus
Abbot of Luxeuil and Bobbio, born in West Leinster, Ireland, in 543; died at Bobbio, Italy, 21 November, 615.
His life was written by Jonas, an Italian monk of the Columban
community, at Bobbio, c. 643. This author lived during the abbacy
of Attala, Columbanus's
immediate successor, and his
informants had been companions of the saint. Mabillon in the second volume of his "Acta
Sanctorum O.S.B." gives the life
in full, together with an appendix on the miracles of the saint, written by an anonymous member of the Bobbio
community.
Columbanus, whose birth
took place the year St. Benedict
died, was from childhood well instructed. He was handsome and prepossessing in
appearance, and this exposed him to the shameless temptations of several of his countrywomen. He also had to
struggle with his own temptations. At last he betook himself to a religious
woman, who advised him thus:
Twelve years ago I fled
from the world, and shut myself up in this cell. Hast thou forgotten Samson,
David and Solomon, all led astray by the love of women? There is no safety for thee, young man,
except in flight.
He
thereupon decided to act on this
advice and retire from the world. He encountered opposition, especially from
his mother, who strove to detain him by casting herself before him on the threshhold
of the door. But, conquering the feelings of natures he passed over the
prostrate form and left his home
forever. His first master was Sinell Abbot of Cluaninis in Lough Erne. Under his tuition
he composed a commentary on the Psalms.
He then betook himself to the celebrated monastery of Bangor
on the coast of Down, which at that time had for its abbot St. Comgall. There he embraced the monastic state, and for many years led a life
conspicuous for fervour, regularity, and learning. At about the age of forty he
seemed to hear incessantly the voice of God bidding him preach the Gospel
in foreign lands. At first his abbot declined to let him go, but at length he gave consent.
Columbanus set sail with
twelve companions; their names have thus come down to us: St. Attala, Columbanus the Younger, Cummain, Domgal,
Eogain, Eunan, St. Gall,
Gurgano, Libran, Lua, Sigisbert
and Waldoleno (Strokes, "Apennines", p. 112). The little band passed
over to Britain, landing
probably on the Scottish coast.
They remained but a short time in England, and then crossed
over to France, where they arrived probably in 585. At once
they began their apostolic
mission. Wherever they went the people, were struck by their modesty, patience,
and humility. France at that period needed such a band of monks and preachers. Owing partly to the incursions
of barbarians, and partly due to the remissness of the clergy, vice
and impiety were prevalent. Columbanus, by his holiness, zeal, and learning, was eminently fitted for the
work that lay before him. He and his followers soon made their way to the court
of Gontram, King of Burgundy. Jonas
calls it the court of Sigisbert,
King of Austrasia and Burgundy, but this is manifestly a blunder, for Sigisbert
had been slain in 575. The fame
of Columbanus had preceded him. Gontram
gave him a gracious reception, inviting him to remain in his kingdom.
The saint complied, and selected
for his abode the half-ruined Roman
fortress of Annegray in the
solitudes of the Vosges Mountains. Here the abbot and his monks led the simplest of lives, their food
oftentimes consisting of nothing but forest herbs, berries, and the bark of
young trees. The fame of Columbanus's
sanctity drew crowds to his monastery. Many, both nobles and rustics, asked to be
admitted into the community. Sick persons came to be cured through their prayers. But Columbanus loved solitude. Often he would withdrew to a cave
seven miles distant, with a single companion, who acted
as messenger between himself and his brethren. After a few years the
ever-increasing number of his disciples
oblige him to build another monastery. Columbanus accordingly obtained from King Gontram
the Gallo-Roman castle named Luxeuil,
some eight miles distant from Annegray.
It was in a wild district, thickly covered with pine forests and brushwood.
This foundation of the celebrated Abbey
of Luxueil, took place in 590. But these two monasteries did not suffice for the numbers who came, and
a third had to be erected at Fontaines.
The superiors of these houses always remained subordinate to Columbanus. It is
said this time, he was able to
institute a perpetual service of praise, known as Laus perennis, by
which choir succeeded choir,
both day and night (Montalembert, Monks
of the West II, 405). For these
flourishing communities he wrote his rule, which embodies the customs of Bangor
and other Celtic monasteries.
For wellnigh twenty years
Columbanus resided in France and during that time observed the unreformed paschal
computation. But a dispute arose. The Frankish bishops were not too well disposed towards this
stranger abbot, because of his ever-increasing influence, and
at last they showed their hostility. They objected to his Celtic
Easter and his exclusion of men
as well as women from the precincts of his monasteries. The councils
of Gaul held in the first half
of the sixth century had given to bishops absolute
authority over religious communities, even going so far as to order the
abbots to appear periodically before their respective
bishops to receive reproof or advice, as might be
considered necessary. These enactments, being contrary
to the custom of the Celtic
monasteries, were readily accepted by Columbanus. In 602
the bishops assembled to judge
him. He did not appear, lest, as he tells us, "he might contend in
words", but instead addressed a letter to the prelates in which he speaks with a strange mixture of
freedom, reverence, and charity.
In it he admonishes them to hold
synods more frequently, and advises that they pay
attention to matters equally important with that of the date of Easter. As to his paschal
cycle he says: "I am not the author of this divergence. I came as a poor
stranger into these parts for the cause
of Christ, Our Saviour. One thing alone I ask of you, holy
Fathers, permit me to live in silence
in these forests, near the bones of seventeen of my brethren now dead."
When the Frankish bishops still insisted that the abbot was wrong, then, in obedience
to St. Patrick's canon,
he laid the question before Pope St. Gregory. He dispatched two letters to that pontiff,
but they never reached him, "through Satan's intervention".
The third letter is extant, but no trace of an answer appears in St. Gregory's correspondence, owing probably to the fact
that the pope died in 604, about the time
it reached Rome. In this letter he defends the Celtic
custom with considerable
freedom, but the tone is affectionate. He prays "the holy Pope,
his Father", to direct towards him "the strong support of his
authority, to transmit the verdict of his favour". Moreover, he apologizes
"for presuming to argue as it were, with him who sits in the chair of Peter,
Apostle and Bearer of the Keys".
He directed another epistle to Pope Boniface IV, in which he prays that, if it be not contrary to the Faith,
he confirm the tradition
of his elders, so that by the papal decision (judicium) he and his monks may be enabled to follow the rites
of their ancestors. Before Pope
Bonifice's answer (which has been lost) was given, Columbanus was outside the jurisdiction of the Frankish bishops. As we hear no further accusation on the Easter question — not even in those brought against
his successor, Eustasius
of Luxeuil in 624 — it would
appear that after Columbanus had removed into Italy he gave up the Celtic
Easter (cf. Acta
SS. O.S.B., II, p. 7).
In addition to the Easter question Columbanus had to wage war against vice
in the royal household. The young King Thierry,
to whose kingdom Luxeuil
belonged, was living a life of debauchery. He was completely in the hands of
his grandmother, Queen Brunehault
(Brunehild). On the death of King Gontram
the succession passed to his
nephew, Childebert II, son of Brunehault.
At his death the latter left two sons, Theodebert II and Thierry
II, both minors. Theodebert
succeeded to Austrasia, Thierry
to Burgundy, but Brunehault
constituted herself their guardian,
and held in her own power the governments of the two kingdoms. As she advanced
in years she sacrificed
everything to the passion of
sovereignty, hence she encouraged Thierry
in the practice concubinage in order that there might be no
rival queen. Thierry, however,
had a veneration for Columbanus,
and often visited him. On these occasions the saint admonished
and rebuked him, but in vain. Brunehault
became enraged with Columbanus, stirred up the bishops and nobles to find fault with his rules
regarding monastic enclosure. Finally, Thierry
and his party went to Luxeuil
and ordered the abbot to conform to the usages of the country.
Columbanus refused, whereupon he was taken prisoner to Besançon to await further orders.
Taking advantage of the absence of restraint he speedily returned to his monastery. On hearing this, Thierry
and Brunehault sent soldiers to
drive him back to Ireland. None
but Irish monks were to accompany him. Accordingly, he was
hurried to Nevers, made to embark on the Loire, and thus proceed
to Nantes. At Tours
he visited the tomb of St. Martin
and sent a message to Thierry
that within three years he and his children would perish. At Nantes, before the embarkation, he addressed a letter
to his monks, full of affection. It is a memorial of the love and tenderness which existed
in that otherwise austere and passionate soul. In it he desires all to obey
Attala, whom he requests to
abide with the community unless strife should arise on the Easter question. His letter concludes thus "They
come to tell me the ship is ready. The end of my parchment compels me to finish
my letter. Love is not orderly;
it is this which has made it confused. Farewell,
dear hearts of mine; pray for me that I may live in God." As soon as they set sail, such a storm
arose that ship was driven ashore. The captain would have nothing more to do
with these holy men;
they were thus free to go where they pleased. Columbanus made his way to the
friendly King Clothaire at Soissons in Neustria where he was gladly welcomed.
Clothaire in vain pressed him to remain in his territory. Columbanus left
Neustria in 611 for the court of King Theodebert of Austrasia. At Metz
he received an honourable
welcome, and then proceeding to Mainz, he embarked upon the Rhine in order to reach
the Suevi and Alamanni, to whom
he wished to preach the Gospel. Ascending
the river and its tributaries, the Aar and the Limmat,
he came to the Lake of Zurich. Tuggen was chosen as a centre from which to
evangelize, but the work was not successful. Instead of producing fruit, the zeal of Columbanus only excited persecution. In despair
he resolved to pass on by way of Arbon
to Bregenz on Lake Constance, where there were still some traces of Christianity. Here the saint found an oratory
dedicated to St.
Aurelia, into which the people had brought three brass
images of their tutelary deities. He commanded St.
Gall, who knew the language, to preach to the inhabitants,
and many were converted. The
images were destroyed, and Columbanus blessed
the little church, placing the relics of St. Aurelia
beneath the altar. A monastery was erected, and the brethren forthwith
observed their regular life.
After about a year, in consequence of another rising
against the community, Columbanus resolved to cross
the Alps into Italy. An additional reason
for his departure was the fact that the arms of Thierry
had prevailed against Theodebert, and thus the country on the banks of the Upper
Rhine had become the property of his enemy.
On his arrival at Milan in 612, Columbanus met with a kindly welcome
from King Agilulf and Queen Theodelinda.
He immediately began to confute the Arians and wrote a treatise against their teaching,
which has been lost. At the request of the king, he wrote a letter to Pope Boniface on the debated subject of "The Three Chapters". These writings were considered to
favour Nestorianism. Pope St. Gregory, however, tolerated
in Lombardy those persons who defended them, among whom was King Agilulf.
Columbanus would probably have taken no active part in this matter had not the
king pressed him so to do. But on this occasion his zeal certainly
outran his knowledge. The letter opens with all apology
that a "foolish Scot"
should be charged to write for a Lombard
king. He acquaints the pope with the imputations brought against him, and
he is particularly severe with the memory
of Pope Vigilius. He entreats the pontiff
to prove his orthodoxy and assemble a council.
He says that his freedom of speech accords with the usage of his country.
"Doubtless", Montalembert remarks, "some of the expressions which
he employs should be now regarded as disrespectful and justly
rejected But in those young and vigorous times, faith and austerity could be more indulgent"
(II, 440). On the other hand, the letter expresses the most affectionate and
impassioned devotion to the Holy See. The whole, however, may be judged
from this fragment: "We Irish, though dwelling at the far ends of the earth,
are all disciples of St.
Peter and St. Paul . . . Neither heretic, nor Jew, nor schismatic has ever been among us; but the Catholic Faith, Just as it was first delivered to us by
yourselves, the successors of
the Apostles, is held by us
unchanged . . . we are bound [devincti] to the Chair
of Peter, and although Rome is great and renowned, through that Chair
alone is she looked on as great and illustrious among us . . .On account of the
two Apostles of Christ, you [the pope] are almost celestial, and Rome is the head of the whole world, and of the Churches".
If zeal for orthodoxy caused him to overstep the limits of discretion, his
real attitude towards Rome is sufficiently clear. He declares the pope to be: "his Lord
and Father in Christ",
"The Chosen Watchman", "The Prelate
most dear to all the Faithful",
"The most beautiful Head of all the Churches
of the whole of Europe", "Pastor of Pastors",
"The Highest", "The First", "The First Pastor,
set higher than all mortals",
"Raised near into all the Celestial Beings",
"Prince of the Leaders",
"His Father", "His immediate Patron", "The
Steersman", "The Pilot of the Spiritual Ship" (Allnatt,
"Cathedra Petri", 106).
But it was necessary that, in Italy, Columbanus should have a settled abode, so
the king gave him a tract of land called Bobbio,
between Milan and Genoa, near the River Trebbia, situated in a defile
of the Apennines. On his way thither he taught the Faith
in the town of Mombrione, which is called San
Colombano to this day. Padre
della Torre considers that the saint made two journeys into Italy, and that these have been confounded by Jonas.
On the first occasion he went to Rome and received from Pope Gregory many sacred relics (Stokes, Apennines, 132). This may possibly
explain the traditional spot in St.
Peter's, where St. Gregory and St. Columba
are supposed to have met (Moran, Irish SS. in Great Britain,105). At Bobbio
the saint repaired the half-ruined church of St. Peter, and erected his celebrated abbey, which for centuries was stronghold of orthodoxy in Northern Italy. Thither came Clothaire's messengers inviting
the aged abbot to return, now that his enemies were dead. But
he could not go. He sent a request that the king would always protect his dear monks at Luxeuil. He prepared for
death by retiring to his cave on the mountain-side
overlooking the Trebbia, where,
according to a tradition, he had
dedicated an oratory
to Our Lady (Montalembert, "Monks of the West",
II, 444). His body has been preserved in the abbey church
at Bobbio, and many miracles are said to have been wrought there through
his intercession. In 1482 the relics were placed in a new shrine and laid beneath
the altar of the crypt, where they are still venerated. But the altar
and shrine are once more to be restored, and for this end in 1907 all appeal
was made by Cardinal Logue, and there is every prospect of the work being
speedily accomplished. The sacristy at Bobbio possesses
a portion of the skull of the saint, his knife, wooden cup, bell,
and an ancient water vessel, formerly containing sacred relics and said to have been given him by St. Gregory. According to certain
authorities, twelve teeth of the
saint were taken from the tomb in the fifteenth century and kept in the
treasury, but these have now disappeared (Stokes, Apennines, p. 183). St.
Columbanus is named in the Roman
Martyrology on 21 November, but
his feast is kept by the Benedictines and throughout Ireland on 24 November. Among his principal miracles are: (1) procuring of food for a sick monk and curing the wife of his benefactor; (2) escape from
hurt when surrounded by wolves; (3) obedience
of a bear which evacuated a cave at his biddings; (4) producing a spring of
water near his cave; (5) repletion of the Luxeuil
granary when empty; (6) multiplication of bread and beer for his community; (7)
curing of the sick monks, who rose from their beds at his request to
reap the harvest; (8) giving sight to a blind man at Orléans; (9) destruction by his breath of a cauldron
of beer prepared for a pagan festival;
(10) taming a bear, and yoking it to a plough.
Like other men,
Columbanus was not faultless. In the cause
of God he was impetuous and even head-strong, for by nature
he was eager, passionate, and dauntless. These qualities
were both the source of his power and the cause
of mistakes. But his virtues
were very remarkable. He shared with other saints a great love for God's creatures. As he walked in the woods, the birds
would alight upon his shoulder that he might caress them and the squirrels
would run down from the trees and nestle
in the folds of his cowl. The
fascination of his saintly personality drew numerous communities around him. That he
possessed real affection for others is abundantly manifest in his letter to his
brethren. Archbishop Healy
eulogises him thus: "A man
more holy, more chaste,
more self-denying, a man with loftier aims and purer heart than Columbanus was
never born in the Island of Saints" (Ireland's Ancient
Schools, 378). Regarding his
attitude towards the Holy See, although with Celtic
warmth and flow of words he could defend mere custom,
there is nothing in his strongest expressions which implies that, in matters of
faith, he for a moment doubted Rome's
supreme authority. His influence in Europe was due to the conversions
he effected and to the rule that he composed. What gave rise to his apostolate?
Possibly the restless energy of the Celtic
character, which, not finding
sufficient scope in Ireland, directed itself in the cause of Christ
to foreign lands. It may be that the example and success of St.
Columba in Caledonia
stimulated him to similar exertions. The example, however, of Columbanus in the
sixth century stands out as the prototype of missionary enterprise towards the
countries of Europe, so eagerly follows up from England and Ireland by such men as Killian, Virgilius,
Donatus, Wilfrid,
Willibrord, Swithbert,
and Boniface. If Columbanus abbey in Italy became a citadel of faith and learning, Luxeuil
in France became the nursery of saints and apostles.
From its walls went forth men
who carried his rule, together with the Gospel,
into France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. There are said to have been sixty-three such apostles
(Stokes, Forests of France, 254). These disciples
of Columbanus are accredited with founding over one hundred different monasteries (ib., 74). The canton and town still bearing
the name of St. Gall testify how
well one disciple succeeded.
Columbanus has left us his
own writings. They demonstrate that his attainments were of no mean order. He
continued his literary studies
till the very eve of his death.
His works (Migne P.L. LXXX) include: (1)
"Penitencial" which prescribes penances
according to guilt, a useful guide in the absence of elaborate treatises on moral theology; (2) "Seventeen short Sermons"; (3)
"Six Epistles"; (4) "Latin Poems"; (5) "A Monastic
Rule". This Last is much shorter than that of St.
Benedict, consisting of only ten chapters.
The first six of these treat of obedience,
silence, food, poverty,
humility, and chastity.
In these there is much in common with the Benedictine code, except that the fasting is more rigorous. Chapter
vii deals with the choir Offices.
Sunday Martins
in winter consisted of sevent-five psalms
and twenty-five antiphone--three psalms
to each antiphone. In spring and
autumn these were reduced to thirty-six, and in summer to twenty-four, Fewer
were said on week days. The day hours consisted of Terce, Sext,
None, and Vespers. Three psalms
were said at each of these Offices,
except Vespers, when twelve psalms
were said. Chapter x regulates penances
for offences, and it is here
that the Rule of St.
Columbanus differs so widely from that of St.
Benedict. Stripes
or fasts were enjoined for the smallest faults. The habit
of the monks consisted of a tunic
of undyed wool, over which was worn the cuculla, or cowl,
of the same material. A great deal of time
was devoted to various kinds of manual labour. The Rule
of St. Columbanus was approved of by the Council
of Mâcon in 627, but it was destined
before the close of the century to be superseded by that of St.
Benedict. For several centuries in some of the greater monasteries the two rules were observed conjointly. In art
St. Columbanus is represented bearded bearing the monastic
cowl, he holds in his hand a
book with an Irish satchel, and stands in the midst of wolves.
Sometimes he is depicted in the attitude of taming a bear, or with sunbeams
over his head (Husenheth, "Emblems", p. 33).
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020
by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04137a.htm
HE was a native of Leinster, one of the four principal provinces of Ireland, and was born about the middle of the sixth century. The monastic institute received at that time the greatest lustre in that country, from the eminent sanctity and great learning of those who professed it, who rendered it an Island of Saints, and the mart of sacred literature. It abounded in monasteries, which were so many great schools of sacred learning, and in which many fervent persons, by a special call of God, led an abstracted life, devoted to retirement, contemplation, and the practice of penance, sequestered not only from the distraction of secular business, but also from ordinary conversation with the world, that they might more freely converse with God and his heavenly spirits. The most numerous and most celebrated of these monasteries was that of Benchor, in the county of Down, founded by St. Comgal, about the year 550; and under his direction a great number of fervent servants of God, seemed to lead an angelical life in mortal flesh. They tilled the ground with their own hands, and followed other manual labour which did not interrupt their prayer and heavenly contemplation. They also applied themselves to sacred studies, in which St. Comgal was himself an excellent master. 1 Their rule was originally borrowed from those of St. Basil, and other orientals.
St. Columban, after having learned the first elements of the sciences under St. Sinellus at Cluain-Inys, took the religious habit at Benchor, and lived there several years, inuring himself to the most austere practices of mortification. Such was the progress he made in the sacred sciences as to be esteemed a kind of oracle in them; and, when very young, he composed a commentary on the Psalms, to be a help to devotion to himself and others in reciting those divine prayers: but this work is long since lost. To disengage himself more perfectly from the world and all earthly ties, he desired, like Abraham, to travel into some foreign country; and having communicated his design to St. Comgal, obtained his leave and blessing, though with some difficulty. For the holy abbot was sorry to be deprived of such an assistant, and only consented because he was satisfied that the desire of Columban was an inspiration of God for the advancement of his honour. Our saint departed from Benchor with twelve other monks, being about thirty years of age. He passed into Britain, and thence into Gaul, where he arrived about the year 585. Ecclesiastical discipline was there much neglected, partly by the incursions of the barbarians, and partly through the remissness of some of the prelates. There were few places where penance was observed, or mortification practised. Columban preached in all places through which he passed, and the sanctity of his life added great weight to his instructions. He was so humble that he always contended with his twelve companions for the lowest place. They were all of one mind; their modesty, sobriety, gentleness, patience and charity made them universally admired. If any one was guilty of the least fault, they all joined in reforming his error. Every thing was in common; nor was ever any contradiction or harsh word heard among them. In whatever place they abode, their example inspired a universal piety.
Columban’s reputation reached the court of the king of Burgundy. This was Gontran, (not Sigebert, as some have mistaken,) who entreated him to stay in his kingdom, and offered him whatever spot of ground he should choose in all his dominions for building a monastery. Columban pitched upon the ruinous old castle of Anegrai, situate in the desert of Voge, in the mountainous part of what is now called Lorrain. Here he erected his first monastery, which is long ago extinct. This house became soon too small to contain the great numbers that desired to live under the discipline of the saint. He therefore built a second monastery called Luxeu, eight miles from the former. This became the chief house of his Order, and still subsists. A third monastery was built by St. Columban, about three miles from Luxeu, which, on account of the abundance of springs in that place, was called Fountains. It is now no more than a priory dependent on Luxeu. St. Columban appointed superiors, who were persons of approved piety, over each of these monasteries, and resided himself in each by turns. Sixteen discourses or instructions which he made to his monks, out of many others which he appears by some of these to have written, are published in the Library of the Fathers. 2 In them we discern the author’s great penetration and light in spiritual things, and admire his affective piety and unction, and a doctrine above what is human, to use the expression of a contemporary writer. 3 Speaking of the contempt of the world the saint cries out: “O transitory life, how many hast thou deceived, seduced, and blinded! If I consider the rapidity of thy flight, thou seemest a nothing: thy existence is little more than a shadow. They who set their hearts on thee, know thee not; they only understand thee who despise thy enjoyments. When thou showest thyself, thou art again withdrawn as if thou wert no more than a phantom. What art thou but a swift course on a road, passing as a bird on the wing, uncertain as a cloud, frail as a vapour, vanishing as a shadow.”
The short poems of St. Columban on moral and pious subjects, show him to have been a good poet for the age in which he lived, and to have been acquainted with profane history and mythology. 4 Among the works of St. Columban, nothing was so much admired as his Rule, which St. Benedict Anian has inserted in his collection of monastic rules, and which is full of wisdom and spiritual instruction. The author lays down for the foundation of his rule, the love of God and of our neighbour, as a general precept, upon which the superstructure of all the rest is to be raised. He inculcates obedience, poverty, disinterestedness, humility, chastity, mortification both external (or of the senses) and internal, or of the will, in doing nothing according to self-will; silence and prudence to discern between good and evil: each of these he enforces and grounds upon some text of scripture or principle of morality. He appoints, that monks shall eat only towards the evening, and only the meanest food, herbs, pulse, or meal moistened in water, with a little bread: the food to be proportioned to their labour. He will have them to eat every day that they may be able to perform all duties! and he prescribes every day to be spent in fasting, prayer, reading, and, except on festivals, manual labour. In prescribing the office which was called The Course, he mentions the number of psalms and verses to be recited at every hour. St. Columban adds, that he received these rules from his fathers, that is, the monks of Ireland. He says, that it was customary to kneel down at the end of each psalm, and mentions the obligation of every one’s praying also privately in his own chamber; and adds, that the essential parts are prayer of the heart, and the continual application of the mind to God. 5 After the rule follows the saint’s penitential, containing prescriptions of penances to be imposed upon monks for every fault, how light soever. He that shall not answer Amen at grace, before and after meals, shall have six lashes; he that shall talk in the refectory, as many; he that shall not forbear coughing at the beginning of a psalm, shall be treated after the same manner; likewise he that shall touch the chalice with his teeth, or shall smile in the time of divine service. They that have spoken roughly or frowardly, shall receive fifty lashes, as well as they that shall have answered again to their superior. Six lashes were the chastisement of small faults: for greater, especially relating to neglects in the holy mass, sometimes two hundred, but never more than twenty-five at a time. Penance was enjoined a monk who, after finishing his task of work, did not ask for more; or did any thing without orders. Other penances were prescribed besides the discipline, as extraordinary fasts, silence, separation from the table, and humiliations. St. Columban distinguishes two sorts of sins: mortal sins, which were to be confessed to the priest; and lesser sins, which might often be confessed to the abbot, or others who were not priests, before they sat down to table, or went to bed. 6 Confession preceded the penance. Fleury 7 and Ceillier 8 observe from this penitential, that the monks, at going out or coming into the house, asked the blessing of the superior, and presented themselves before the cross; and that they made the sign of the cross upon a spoon, lamp, or whatever else they used, before they touched it: an omission of which was chastised with six lashes. There is another penitential of St. Columban, which contains canonical punishments for all kinds of sins, and all sorts of persons. The rule of St. Columban was highly esteemed, was observed in many great monasteries, and is still followed in some jointly with that of St. Bennet. The monks of St. Columban in the beginning lived on herbs and the bark of trees: and were sometimes reduced to extreme necessity, and relieved by God in a miraculous manner. It was the saint’s custom to pass some time before all great festivals in a closer solitude; for which purpose he retired to a secret cavern some miles from his monastery.
St. Columban kept the feast of Easter on the 14th day of the first moon after the spring equinox, though it fell on a Sunday, according to the custom he had learned in Ireland. Being reproved on this account by the French bishops, he consulted the holy pope St. Gregory, insisting upon the authority of Anatolius, bishop of Laodicea, in 280, and the practice of the Western, that is, the Irish Church. 9 Though he wrote twice to St. Gregory he received no answer, and probably his letters were never delivered. He wrote about the same time, twelve years after his arrival in France, to certain French bishops assembled in a council. He presses their own duties upon them, and gives them lessons of humility and charitableness, begging, that as to the time of celebrating Easter, every one might keep his own custom. After the death of St. Gregory in 604, Sabanian held the apostolic see five months and nineteen days, and Boniface III. eight months and twenty-three days. To this pope, or to his successor, Boniface IV., St. Columban again applied himself for leave to observe the tradition of his own country in the celebration of Easter. 10 But a storm was raised against him which drove him out of the kingdom of Burgundy. Childebert dying in 596, left two sons, Theodebert the elder, king of Austrasia, and Theodoric, king of Burgundy, both under the care of their grandmother, Brunehault. Theodoric had a great respect for St. Columban, who lived in his dominions; and he often visited him. The abbot reproved him for keeping concubines instead of marrying a queen, and the king promised to reform his manners according to his advice. Brunehault, fearing lest a queen should ruin her credit with her grandson, was much provoked against the holy man. Her resentment was much increased by his refusing to bless, at her desire, the king’s four natural children, saying: “They shall not inherit the kingdom; they are the fruit of debauchery.” St. Columban also denied her entrance into his monastery, when she came to visit him: for this he did to all women, and even to all seculars. At this, however, her wrath against him was rekindled. 11 The abbot, seeing the king did not keep his word with him about dismissing his concubines, wrote him a severe letter, with threats of excommunication if he altered not his course of life. Brunehault took that opportunity to stir up the king against him, who banished him, first to Besançon and afterwards ordered two noblemen to conduct him to Nantes, and there see him shipped off for Ireland, in 610, after he had sanctified the desert of Voge for twenty-five years. It seems to have been at Nantes that he wrote a letter to his monks at Luxeu, full of discretion and charity, exhorting them to patience and union. He put to sea, but the vessel being driven back by contrary winds, he went to Clotaire II. who then reigned in Neustria. To him he foretold that the whole French monarchy would come into his power in less than three years: the same he had confidently affirmed on two other occasions on his road. He returned through Paris and Meaux, and repaired to the court of Theodebert, by whom he was well received. Under his protection he went with some of his disciples who had joined him, to preach to the infidels near the lake of Zurich. He took up his dwelling in a solitude there, near Zug. The inhabitants were cruel, and impious worshippers of idols. 12 St. Columban, having begun to preach the true God to them, found them one day making ready a sacrifice, and a large tub filled with beer being placed in the midst of the people, he asked them what they intended to do with it. They answered, it was to offer to their god Wodan. 13 St. Columban blew upon it, and immediately the vessel burst into splinters with a great noise, and all the beer was spilt. The barbarians were surprised, and said he had a strong breath. He exhorted them to forsake their superstitions, and retire home. Many were converted and baptized: others, who had been formerly baptized, and had apostatized, returned to the obedience of the gospel. St. Gall, 14 who accompanied the saint from Ireland, prompted by zeal, set fire to the pagan temples, and threw all the offerings which he found there into the lake; which he could only do upon the presumptive approbation of the people. But some that remained obstinate in their idolatry, were enraged at this action, and resolved to murder him, and to scourge St. Columban, and banish him from their country. The holy men, having notice of their design, retired to Arbone, upon the lake of Constance, where a virtuous priest, named Villemar, received them courteously, and showed them a fruitful and pleasant valley amidst the mountains, where stood the ruins of a little city called Brigantium, now Bregentz. In this place St. Columban and his companions found an oratory dedicated in honour of St. Aurelia, near which they built themselves cells. The people had been formerly instructed slightly in the faith, and had again relapsed into idolatry, and set up in this very oratory three brass images gilt, which they called the tutelar gods of the country. St. Columban ordered St. Gall, who understood the language of the country, to preach to the people. He did so, and afterwards broke the idols in pieces with stones, and threw the metal into the lake. St. Columban blessed the church, sprinkled it with holy water, and, together with his disciples, went round it singing psalms. After having thus solemnized the dedication, he anointed the altar, deposited the relics of St. Aurelia under it, and said mass upon it. The people showed great satisfaction; and returned to the worship of the true God. St. Columban continued at Bregentz near three years, and built there a small monastery. Some of his disciples worked in the kitchen-garden, others cultivated fruit-trees, others were fishermen, and he himself made nets. In the mean time, Theodoric and Theodebert were at variance, and Thoedebert, being defeated, was treacherously delivered up by his own men, and sent by his brother to their grandmother Brunehault, who, having sided with Theodoric, obliged the vanquished prince to receive holy orders, and not many days after put him to death.
St. Columban, seeing Theodoric, his enemy, was become master of the country where he lived, and perceiving that he could no longer remain there with safety, went with many of his disciples into Italy. St. Gall, hindered by a fever, staid behind, and afterwards built, not far from thence, the monastery which bears his name. St. Columban met with a kind reception from Agilulph, king of the Lombards, and under his protection erected the famous monastery of Bobio, in a desert amidst the Appenine mountains, near the river Trebia. He also built an oratory in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary, near which he lived himself in a cave, in strict fasting and retirement all Lent, and at several other seasons of the year: at which times he visited his monastery only on Sundays and festivals. The affair of the Three Chapters, or writings which were condemned in the East by the fifth council at Constantinople, and by Pope Vigilius, as favouring Nestorianism, made at that time a great noise in Italy. The bishops of Istria, and some in Africa, defended these writings with such warmth as to break off communion with the pope and the whole Catholic Church, and to set up an open schism. Several among the Lombards harboured mistaken prejudices in favour of the three chapters grounded upon misinformations, imagining that by their condemnation the council of Chalcedon was condemned, with many other mistakes about the remote transactions of the Orientals in that controversy; which mistakes were very easy, the greater part of the West being, for want of commerce, and through their ignorance of the Greek tongue, strangers to the affairs of the East, except as to what they learned by vague and often false and imperfect relations. Pope Gregory the Great tolerated the conduct of those in the West, chiefly in Lombardy, who, upon mistakes concerning facts which passed in the East, defended the three chapters, but did not on that account break off communion, till they could be better informed, as their faith was in all respects orthodox. Hence he constantly communicated with them, and honoured the warmest sticklers among them with frequent kind letters and presents. Of this number were king Agilulph and his queen Theodelinda, who were persons of singular zeal and piety, had converted their subjects from the Arian heresy, and founded many monasteries and churches. St. Columban, coming into Lombardy, received his informations concerning this debate from these mistaken informations, and declared himself in favour of the three chapters. At the solicitation of King Agilulph and Queen Theodelinda, his patrons, and the founders of his monastery, he wrote to Pope Boniface IV. a strong letter in defence of the three chapters, and against Pope Vigilius, imagining he had condemned in the East the council of Chalcedon, as Liberius had signed a confession of faith favourable to the Arians. Dr. Cave takes notice that, “It is evident from this very epistle of Columban, that he was not rightly informed in the affair of the three chapters.” 15 In the same letter the author expresses great zeal for the honour of the Roman see, and professes himself inviolably attached to it. 16 He continued to his dying day in its communion, and never joined the schismatics in Istria.
In France King Theodoric died some months after the murder of his brother Theodebert, in 613, and was succeeded by his son Sigebert, an infant, under the government of his great-grandmother, Brunehault. King Clotaire made war upon them, took Sigebert and two of his brothers prisoners, and put Brunehault to a cruel death. Thus he remained sole king of the Franks in the same manner as his grandfather Clotaire had been, in the year 511, the thirty-first of his reign. Seeing the prophecy of St. Columban so fully accomplished, he sent Eustasius, whom the holy man had left abbot of Luxeu, to invite him back into France. The saint alleged he could not then abandon Italy, but he wrote to the king earnestly exhorting him to reform his present course of life. Clotaire, for his sake, powerfully protected his monastery of Luxeu, enriched it with considerable revenues, and enlarged its limits. Luxeu is still in a flourishing condition, and the chief monastery of those which the reformed congregation of St. Vanne possesses in the Franche-compté. 17 The abbot Jonas, in the life of St. Columban, informs us, that he had confuted the Arians among the Lombards with great strength and success, particularly at Milan, and that he composed a very learned work against that heresy, though it is long since lost. St. Columban lived to govern his new monastery of Bobio only about a year, and died on the 21st of November, in 615. In his poem on Fedolius, which he seems to have written a little before his death, he says he was then arrived at his eighteenth Olympiad; he was, consequently, at that time at least seventy-two years old. The breviary of the French Benedictins styles him one of the chief patriarchs of the monastic institute, especially in France, where many of the principal monasteries followed his rule, till, in the reign of Charlemagne, for the sake of uniformity, they all received that of St. Bennet. St. Columban is honoured in many churches of France, Italy, and other countries, and is named in the Roman Martyrology. See his life well written by Jonas, abbot of Luxeu, in 650. 18 Rivet, Hist. Lit. de la France, t. 3, p. 505. Helyot, t. 5, p. 65. Ceillier, t. 17, p. 462. Fleming’s Collectanea, &c.
Note 1. See his Life on the 10th of May. [back]
Note 2. Bibl. Patrum, t. 12, p. 9, 21. [back]
Note 3. Ap. Mabil. Act. Ben. t. 2. p. 80, n. 11. [back]
Note 4. See these poems in Goldast’s Paræneticorum veterum; in Patrick Fleming’s Collectanea Sacra; and in the Library of the Fathers, printed Lyons. [back]
Note 5. Pœnit. c. 19. [back]
Note 6. Prolong. in Pœnit. [back]
Note 7. Fleury, l. 35, n. 10. [back]
Note 8. Ceillier, t. 17. [back]
Note 9. S. Columban, ep 1, Bibl. Patr. Lugd. t. 12. [back]
Note 10. Mabill. Act. Bened. t. 2, p. 21. [back]
Note 11. See Mabill. Act. Bened. t. 2, pp. 18, 20. Fredeg. Chron. n. 36. [back]
Note 12. The learned professor Mallet, Introduction à l’Histoire Danoise, (Copenhague, pp. 30, 54, &c.) shows that Odin or Wodan was a Scythian who came from the Palus Mœotis into Scandinavia about seventy years before Christ, and was a great conqueror. Frigga or Freia was his wife: and Thor the most valiant of his sons. On these three chief deities of the Norwegians, Germans, and Celts, see Mallet, On the Edda, or Book of the Mythology of the Islanders, written in the eleventh century. Also Verstegane, Sammes, &c. [back]
Note 13. See Mallet, Mythologie des Celtes, ou Remarques sur l’Edda des Islandois, pp. 47, 81. [back]
Note 14. See the Life of St. Gall, on the 16th of October. [back]
Note 15. Cave, Hist. Liter, t. 1, p. 543. [back]
Note 16. From this letter Bower pretends to infer that the Irish were not disabused of their mistake in defending the three chapters by the letter which St. Gregory the Great wrote to them on that subject in 592. But this letter of St. Columban was written in 613, the year before the death of Boniface IV., and he had left Ireland about the year 585. See Mabillon, Annal. Bened. t. 2. Rivet shows from this very letter, and from the silence of all parties, that St. Columban then conformed to the Nicene decree concerning the celebration of Easter, and that the monks of Luxeu did the same. This is clear from the silence of the seditious monks in Italy, who make the most trifling objections to his rule and tonsure, in the council of Maçon, and would never have passed over the keeping Easter at an undue time, had he then done it. See Helyot, t. 5, p. 70. [back]
Note 17. See Martenne and Durand, Voyage Liter, p. 170. [back]
Note 18. That this Jonas was a native of Ireland, is asserted by Trithemius, Surius, Coccius Sabellicus, Arnold Wion, Molanus, and others: and they ground their assertion upon what Jonas himself has written in his preface to the life of St. Columban. He is not to be confounded with Jonas, a Frenchman and monk of Fontenelle, who, in 731, wrote the life of St. Wulfran, archbishop of Sens. See Ware’s Irish Writers, p. 29. ed. Har. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume XI: November. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/11/212.html
Colombano era nato intorno all’anno 543 nella provincia di Leinster, nel sud-est dell’Irlanda.
Educato nella propria casa da ottimi maestri che lo avviarono allo studio delle arti liberali, si affidò poi alla guida dell’abate Sinell della comunità di Cluain-Inis, nell’Irlanda settentrionale, ove poté approfondire lo studio delle Sacre Scritture. All’età di circa vent’anni entrò nel monastero di Bangor nel nord- est dell’isola, ove era abate Comgall, un monaco ben noto per la sua virtù e il suo rigore ascetico. In piena sintonia col suo abate, Colombano praticò con zelo la severa disciplina del monastero, conducendo una vita di preghiera, di ascesi e di studio. Lì fu anche ordinato sacerdote. La vita a Bangor e l’esempio dell’abate influirono sulla concezione del monachesimo che Colombano maturò col tempo e diffuse poi nel corso della sua vita.
All’età di circa cinquant’anni, seguendo l’ideale ascetico tipicamente irlandese della «peregrinatio pro Christo», del farsi cioè pellegrino per Cristo, Colombano lasciò l’isola per intraprendere con dodici compagni un’opera missionaria sul continente europeo. Dobbiamo infatti tener presente che la migrazione di popoli dal nord e dall’est aveva fatto ricadere nel paganesimo intere Regioni già cristianizzate. Intorno all’anno 590 questo piccolo drappello di missionari approdò sulla costa bretone. Accolti con benevolenza dal re dei Franchi d’Austrasia (l’attuale Francia), chiesero solo un pezzo di terra incolta. Ottennero l’antica fortezza romana di Anne-gray, tutta diroccata ed abbandonata, ormai coperta dalla foresta. Abituati ad una vita di estrema rinuncia, i monaci riuscirono entro pochi mesi a costruire sulle rovine il primo eremo. Così, la loro rievangelizzazione iniziò a svolgersi innanzitutto mediante la testimonianza della vita. Con la nuova coltivazione della terra cominciarono anche una nuova coltivazione delle anime. La fama di quei religiosi stranieri che, vivendo di preghiera e in grande austerità, costruivano case e dissodavano la terra, si diffuse celermente attraendo pellegrini e penitenti. Soprattutto molti giovani chiedevano di essere accolti nella comunità monastica per vivere, come loro, questa vita esemplare che rinnovava la coltura della terra e delle anime. Ben presto si rese necessaria la fondazione di un secondo monastero. Fu edificato a pochi chilometri di distanza, sulle rovine di un’antica città termale, Luxeuil. Il monastero sarebbe poi diventato il centro dell’irradiazione monastica e missionaria di tradizione irlandese sul continente europeo. Un terzo monastero fu eretto a Fontaine, un’ora di cammino più a nord.
A Luxeuil Colombano visse per quasi vent’anni. Qui il santo scrisse per i suoi seguaci la Regula monachorum per un certo tempo più diffusa in Europa di quella di san Benedetto disegnando l’immagine ideale del monaco. È l’unica antica regola monastica irlandese che oggi possediamo. Come integrazione egli elaborò la Regula coenobialis, una sorta di codice penale per le infrazioni dei monaci, con punizioni piuttosto sorprendenti per la sensibilità moderna, spiegabili soltanto con la mentalità del tempo e dell’ambiente. Con un’altra opera famosa intitolata De poenitentiarum misura taxanda, scritta pure a Luxeuil, Colombano introdusse nel continente la confessione e la penitenza private e reiterate; fu detta penitenza «tariffata» per la proporzione stabilita tra gravità del peccato e tipo di penitenza imposta dal confessore. Queste novità destarono il sospetto dei vescovi della regione, un sospetto che si tramutò in ostilità quando Colombano ebbe il coraggio di rimproverarli apertamente per i costumi di alcuni di loro. Occasione per il manifestarsi del contrasto fu la disputa circa la data della Pasqua: l’Irlanda seguiva infatti la tradizione orientale in contrasto con la tradizione romana. Il monaco irlandese fu convocato nel 603 a Châlon-sur-Saôn per rendere conto davanti a un sinodo delle sue consuetudini relative alla penitenza e alla Pasqua. Invece di presentarsi al sinodo, egli mandò una lettera in cui minimizzava la questione invitando i Padri sinodali a discutere non solo del problema della data della Pasqua, problema piccolo secondo lui, «ma anche di tutte le necessarie normative canoniche che da molti cosa più grave sono disattese» (cfr Epistula II,1).
Contemporaneamente scrisse a Papa Bonifacio IV come qualche anno prima già si era rivolto a Papa Gregorio Magno (cfr Epistula I) per difendere la tradizione irlandese (cfr Epistula III).
Intransigente come era in ogni questione morale, Colombano entrò poi in conflitto anche con la Casa reale, perché aveva rimproverato aspramente il re Teodorico per le sue relazioni adulterine. Ne nacque una rete di intrighi e manovre a livello personale, religioso e politico che, nell’anno 610, si tradusse in un decreto di espulsione da Luxeuil di Colombano e di tutti i monaci di origine irlandese, che furono condannati ad un definitivo esilio. Furono scortati fino al mare e imbarcati a spese della corte verso l’Irlanda. Ma la nave si incagliò a poca distanza dalla spiaggia e il capitano, vedendo in ciò un segno del cielo, rinunciò all’impresa e, per paura di essere maledetto da Dio, riportò i ed entusiasmo ai coetanei. monaci sulla terra ferma. Essi, invece di tornare a Luxeuil, decisero di cominciare una nuova opera di evangelizzazione. Si imbarcarono sul Reno e risalirono il fiume. Dopo una prima tappa a Tuggen presso il lago di Zurigo, andarono nella regione di Bregenz presso il lago di Costanza per evangelizzare gli Alemanni.
Poco dopo però Colombano, a causa di vicende politiche poco favorevoli alla sua opera, decise di attraversare le Alpi con la maggior parte dei suoi discepoli. Rimase solo un monaco di nome Gallus; dal suo eremo si sarebbe poi sviluppata la famosa abbazia di Sankt Gallen, in Svizzera. Giunto in Italia, Colombano trovò un’accoglienza benevola presso la corte reale longobarda, ma dovette affrontare subito difficoltà notevoli: la vita della Chiesa era lacerata dall’eresia ariana ancora prevalente tra i longobardi e da uno scisma che aveva staccato la maggior parte delle Chiese dell’Italia settentrionale dalla comunione col Vescovo di Roma. Colombano si inserì con autorevolezza in questo contesto, scrivendo un libello contro l’arianesimo e una lettera a Bonifacio IV per convincerlo a fare alcuni passi decisi in vista di un ristabilimento dell’unità (cfr Epistula V). Quando il re dei longobardi, nel 612 o 613, gli assegnò un terreno a Bobbio, nella valle del Trebbia, Colombano fondò un nuovo monastero che sarebbe poi diventato un centro di cultura paragonabile a quello famoso di Montecassino. Qui giunse al termine dei suoi giorni: morì il 23 novembre 615 e in tale data è commemorato nel rito romano fino ad oggi.
Il messaggio di san Colombano si concentra in un fermo richiamo alla conversione e al distacco dai beni terreni in vista dell’eredità eterna. Con la sua vita ascetica e il suo comportamento senza compromessi di fronte alla corruzione dei potenti, egli evoca la figura severa di san Giovanni Battista. La sua austerità, tuttavia, non è mai fine a se stessa, ma è solo il mezzo per aprirsi liberamente all’amore di Dio e corrispondere con tutto l’essere ai doni da lui ricevuti, ricostruendo così in sé l’immagine di Dio e al tempo stesso dissodando la terra e rinnovando la società umana. Cito dalle sue Instructiones: «Se l’uomo userà rettamente di quelle facoltà che Dio ha concesso alla sua anima allora sarà simile a Dio. Ricordiamoci che gli dobbiamo restituire tutti quei doni che egli ha depositato in noi quando eravamo nella condizione originaria. Ce ne ha insegnato il modo con i suoi comandamenti. Il primo di essi è quello di amare il Signore con tutto il cuore, perché egli per primo ci ha amato, fin dall’inizio dei tempi, prima ancora che noi venissimo alla luce di questo mondo» (cfr Instr. XI). Queste parole, il santo irlandese le incarnò realmente nella propria vita. Uomo di grande cultura scrisse anche poesie in latino e un libro di grammatica si rivelò ricco di doni di grazia. Fu un instancabile costruttore di monasteri come anche intransigente predicatore penitenziale, spendendo ogni sua energia per alimentare le radici cristiane dell’Europa che stava nascendo. Con la sua energia spirituale, con la sua fede, con il suo amore per Dio e per il prossimo divenne realmente uno dei Padri dell’Europa: egli mostra anche oggi a noi dove stanno le radici dalle quali può rinascere questa nostra Europa.
Autore: Papa Benedetto XVI (udienza generale 11.06.2008)
Columbanus of Luxeuil, OSB Abbot (RM)
Born in West Leinster, Ireland, 530-543; died November 23, 615; feast day formerly November 21.
Born in West Leinster, Ireland, 530-543; died November 23, 615; feast day formerly November 21.
The life of St.
Columbanus teaches the benefits of trusting obedience to God and those who are
placed in authority over us. Whenever events turned seemingly bad, they led
Columbanus to a new adventure, to doing even greater work for the Kingdom of
God. When God closes one door, He always opens another--even closer to His
inner sanctum--if we obediently follow where He leads us.
There are few
extant manuscripts about the life of Columbanus, but the Abbot Jonas wrote his
biography about 30 years after the saint's death. While the current view of
Columbanus is one of a stern man who hurled anathemas and often flew into a
rage (for example, felling a 50-year-old tree with a single blow), his
biographer shows a gentle, devout, rigorous, yet soft-spoken man. If Columbanus
blazed with the strength of God, he also shone with the love of Christ.
The good abbot
Jonas tells us that St. Columbanus was born of a noble Leinster family and
received a classical education at Clonard, the great mother-school of Ireland,
which Saint Finnian had founded with a rare Gaelic blending of sanctity and
scholarship.
Jonas reports that
Columbanus was handsome of appearance with a fair complexion, and soon crossed
swords with the devil in the form of lascivae puellae, wanton girls. Somewhere
about this time the king of Cualann sent his daughter to St. Finnian at Clonard
to read her Psalter in Latin. It would hardly be unreasonable to say that
Clonard housed some girl students under conditions akin to modern universities.
Jonas writes of
this time:
Whilst he was
turning these things over within him he came to the cell of a religious woman
dedicated to God. After having greeted her with lowly voice, he made as bold as
he could to seek her counsel with the forwardness of youth.
When she saw him in
the budding strength of youth, she said: "I, going forward with all my
strength, began the battle. For 12 years I have had no home. Since I sought
this place of exile--Christ being my leader--I have never followed the world;
having set my hand to the plough I have never looked back. Had I not been of
the weaker sex I would have crossed the seas and sought an even more hidden
place of pilgrimage.
"You are
aflame with the fires of youth, yet you dwell in the land of your birth. You
lend your ear willy nilly to weak voices, your own weakness bending you. Yet
you think you can freely avoid women. Do you remember Eve coaxing, Adam
yielding, Samson weakened by Delilah, David lured from his old righteousness by
Bethsheba's beauty, Solomon the Wise deceived by the love of women?
"Go," she
said, "go, child, and turn aside from the ruin into which so many have
fallen. Leave the path that leads to the gates of hell." Frightened by
these words and--beyond what you would believe of an invincible
youth--terror-stricken, he returns thanks to his chastener, and bidding
farewell to his companions he sets out. His mother beseeches him not to leave
her. . . . Casting herself on the ground she refuses him leave to go. But he
crossing the threshold and his mother, implores her not to be broken with
grief, saying that she shall see him no more in this life, but that whither
soever lies the path of holiness, there will he go.
Columbanus did as
he later wrote in his On Mortification regarding seeking and obeying counsel:
"Nothing is sweeter than calm of conscience, nothing safer than purity of
soul, which yet no one can bestow on himself because it is properly the gift of
another." For a time Columbanus withdrew from the battle living with
another holy man, Sinnel, on Cluain Inis, one of the hundred islands of Lough
Erne. The counsel of the holy woman did not mean that he should decline battle
with his enemy, but that he should decline to do so on the enemy's own battle
field. Like his Master, he accepted battle on the field chosen for him by the
Spirit of God.
During his time on
the island he became so well-versed in Sacred Scripture that he wrote a
commentary on the Psalms.
On a nearby island
Saint Comgall was preparing for his life's work by living as an anchorite. He
and Columbanus may have met while living as hermits, for once Comgall began the
monastery at Bangor on the southern shores of Belfast Lough, we soon find
Columbanus in a wattle-hut there--one of the first monks of Bangor.
After many years at
Bangor the Holy Spirit prompted Columbanus to become a missionary. Still
mistrustful of interpreting the movement of the Spirit within him, Columbanus
sought Comgall's permission and was refused until Comgall recognized in
Columbanus's obedience the mark of a divine call.
Around 580-585
(about age 45), emulating Jesus and the Apostles, he left Ireland with a band
of twelve monks and worked in Wales, where he collected more monks to go with
them. Saint Gall, who evangelized the Swiss and founded a famous monastery, was
one of his disciples who accompanied him. (One source says that they preached
in England.)
Upon arriving in
Gaul, the Irish monks preached to the people both in words and deeds of
charity, penance, and devotion. Their reputation so impressed the Burgundian
King Guntramnus (Gontran; a grandson of Clovis) that, about 590, he offered
Columbanus ground for their first place of exile at Annegray in the mountains
of the Vosges. It provided Columbanus the two things he desired most: quiet
contemplation of God and work among souls. The dark mountain forests with their
darker caves gave him constant isolation from the world which God's love was
teaching him to fly. The simple, untaught pagans of these forests needed his
teaching of the faith.
For some time the
monks dwelt in a ruined castle-hamlet at Annegray in Haute-Saone, content to
bivouac among the ruins. Columbanus had soon collected such a vast number of
disciples that a new home had to be sought some miles distant at Luxeuil.
There, built from the stones of a ruined Roman bath and temple, stands a
monastery that has made Luxeuil famous not only in France but throughout the
Church. Columbanus governed Luxeuil for 25 happy years.
Abbot Jonas records
here that Columbanus and the community prayed for the wife of a man and she was
instantly cured, though she had been ill for over a year. But he incidentally
tells us how this man had brought a wagon of bread and vegetables most
opportunely because the monastery was so poor that they could give a sick
brother only roots and bark.
Walking through the
woods one day carrying the Holy Scriptures, Columbanus debated with himself
whether he would prefer to fall in with wild beasts or wicked men. He blessed
himself many times as he pondered the question, going deeper and deeper into
the forest. His question was answered by the appearance of twelve wolves coming
toward him. Standing motionless as they surrounded him, he prayed, "God,
look to my help: Lord, make haste to help me." They came nearer and
nuzzled his clothes as he stood unshaken. Then they turned and went wandering
again in the woods.
When he thought his
question answered, he continued on his way. He had not gone far when he heard
the voices of Swabian robbers who haunted the countryside. Again, his constancy
was tested but they left him untouched.
Another time,
diving further into the forest he saw to his ascetic delight a dark cave that
he made his own by instantly taming the fierce bear to whom it belonged.
(Another story says he killed the bear with his bare hands--a feat indeed!)
Yet Bishop
Chamnoald, once Columbanus's disciple, says we should not marvel that bird and
beast should obey the command of a man of God. Chamnoald tells that Columbanus
would call to the wild creatures when he went into the woods to fast or pray,
and that they would come to him at once. He would stroke them with his hand and
caress them: and the wild things and the birds would leap and frisk about him
for sheer joy as pups jump on their masters. The bishop said that he himself
had seen this, and that even the squirrels would answer his call, climb into
the hands and shoulder of Columbanus and run in and out of the folds of his
cowl.
Throughout his life
his chief concern was to discern the Will of God and do it. When the love he
always enkindled by his gifts of soul and even of body was obvious even to
himself, he fled to his bear cave to be alone with God. He seems afraid of
attracting the love of others and distracting them from the love of God.
Once when he was
praying in his cave, he received a divine revelation that many of his beloved
monks were ill. At once he hastened home to Luxeuil. He bade the sick brethren
rise and thrash the corn on the thrashing-floor. The obedient brethren,
according to Jonas, were instantly cured; the disobedient stayed ill for the
better part of a year and came near dying.
One day before
dinner, the cellarer was drawing beer from the hogshead, when he was summoned
elsewhere by Columbanus. In the hurry of the moment he forgot to put the cork
in the tap. It is needless to say that on his return to the cellar the cellarer
found not a drop spilled! Jonas writes of it, "O how great was the merit
of him who commanded; and how great the obedience of him who did as he was
bid."
The growth of
Luxeuil led to the creation of a second monastery at Fountains (Fontaines).
Soon his followers spread all over Europe, building monasteries in France,
Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.
With this growth in
numbers and influence came the inevitable opposition. Columbanus aroused
hostility, especially from the Frankish bishops, by the Celtic usages he
installed in his monasteries and for refusing to acknowledge the bishops'
jurisdiction over them. He defended his practices in letters to the Holy See
and refused to attend a Gallican synod at Chalons in 603 when summoned to
explain his Celtic usages.
His outspoken
protest against the disorders of the Frankish court led in 610 to King
Theoderic exiling Columbanus and all his monks who were not of French blood.
The quarrel recorded by Abbot Jonas is verified by history. The young king of
Burgundy, Theoderic (Thierry) II, had given shelter to his grandmother Queen
Brunhilda when she was driven out of her homeland by the Austrasian nobles.
Brunhilda was resentful that Columbanus denied her entrance into his monastery,
contrary to the Frankish custom, although Columbanus banned all women and even
lay men.
Thierry and
Columbanus argued over sexual morality and, of course, the saint found no
support from the local episcopacy, who were dependent upon the crown. Pope
Saint Gregory's letters to Queen 0903Brunhilda and her grandson on the need of
ending simony, especially from the episcopate, lead us to believe that the
bishops of Burgundy and Austrasia were not the men to correct Merovingian
morals. If things came to a breaking point between Luxeuil and Theoderic these
prelates might be expected to find their consciences coincided with the king's.
Unmarried Theoderic
was already the father of four children, whom Brunhilda in the midst of her
court asked Columbanus to bless. The saint replied, "Bless them! Bless the
fruit of adultery, the children of shame, the testimony of all the debaucheries
of their father! In the name of the Lord who chastises sinners, I curse
them!"
Now this was
probably a little harsh, but could these barbarian peoples understand any
other? The only argument that could convince these beasts of prey, these German
invaders who 150 years earlier had installed themselves in the ruins of the
Roman Empire, was fear. Fear of hell, fear of eternal torment, fear of the God
of vengeance--there was no other way of holding in check the violence that was
ready to break loose.
But a break with
such a man as the widely revered Columbanus has to be done diplomatically. A
favorable opening seemed to be in the question of the keeping of Easter. It was
and still is a question so obscure that some writers have accused the British
and Irish Churches of being "Quartodecimans," by keeping Easter as
the Jews keep their Pasch (probably as they had originally been taught by
Rome), on a day determined by the full moon, even if that day were not a
Sunday.
A synod of
Merovingian bishops was summoned by King Theoderic on the advice of Pope
Gregory to reform several matters, but not the celebration of Easter. The synod's
chief concern was to indict Luxeuil for its Easter observance, so Columbanus
appealed in writing to the pope as did Saint Patrick before him. He also wrote
eloquently and politely to the synod, but to no avail. He and his brethren were
exiled. Apparently, his letter to St. Gregory never reached its destination.
(It seems that the mail in those days was as unreliable as now, or that a
courtier intercepted it.)
That Columbanus
bore no malice is evident when he had a vision of battle and Theoderic's violent
death. He awoke in grief and was counselled to pray for the victor against
Theoderic. But the old saint replied, "Your counsel is foolish and unholy.
Nor is it the will of God, Who bade us pray for our enemies."
The monks were
escorted by the military down the Loire through Orleans and Tours to the port
of Nantes, where he wrote a famous letter to the Frankish monks left at
Luxeuil. There they were put on a ship bound for Ireland. The ship, however,
was driven up upon rocks where it was stranded. Thus, they never made it back
to Ireland. Instead, they made their way through Paris and Meaux to the court
of Theodebert II of Neustria (Austrasia), where they were offered refuge at
Metz. From Metz the monks began to preach the Gospel among the pagan Alemanni
around Bregenz on Lake Constanz amidst the ruins of the Roman town, where they
stayed for three years and two of the monks were slain by hostile natives. In
their wanderings, these Irish monks founded over 100 monasteries in France and
Switzerland.
It is said that his
preaching converted many, including Saint Ouen, who founded Jouarre, and Saint
Fare, the daughter of a noble family who founded Faremoutiers. His influence
was extensive.
Theoderic, after
conquering the area of Bregenz and becoming king of Austrasia, again drove
Columbanus, 70 or 80 years old, into exile with only one companion. But
Columbanus found his reward of peace at the end of his life.
The province of
Lombardy, which he entered when he had crossed the Alps, was ruled by Agilulph,
an Arian. His wife was the wise, noble, saintly Theodelinda to whom St. Gregory
dedicated his Dialogues. The fame of Columbanus seems to have already reached
the court. King Agilulph, who a few years before was besieging Rome and
creating a desert of the Campagna, welcomed the exiled saint almost as a
national asset.
Within the
Apennines between Milan and Genoa, at a spot now famous under the name of
Bobbio, there was a ruined basilica dedicated to St. Peter. If, as is not
unlikely, the ruins were the handiwork of these ruthless Arian Lombards, there
was a quality of penance and restitution in Agilulph the Arian's gift of it to
Columbanus.
One incident throws
light on the undaunted worker. To restore the basilica the little group of
monks cut and dragged timber from the neighboring wood. Sometimes the great
trees were felled where no timber-wain could go. The monks were forced to carry
the great beams on their shoulders. Yet God seemed so manifestly to help these
men to help themselves that heavy logs which, on the word of Jonas, 30 or 40
men could barely have carried over level ground, were carried over rocks on the
shoulders of ancient Columbanus and two or three monks. With a touch of poetry
Jonas adds that the abbot and his monks carried their load "with such
unfaltering feet as if moving in play and with joy."
This abbey
flourished for 12 centuries until Napoleon closed it in 1802. Its library was
divided among various libraries in Europe. Pope Pius XI stated that the
collection from Bobbio accounted for much of the prestige enjoyed among
scholars by the Ambrosian Library in Milan.
Queen Theodelinda's
prayer and plan for the conversion of her Arian husband and the Lombards
received sudden reinforcement by the illustrious exile from Luxeuil. The anger
of one queen, Brunhilda, was the opportunity for a greater good--God works all
things to the good of those who love Him and are called according to His
purpose.
Although 10 years
had elapsed since Agilulph had begun a friendship with Pope St. Gregory the
Great, which might soon have born fruit in the king's conversion, St. Gregory's
death had withdrawn the main clerical influence over the king's Arian mind.
With the coming of Columbanus, Theodelinda saw the possibility of Gregory's
influence being renewed.
But in Lombardy
Columbanus met for the first time the subtle atmosphere of the two great
Eastern heresies: the king and most of his subjects were Arians. The rest of
his people, even the clergy, were Nestorians enmeshed in the famous controversy
of the Three Chapters. Columbanus could find his peace-nurtured believing mind
only bewildered by these Oriental disputations and phrase-weavings- -historians
wrong both him and the original sources of his history when they see descending
the slopes of the Alps only a dogmatic sleuth-hound yearning for controversial
blood. Faced with such heresies, Columbanus wrote a treatise and became
involved in opposing the Three Chapters, which were condemned by the fifth
general council of Constantinople. The bishops of Istria and some of Lombardy
defended these writings with such warmth as to break off communion with Rome.
But Queen
Theodelinda saw that this undaunted lover of truth and peace was God-sent to
bring peace to her king and people through the truth. Though his life was now
measured only by months, he could not stint himself when Theodelinda requested
help in bringing Arian and Nestorian Lombardy to faith guaranteed by the see of
Rome.
At Agilulph's
request St. Columbanus wrote a letter to the reigning Pope Boniface IV
regarding the need to summon a synod to bring dogmatic peace. In it he says:
". . . the
schism of the people is a grief to [Agilulph] on account of the queen and her
son and perhaps for his own sake too; seeing that he is believed to have said
that if he knew the truth he would believe. . . . The king asks you, the queen
asks you, all ask you, that all things may become one as soon as possible, so
that as there is peace in the fatherland there may be peace in the faith and
the whole flock of Christ may henceforth be one. Rex regum! tu Petrum, te tota
sequetur ecclesia (O king of kings, follow thou Peter, and the whole Church
will follow thee)."
Columbanus wrote a
defense of Rome and of the orthodox faith to an anonymous person, who was
probably an Arian bishop of northern Italy: "Thereupon I made such reply
as I could . . . for I believe that the Pillar of the Church is always unmoved
in Rome."
Abbot Jonas assures
us that, no doubt by the wish of King Agilulph and Queen Theodelinda, he took
up his abode near Milan, that "by the weapon of the Scriptures" he
might rend and destroy the deceits of the heretics, that is, of the Arian
heresy, against whom he wrote a scholarly book.
He continued to
preach to large crowds who were deeply moved at the sight of his long white
hair and beard, and of his face which though deeply lined with age and fatigue
still shone with the zeal for Christ and was able to move souls.
His loyalty to Rome
was so great that he sent this book to the pope for approval or condemnation.
It is the same Columbanus who appealed to Pope Gregory for a ruling on the
Easter question: "This [book] I have sent to you that you may read it and
correct it where it is contrary to the truth; for I dare not count myself to be
beyond correction."
He witnesses that
the Irish Church acknowledges the authority of the Roman Pontiff, not because
of Rome but because of St. Peter:
All we Irish
dwelling on the edge of the world are disciples of Saints Peter and Paul and of
the disciples who, under the Holy Spirit, wrote the Sacred Canon. We accept
nothing outside this evangelical and apostolic teaching. There was no heretic,
no Jew, no schismatic, but the Catholic Faith, as first delivered to us by you,
the successor of the apostles, is kept unshaken. . . . We, indeed, are, as I
have said, chained to the Chair of St. Peter; for although Rome is great and
known afar, it is great and honored with us only by this Chair.
In writing this
last witness of an Irish saint, Columbanus was refuting beforehand the argument
current since the 16th century, that the See of Rome set up by St. Peter
obtained its supremacy not because of Peter but because of Rome. Two Churches,
Persia and Ireland, by their witness to the Chair of Peter, are the refutation
of this argument; because Persia in the East and Ireland in the West were
unconquered by Rome.
Thus it was that
God converted both Agilulph and his people through Columbanus. For centuries
Bobbio was the citadel of scientific defense which owed its existence to the
man who united culture and sanctity in one mind and heart. When ruin overtook
it centuries later, the gathered treasures of its library enriched the
libraries that still enrich the scholarship of the world.
Columbanus's
prophecy about the death of Theodoric, the rise of Clotaire, and the brutal
murder of Brunhilda lead Clotaire to invite Columbanus back to France. He would
not go back asked the king to look kindly on the monks of Luxeuil.
The Church also has
St. Columbanus to thank for two contributions of great worth--his Rule and his
Penitential.
His rule is not
original but merely embodies the stern asceticism of his fellow-countrymen and
especially his fellow monks at Bangor. In the end it was found that the less
exacting Rule of Saint Benedict was more acceptable to the would-be monks of
the West. While the sterner rule everywhere yielded to the milder, every
movement towards a reform of the Rule of St. Benedict has been a movement
towards the ideal of St. Columbanus.
Even greater than
his Rule is his penitential, containing the prescriptions of penances to be
imposed upon the monks for every fault, however light. Of the penitential Oscar
Watkins writes:
"The fact of
outstanding importance with respect to the Penitential of Columbanus is that
while it corresponds to no existing practice to be found anywhere in force from
former times on the continent of Europe, it reproduces all the main features of
the peculiar system which has been seen at work in the Celtic churches . . . As
in the British and Irish systems, the penance and the reconciliation are alike
private" (p. 615).
"It is not a
little remarkable that by the end of the seventh century the Rule of St.
Columbanus, for whatsoever reason, practically disappears, and the Rule of St.
Benedict becomes supreme. But his Penitential system no only survived in the
monasteries which were now being founded, but was destined in time, after the
later English influence, to become the general penitential system of Western
Europe" (Watkins, p. 124).
Few customs are so
characteristic of the Latin Church, which is officially distinguished from the
Eastern Church, as the very frequent and humble practice of confession. It is
to the credit of sinful human nature that this Sacrament, which our Redeemer
made not so much an obligation as a privilege, should yet be frequented almost
as an obligation. Perhaps we are close to the motive of this humble practice in
thinking of its connection, by way of cleansing, with the great Banquet of the
Body and Blood. One of the chief glories of the fellow-countrymen of Columbanus
will be that to him more than to any other individual in the Church this lowly
practice seems due.
Columbanus's last
literary testament is a letter to Pope Boniface IV, which would lead the reader
to believe that he was an unwearied warrior for the faith, rather than bowed
with ailment and age. He also wrote a charming poem in Adonic verse to his
young friend Fedolius, which showed him to be less like Tertullian and more
like Gregory Nazianzen or Prudentius.
The only certain
date in his life is that of his dies natalis, though we don't know how he died.
We do know that the exile finally made it home to his Father and was welcomed
there. His body was laid to rest in the heart of the Apennines, where it
remains.
His somewhat
intemperate defense of the Celtic over the Roman liturgical customs and the austerity
of his rule, make him a rather forbidding personality; but on the other hand,
through the numerous abbeys, founded by himself and by his disciples,
especially after they had become Benedictines, he exerted a determining and
lasting influence on Western civilization. His submission to Rome at a time
when there was a real fear that the center of Christendom might pass into the
hands of the Celts, is one of the most significant events in the history of the
Church. He dedicated Ireland to the Universal Church and laid that fear to
rest.
In 1916, the
American Bishop Edward J. Galvin, born on the feast of Columbanus in 1882,
founded the Columban Missionary Society and, in 1922, the Missionary Sisters of
Saint Columban. Thus, the heritage of this evangelizer continues in yet another
land and time (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, MacManus,
MacNabb, Metlake, Montague, Waddell, Walsh, Watkins).
St. Columbanus is
represented as a Benedictine with a missioner's cross and a bear near him.
Sometimes he carries an abbatial staff, a missioner's cross, and wears a sun on
his chest; or he is shown in a bear's den with a fountain springing up at his
prayers (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1123.shtml
November 21
St. Columban of Ireland,
Abbot and Confessor
HE was a native of Leinster, one of the four principal provinces of Ireland, and was born about the middle of the sixth century. The monastic institute received at that time the greatest lustre in that country, from the eminent sanctity and great learning of those who professed it, who rendered it an Island of Saints, and the mart of sacred literature. It abounded in monasteries, which were so many great schools of sacred learning, and in which many fervent persons, by a special call of God, led an abstracted life, devoted to retirement, contemplation, and the practice of penance, sequestered not only from the distraction of secular business, but also from ordinary conversation with the world, that they might more freely converse with God and his heavenly spirits. The most numerous and most celebrated of these monasteries was that of Benchor, in the county of Down, founded by St. Comgal, about the year 550; and under his direction a great number of fervent servants of God, seemed to lead an angelical life in mortal flesh. They tilled the ground with their own hands, and followed other manual labour which did not interrupt their prayer and heavenly contemplation. They also applied themselves to sacred studies, in which St. Comgal was himself an excellent master. 1 Their rule was originally borrowed from those of St. Basil, and other orientals.
St. Columban, after having learned the first elements of the sciences under St. Sinellus at Cluain-Inys, took the religious habit at Benchor, and lived there several years, inuring himself to the most austere practices of mortification. Such was the progress he made in the sacred sciences as to be esteemed a kind of oracle in them; and, when very young, he composed a commentary on the Psalms, to be a help to devotion to himself and others in reciting those divine prayers: but this work is long since lost. To disengage himself more perfectly from the world and all earthly ties, he desired, like Abraham, to travel into some foreign country; and having communicated his design to St. Comgal, obtained his leave and blessing, though with some difficulty. For the holy abbot was sorry to be deprived of such an assistant, and only consented because he was satisfied that the desire of Columban was an inspiration of God for the advancement of his honour. Our saint departed from Benchor with twelve other monks, being about thirty years of age. He passed into Britain, and thence into Gaul, where he arrived about the year 585. Ecclesiastical discipline was there much neglected, partly by the incursions of the barbarians, and partly through the remissness of some of the prelates. There were few places where penance was observed, or mortification practised. Columban preached in all places through which he passed, and the sanctity of his life added great weight to his instructions. He was so humble that he always contended with his twelve companions for the lowest place. They were all of one mind; their modesty, sobriety, gentleness, patience and charity made them universally admired. If any one was guilty of the least fault, they all joined in reforming his error. Every thing was in common; nor was ever any contradiction or harsh word heard among them. In whatever place they abode, their example inspired a universal piety.
Columban’s reputation reached the court of the king of Burgundy. This was Gontran, (not Sigebert, as some have mistaken,) who entreated him to stay in his kingdom, and offered him whatever spot of ground he should choose in all his dominions for building a monastery. Columban pitched upon the ruinous old castle of Anegrai, situate in the desert of Voge, in the mountainous part of what is now called Lorrain. Here he erected his first monastery, which is long ago extinct. This house became soon too small to contain the great numbers that desired to live under the discipline of the saint. He therefore built a second monastery called Luxeu, eight miles from the former. This became the chief house of his Order, and still subsists. A third monastery was built by St. Columban, about three miles from Luxeu, which, on account of the abundance of springs in that place, was called Fountains. It is now no more than a priory dependent on Luxeu. St. Columban appointed superiors, who were persons of approved piety, over each of these monasteries, and resided himself in each by turns. Sixteen discourses or instructions which he made to his monks, out of many others which he appears by some of these to have written, are published in the Library of the Fathers. 2 In them we discern the author’s great penetration and light in spiritual things, and admire his affective piety and unction, and a doctrine above what is human, to use the expression of a contemporary writer. 3 Speaking of the contempt of the world the saint cries out: “O transitory life, how many hast thou deceived, seduced, and blinded! If I consider the rapidity of thy flight, thou seemest a nothing: thy existence is little more than a shadow. They who set their hearts on thee, know thee not; they only understand thee who despise thy enjoyments. When thou showest thyself, thou art again withdrawn as if thou wert no more than a phantom. What art thou but a swift course on a road, passing as a bird on the wing, uncertain as a cloud, frail as a vapour, vanishing as a shadow.”
The short poems of St. Columban on moral and pious subjects, show him to have been a good poet for the age in which he lived, and to have been acquainted with profane history and mythology. 4 Among the works of St. Columban, nothing was so much admired as his Rule, which St. Benedict Anian has inserted in his collection of monastic rules, and which is full of wisdom and spiritual instruction. The author lays down for the foundation of his rule, the love of God and of our neighbour, as a general precept, upon which the superstructure of all the rest is to be raised. He inculcates obedience, poverty, disinterestedness, humility, chastity, mortification both external (or of the senses) and internal, or of the will, in doing nothing according to self-will; silence and prudence to discern between good and evil: each of these he enforces and grounds upon some text of scripture or principle of morality. He appoints, that monks shall eat only towards the evening, and only the meanest food, herbs, pulse, or meal moistened in water, with a little bread: the food to be proportioned to their labour. He will have them to eat every day that they may be able to perform all duties! and he prescribes every day to be spent in fasting, prayer, reading, and, except on festivals, manual labour. In prescribing the office which was called The Course, he mentions the number of psalms and verses to be recited at every hour. St. Columban adds, that he received these rules from his fathers, that is, the monks of Ireland. He says, that it was customary to kneel down at the end of each psalm, and mentions the obligation of every one’s praying also privately in his own chamber; and adds, that the essential parts are prayer of the heart, and the continual application of the mind to God. 5 After the rule follows the saint’s penitential, containing prescriptions of penances to be imposed upon monks for every fault, how light soever. He that shall not answer Amen at grace, before and after meals, shall have six lashes; he that shall talk in the refectory, as many; he that shall not forbear coughing at the beginning of a psalm, shall be treated after the same manner; likewise he that shall touch the chalice with his teeth, or shall smile in the time of divine service. They that have spoken roughly or frowardly, shall receive fifty lashes, as well as they that shall have answered again to their superior. Six lashes were the chastisement of small faults: for greater, especially relating to neglects in the holy mass, sometimes two hundred, but never more than twenty-five at a time. Penance was enjoined a monk who, after finishing his task of work, did not ask for more; or did any thing without orders. Other penances were prescribed besides the discipline, as extraordinary fasts, silence, separation from the table, and humiliations. St. Columban distinguishes two sorts of sins: mortal sins, which were to be confessed to the priest; and lesser sins, which might often be confessed to the abbot, or others who were not priests, before they sat down to table, or went to bed. 6 Confession preceded the penance. Fleury 7 and Ceillier 8 observe from this penitential, that the monks, at going out or coming into the house, asked the blessing of the superior, and presented themselves before the cross; and that they made the sign of the cross upon a spoon, lamp, or whatever else they used, before they touched it: an omission of which was chastised with six lashes. There is another penitential of St. Columban, which contains canonical punishments for all kinds of sins, and all sorts of persons. The rule of St. Columban was highly esteemed, was observed in many great monasteries, and is still followed in some jointly with that of St. Bennet. The monks of St. Columban in the beginning lived on herbs and the bark of trees: and were sometimes reduced to extreme necessity, and relieved by God in a miraculous manner. It was the saint’s custom to pass some time before all great festivals in a closer solitude; for which purpose he retired to a secret cavern some miles from his monastery.
St. Columban kept the feast of Easter on the 14th day of the first moon after the spring equinox, though it fell on a Sunday, according to the custom he had learned in Ireland. Being reproved on this account by the French bishops, he consulted the holy pope St. Gregory, insisting upon the authority of Anatolius, bishop of Laodicea, in 280, and the practice of the Western, that is, the Irish Church. 9 Though he wrote twice to St. Gregory he received no answer, and probably his letters were never delivered. He wrote about the same time, twelve years after his arrival in France, to certain French bishops assembled in a council. He presses their own duties upon them, and gives them lessons of humility and charitableness, begging, that as to the time of celebrating Easter, every one might keep his own custom. After the death of St. Gregory in 604, Sabanian held the apostolic see five months and nineteen days, and Boniface III. eight months and twenty-three days. To this pope, or to his successor, Boniface IV., St. Columban again applied himself for leave to observe the tradition of his own country in the celebration of Easter. 10 But a storm was raised against him which drove him out of the kingdom of Burgundy. Childebert dying in 596, left two sons, Theodebert the elder, king of Austrasia, and Theodoric, king of Burgundy, both under the care of their grandmother, Brunehault. Theodoric had a great respect for St. Columban, who lived in his dominions; and he often visited him. The abbot reproved him for keeping concubines instead of marrying a queen, and the king promised to reform his manners according to his advice. Brunehault, fearing lest a queen should ruin her credit with her grandson, was much provoked against the holy man. Her resentment was much increased by his refusing to bless, at her desire, the king’s four natural children, saying: “They shall not inherit the kingdom; they are the fruit of debauchery.” St. Columban also denied her entrance into his monastery, when she came to visit him: for this he did to all women, and even to all seculars. At this, however, her wrath against him was rekindled. 11 The abbot, seeing the king did not keep his word with him about dismissing his concubines, wrote him a severe letter, with threats of excommunication if he altered not his course of life. Brunehault took that opportunity to stir up the king against him, who banished him, first to Besançon and afterwards ordered two noblemen to conduct him to Nantes, and there see him shipped off for Ireland, in 610, after he had sanctified the desert of Voge for twenty-five years. It seems to have been at Nantes that he wrote a letter to his monks at Luxeu, full of discretion and charity, exhorting them to patience and union. He put to sea, but the vessel being driven back by contrary winds, he went to Clotaire II. who then reigned in Neustria. To him he foretold that the whole French monarchy would come into his power in less than three years: the same he had confidently affirmed on two other occasions on his road. He returned through Paris and Meaux, and repaired to the court of Theodebert, by whom he was well received. Under his protection he went with some of his disciples who had joined him, to preach to the infidels near the lake of Zurich. He took up his dwelling in a solitude there, near Zug. The inhabitants were cruel, and impious worshippers of idols. 12 St. Columban, having begun to preach the true God to them, found them one day making ready a sacrifice, and a large tub filled with beer being placed in the midst of the people, he asked them what they intended to do with it. They answered, it was to offer to their god Wodan. 13 St. Columban blew upon it, and immediately the vessel burst into splinters with a great noise, and all the beer was spilt. The barbarians were surprised, and said he had a strong breath. He exhorted them to forsake their superstitions, and retire home. Many were converted and baptized: others, who had been formerly baptized, and had apostatized, returned to the obedience of the gospel. St. Gall, 14 who accompanied the saint from Ireland, prompted by zeal, set fire to the pagan temples, and threw all the offerings which he found there into the lake; which he could only do upon the presumptive approbation of the people. But some that remained obstinate in their idolatry, were enraged at this action, and resolved to murder him, and to scourge St. Columban, and banish him from their country. The holy men, having notice of their design, retired to Arbone, upon the lake of Constance, where a virtuous priest, named Villemar, received them courteously, and showed them a fruitful and pleasant valley amidst the mountains, where stood the ruins of a little city called Brigantium, now Bregentz. In this place St. Columban and his companions found an oratory dedicated in honour of St. Aurelia, near which they built themselves cells. The people had been formerly instructed slightly in the faith, and had again relapsed into idolatry, and set up in this very oratory three brass images gilt, which they called the tutelar gods of the country. St. Columban ordered St. Gall, who understood the language of the country, to preach to the people. He did so, and afterwards broke the idols in pieces with stones, and threw the metal into the lake. St. Columban blessed the church, sprinkled it with holy water, and, together with his disciples, went round it singing psalms. After having thus solemnized the dedication, he anointed the altar, deposited the relics of St. Aurelia under it, and said mass upon it. The people showed great satisfaction; and returned to the worship of the true God. St. Columban continued at Bregentz near three years, and built there a small monastery. Some of his disciples worked in the kitchen-garden, others cultivated fruit-trees, others were fishermen, and he himself made nets. In the mean time, Theodoric and Theodebert were at variance, and Thoedebert, being defeated, was treacherously delivered up by his own men, and sent by his brother to their grandmother Brunehault, who, having sided with Theodoric, obliged the vanquished prince to receive holy orders, and not many days after put him to death.
St. Columban, seeing Theodoric, his enemy, was become master of the country where he lived, and perceiving that he could no longer remain there with safety, went with many of his disciples into Italy. St. Gall, hindered by a fever, staid behind, and afterwards built, not far from thence, the monastery which bears his name. St. Columban met with a kind reception from Agilulph, king of the Lombards, and under his protection erected the famous monastery of Bobio, in a desert amidst the Appenine mountains, near the river Trebia. He also built an oratory in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary, near which he lived himself in a cave, in strict fasting and retirement all Lent, and at several other seasons of the year: at which times he visited his monastery only on Sundays and festivals. The affair of the Three Chapters, or writings which were condemned in the East by the fifth council at Constantinople, and by Pope Vigilius, as favouring Nestorianism, made at that time a great noise in Italy. The bishops of Istria, and some in Africa, defended these writings with such warmth as to break off communion with the pope and the whole Catholic Church, and to set up an open schism. Several among the Lombards harboured mistaken prejudices in favour of the three chapters grounded upon misinformations, imagining that by their condemnation the council of Chalcedon was condemned, with many other mistakes about the remote transactions of the Orientals in that controversy; which mistakes were very easy, the greater part of the West being, for want of commerce, and through their ignorance of the Greek tongue, strangers to the affairs of the East, except as to what they learned by vague and often false and imperfect relations. Pope Gregory the Great tolerated the conduct of those in the West, chiefly in Lombardy, who, upon mistakes concerning facts which passed in the East, defended the three chapters, but did not on that account break off communion, till they could be better informed, as their faith was in all respects orthodox. Hence he constantly communicated with them, and honoured the warmest sticklers among them with frequent kind letters and presents. Of this number were king Agilulph and his queen Theodelinda, who were persons of singular zeal and piety, had converted their subjects from the Arian heresy, and founded many monasteries and churches. St. Columban, coming into Lombardy, received his informations concerning this debate from these mistaken informations, and declared himself in favour of the three chapters. At the solicitation of King Agilulph and Queen Theodelinda, his patrons, and the founders of his monastery, he wrote to Pope Boniface IV. a strong letter in defence of the three chapters, and against Pope Vigilius, imagining he had condemned in the East the council of Chalcedon, as Liberius had signed a confession of faith favourable to the Arians. Dr. Cave takes notice that, “It is evident from this very epistle of Columban, that he was not rightly informed in the affair of the three chapters.” 15 In the same letter the author expresses great zeal for the honour of the Roman see, and professes himself inviolably attached to it. 16 He continued to his dying day in its communion, and never joined the schismatics in Istria.
In France King Theodoric died some months after the murder of his brother Theodebert, in 613, and was succeeded by his son Sigebert, an infant, under the government of his great-grandmother, Brunehault. King Clotaire made war upon them, took Sigebert and two of his brothers prisoners, and put Brunehault to a cruel death. Thus he remained sole king of the Franks in the same manner as his grandfather Clotaire had been, in the year 511, the thirty-first of his reign. Seeing the prophecy of St. Columban so fully accomplished, he sent Eustasius, whom the holy man had left abbot of Luxeu, to invite him back into France. The saint alleged he could not then abandon Italy, but he wrote to the king earnestly exhorting him to reform his present course of life. Clotaire, for his sake, powerfully protected his monastery of Luxeu, enriched it with considerable revenues, and enlarged its limits. Luxeu is still in a flourishing condition, and the chief monastery of those which the reformed congregation of St. Vanne possesses in the Franche-compté. 17 The abbot Jonas, in the life of St. Columban, informs us, that he had confuted the Arians among the Lombards with great strength and success, particularly at Milan, and that he composed a very learned work against that heresy, though it is long since lost. St. Columban lived to govern his new monastery of Bobio only about a year, and died on the 21st of November, in 615. In his poem on Fedolius, which he seems to have written a little before his death, he says he was then arrived at his eighteenth Olympiad; he was, consequently, at that time at least seventy-two years old. The breviary of the French Benedictins styles him one of the chief patriarchs of the monastic institute, especially in France, where many of the principal monasteries followed his rule, till, in the reign of Charlemagne, for the sake of uniformity, they all received that of St. Bennet. St. Columban is honoured in many churches of France, Italy, and other countries, and is named in the Roman Martyrology. See his life well written by Jonas, abbot of Luxeu, in 650. 18 Rivet, Hist. Lit. de la France, t. 3, p. 505. Helyot, t. 5, p. 65. Ceillier, t. 17, p. 462. Fleming’s Collectanea, &c.
Note 1. See his Life on the 10th of May. [back]
Note 2. Bibl. Patrum, t. 12, p. 9, 21. [back]
Note 3. Ap. Mabil. Act. Ben. t. 2. p. 80, n. 11. [back]
Note 4. See these poems in Goldast’s Paræneticorum veterum; in Patrick Fleming’s Collectanea Sacra; and in the Library of the Fathers, printed Lyons. [back]
Note 5. Pœnit. c. 19. [back]
Note 6. Prolong. in Pœnit. [back]
Note 7. Fleury, l. 35, n. 10. [back]
Note 8. Ceillier, t. 17. [back]
Note 9. S. Columban, ep 1, Bibl. Patr. Lugd. t. 12. [back]
Note 10. Mabill. Act. Bened. t. 2, p. 21. [back]
Note 11. See Mabill. Act. Bened. t. 2, pp. 18, 20. Fredeg. Chron. n. 36. [back]
Note 12. The learned professor Mallet, Introduction à l’Histoire Danoise, (Copenhague, pp. 30, 54, &c.) shows that Odin or Wodan was a Scythian who came from the Palus Mœotis into Scandinavia about seventy years before Christ, and was a great conqueror. Frigga or Freia was his wife: and Thor the most valiant of his sons. On these three chief deities of the Norwegians, Germans, and Celts, see Mallet, On the Edda, or Book of the Mythology of the Islanders, written in the eleventh century. Also Verstegane, Sammes, &c. [back]
Note 13. See Mallet, Mythologie des Celtes, ou Remarques sur l’Edda des Islandois, pp. 47, 81. [back]
Note 14. See the Life of St. Gall, on the 16th of October. [back]
Note 15. Cave, Hist. Liter, t. 1, p. 543. [back]
Note 16. From this letter Bower pretends to infer that the Irish were not disabused of their mistake in defending the three chapters by the letter which St. Gregory the Great wrote to them on that subject in 592. But this letter of St. Columban was written in 613, the year before the death of Boniface IV., and he had left Ireland about the year 585. See Mabillon, Annal. Bened. t. 2. Rivet shows from this very letter, and from the silence of all parties, that St. Columban then conformed to the Nicene decree concerning the celebration of Easter, and that the monks of Luxeu did the same. This is clear from the silence of the seditious monks in Italy, who make the most trifling objections to his rule and tonsure, in the council of Maçon, and would never have passed over the keeping Easter at an undue time, had he then done it. See Helyot, t. 5, p. 70. [back]
Note 17. See Martenne and Durand, Voyage Liter, p. 170. [back]
Note 18. That this Jonas was a native of Ireland, is asserted by Trithemius, Surius, Coccius Sabellicus, Arnold Wion, Molanus, and others: and they ground their assertion upon what Jonas himself has written in his preface to the life of St. Columban. He is not to be confounded with Jonas, a Frenchman and monk of Fontenelle, who, in 731, wrote the life of St. Wulfran, archbishop of Sens. See Ware’s Irish Writers, p. 29. ed. Har. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume XI: November. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/11/212.html
San Colombano Abate
- Memoria Facoltativa
Irlanda c. 525-530 - Bobbio, Piacenza, 23 novembre
615
Colombano
è uno dei rappresentanti del mondo monastico che danno origine a quella
'peregrinatio pro Domino', che costituì uno dei fattori dell'evangelizzazione e
del rinnovamento culturale dell'Europa. Dall'Irlanda passò (c. 590) in Francia,
Svizzera e Italia Settentrionale, creando e organizzando comunità
ecclesiastiche e fondando vari monasteri, alcuni dei quali, per esempio Luxeuil
e Bobbio, celebri per gli omonimi libri liturgici. La regola monastica che
codifica la sua spiritualità è improntata a grande rigore e intende associare i
monaci al sacrificio di Cristo. La sua prassi monastica ha influito sulla nuova
disciplina penitenziale dell'Occidente. (Mess.
Rom.)
Patronato: Motociclisti
Etimologia: Colombano = dolce, delicato
Emblema: Bastone pastorale
Martirologio Romano: San Colombano, abate, che di origine irlandese,
fattosi pellegrino per Cristo per istruire nel Vangelo le genti della Francia,
fondò insieme a molti altri monasteri quello di Luxeuil, che egli stesso
governò in una stretta osservanza della regola; costretto all’esilio,
attraversò le Alpi e fondò in Emilia il monastero di Bobbio, celebre per la
disciplina e gli studi, dove, benemerito della Chiesa, morì in pace e il suo
corpo fu deposto in questo giorno.
Il santo abate Colombano è l’irlandese più noto del primo Medioevo: con
buona ragione egli può essere chiamato un santo «europeo», perché come monaco,
missionario e scrittore ha lavorato in vari Paesi dell’Europa occidentale. Insieme agli irlandesi del suo
tempo, egli era consapevole dell’unità culturale dell’Europa. In una sua
lettera, scritta intorno all’anno 600 e indirizzata a Papa Gregorio Magno, si
trova per la prima volta l’espressione «totius Europae, di tutta l’Europa», con
riferimento alla presenza della Chiesa nel Continente (cfr Epistula I,1).
Colombano era nato intorno all’anno 543 nella provincia di Leinster, nel sud-est dell’Irlanda.
Educato nella propria casa da ottimi maestri che lo avviarono allo studio delle arti liberali, si affidò poi alla guida dell’abate Sinell della comunità di Cluain-Inis, nell’Irlanda settentrionale, ove poté approfondire lo studio delle Sacre Scritture. All’età di circa vent’anni entrò nel monastero di Bangor nel nord- est dell’isola, ove era abate Comgall, un monaco ben noto per la sua virtù e il suo rigore ascetico. In piena sintonia col suo abate, Colombano praticò con zelo la severa disciplina del monastero, conducendo una vita di preghiera, di ascesi e di studio. Lì fu anche ordinato sacerdote. La vita a Bangor e l’esempio dell’abate influirono sulla concezione del monachesimo che Colombano maturò col tempo e diffuse poi nel corso della sua vita.
All’età di circa cinquant’anni, seguendo l’ideale ascetico tipicamente irlandese della «peregrinatio pro Christo», del farsi cioè pellegrino per Cristo, Colombano lasciò l’isola per intraprendere con dodici compagni un’opera missionaria sul continente europeo. Dobbiamo infatti tener presente che la migrazione di popoli dal nord e dall’est aveva fatto ricadere nel paganesimo intere Regioni già cristianizzate. Intorno all’anno 590 questo piccolo drappello di missionari approdò sulla costa bretone. Accolti con benevolenza dal re dei Franchi d’Austrasia (l’attuale Francia), chiesero solo un pezzo di terra incolta. Ottennero l’antica fortezza romana di Anne-gray, tutta diroccata ed abbandonata, ormai coperta dalla foresta. Abituati ad una vita di estrema rinuncia, i monaci riuscirono entro pochi mesi a costruire sulle rovine il primo eremo. Così, la loro rievangelizzazione iniziò a svolgersi innanzitutto mediante la testimonianza della vita. Con la nuova coltivazione della terra cominciarono anche una nuova coltivazione delle anime. La fama di quei religiosi stranieri che, vivendo di preghiera e in grande austerità, costruivano case e dissodavano la terra, si diffuse celermente attraendo pellegrini e penitenti. Soprattutto molti giovani chiedevano di essere accolti nella comunità monastica per vivere, come loro, questa vita esemplare che rinnovava la coltura della terra e delle anime. Ben presto si rese necessaria la fondazione di un secondo monastero. Fu edificato a pochi chilometri di distanza, sulle rovine di un’antica città termale, Luxeuil. Il monastero sarebbe poi diventato il centro dell’irradiazione monastica e missionaria di tradizione irlandese sul continente europeo. Un terzo monastero fu eretto a Fontaine, un’ora di cammino più a nord.
A Luxeuil Colombano visse per quasi vent’anni. Qui il santo scrisse per i suoi seguaci la Regula monachorum per un certo tempo più diffusa in Europa di quella di san Benedetto disegnando l’immagine ideale del monaco. È l’unica antica regola monastica irlandese che oggi possediamo. Come integrazione egli elaborò la Regula coenobialis, una sorta di codice penale per le infrazioni dei monaci, con punizioni piuttosto sorprendenti per la sensibilità moderna, spiegabili soltanto con la mentalità del tempo e dell’ambiente. Con un’altra opera famosa intitolata De poenitentiarum misura taxanda, scritta pure a Luxeuil, Colombano introdusse nel continente la confessione e la penitenza private e reiterate; fu detta penitenza «tariffata» per la proporzione stabilita tra gravità del peccato e tipo di penitenza imposta dal confessore. Queste novità destarono il sospetto dei vescovi della regione, un sospetto che si tramutò in ostilità quando Colombano ebbe il coraggio di rimproverarli apertamente per i costumi di alcuni di loro. Occasione per il manifestarsi del contrasto fu la disputa circa la data della Pasqua: l’Irlanda seguiva infatti la tradizione orientale in contrasto con la tradizione romana. Il monaco irlandese fu convocato nel 603 a Châlon-sur-Saôn per rendere conto davanti a un sinodo delle sue consuetudini relative alla penitenza e alla Pasqua. Invece di presentarsi al sinodo, egli mandò una lettera in cui minimizzava la questione invitando i Padri sinodali a discutere non solo del problema della data della Pasqua, problema piccolo secondo lui, «ma anche di tutte le necessarie normative canoniche che da molti cosa più grave sono disattese» (cfr Epistula II,1).
Contemporaneamente scrisse a Papa Bonifacio IV come qualche anno prima già si era rivolto a Papa Gregorio Magno (cfr Epistula I) per difendere la tradizione irlandese (cfr Epistula III).
Intransigente come era in ogni questione morale, Colombano entrò poi in conflitto anche con la Casa reale, perché aveva rimproverato aspramente il re Teodorico per le sue relazioni adulterine. Ne nacque una rete di intrighi e manovre a livello personale, religioso e politico che, nell’anno 610, si tradusse in un decreto di espulsione da Luxeuil di Colombano e di tutti i monaci di origine irlandese, che furono condannati ad un definitivo esilio. Furono scortati fino al mare e imbarcati a spese della corte verso l’Irlanda. Ma la nave si incagliò a poca distanza dalla spiaggia e il capitano, vedendo in ciò un segno del cielo, rinunciò all’impresa e, per paura di essere maledetto da Dio, riportò i ed entusiasmo ai coetanei. monaci sulla terra ferma. Essi, invece di tornare a Luxeuil, decisero di cominciare una nuova opera di evangelizzazione. Si imbarcarono sul Reno e risalirono il fiume. Dopo una prima tappa a Tuggen presso il lago di Zurigo, andarono nella regione di Bregenz presso il lago di Costanza per evangelizzare gli Alemanni.
Poco dopo però Colombano, a causa di vicende politiche poco favorevoli alla sua opera, decise di attraversare le Alpi con la maggior parte dei suoi discepoli. Rimase solo un monaco di nome Gallus; dal suo eremo si sarebbe poi sviluppata la famosa abbazia di Sankt Gallen, in Svizzera. Giunto in Italia, Colombano trovò un’accoglienza benevola presso la corte reale longobarda, ma dovette affrontare subito difficoltà notevoli: la vita della Chiesa era lacerata dall’eresia ariana ancora prevalente tra i longobardi e da uno scisma che aveva staccato la maggior parte delle Chiese dell’Italia settentrionale dalla comunione col Vescovo di Roma. Colombano si inserì con autorevolezza in questo contesto, scrivendo un libello contro l’arianesimo e una lettera a Bonifacio IV per convincerlo a fare alcuni passi decisi in vista di un ristabilimento dell’unità (cfr Epistula V). Quando il re dei longobardi, nel 612 o 613, gli assegnò un terreno a Bobbio, nella valle del Trebbia, Colombano fondò un nuovo monastero che sarebbe poi diventato un centro di cultura paragonabile a quello famoso di Montecassino. Qui giunse al termine dei suoi giorni: morì il 23 novembre 615 e in tale data è commemorato nel rito romano fino ad oggi.
Il messaggio di san Colombano si concentra in un fermo richiamo alla conversione e al distacco dai beni terreni in vista dell’eredità eterna. Con la sua vita ascetica e il suo comportamento senza compromessi di fronte alla corruzione dei potenti, egli evoca la figura severa di san Giovanni Battista. La sua austerità, tuttavia, non è mai fine a se stessa, ma è solo il mezzo per aprirsi liberamente all’amore di Dio e corrispondere con tutto l’essere ai doni da lui ricevuti, ricostruendo così in sé l’immagine di Dio e al tempo stesso dissodando la terra e rinnovando la società umana. Cito dalle sue Instructiones: «Se l’uomo userà rettamente di quelle facoltà che Dio ha concesso alla sua anima allora sarà simile a Dio. Ricordiamoci che gli dobbiamo restituire tutti quei doni che egli ha depositato in noi quando eravamo nella condizione originaria. Ce ne ha insegnato il modo con i suoi comandamenti. Il primo di essi è quello di amare il Signore con tutto il cuore, perché egli per primo ci ha amato, fin dall’inizio dei tempi, prima ancora che noi venissimo alla luce di questo mondo» (cfr Instr. XI). Queste parole, il santo irlandese le incarnò realmente nella propria vita. Uomo di grande cultura scrisse anche poesie in latino e un libro di grammatica si rivelò ricco di doni di grazia. Fu un instancabile costruttore di monasteri come anche intransigente predicatore penitenziale, spendendo ogni sua energia per alimentare le radici cristiane dell’Europa che stava nascendo. Con la sua energia spirituale, con la sua fede, con il suo amore per Dio e per il prossimo divenne realmente uno dei Padri dell’Europa: egli mostra anche oggi a noi dove stanno le radici dalle quali può rinascere questa nostra Europa.
Autore: Papa Benedetto XVI (udienza generale 11.06.2008)
