Saint Columbanus

Saint Columbanus
Saint Columbanus, stained glass window, Bobbio Abbey crypt
Born	543 Leinster, Kingdom of Meath
Died	21 November 615 Bobbio, Kingdom of the Lombards
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	23 November
Patronage	Motorcyclists

Columbanus (Irish: Columbán, 543 – 21 November 615), also known as St. Columban, was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries from around 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in present-day Italy. He is remembered as a key figure in the Hiberno-Scottish mission, or Irish missionary activity in early medieval Europe. In recent years, however, as Columbanus's deeds and legacy have come to be re-examined by historians, the traditional narrative of his career has been challenged and doubts have been raised regarding his actual involvement in missionary work and the extent to which he was driven by purely religious motives or also by a concern for playing an active part in politics and church politics in Francia.

Columbanus taught an Irish monastic rule and penitential practices for those repenting of sins, which emphasised private confession to a priest, followed by penances levied by the priest in reparation for the sins. Columbanus is one of the earliest identifiable Hiberno-Latin writers.

Most of what we know about Columbanus is based on Columbanus' own works (as far as they have been preserved) and Jonas of Bobbio's Vita Columbani (Life of Columbanus), which was written between 639 and 641. Jonas entered Bobbio after Columbanus' death but relied on reports of monks who still knew Columbanus. A description of miracles of Columbanus written by an anonymous monk of Bobbio is of much later date. In the second volume of his Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., Mabillon 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 (the Latinised form of Columbán, meaning the white dove) was born in the Kingdom of Meath, now part of Leinster, in Ireland in 543, the year Saint Benedict died at Monte Cassino. Prior to his birth, his mother was said to have had visions of bearing a child who, in the judgement of those interpreting the visions, would become a "remarkable genius". Columbanus was well-educated in the areas of grammar, rhetoric, geometry, and the Holy Scriptures.