ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 23rd of November
Prayer to the Angels and the Saints
Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.
In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.
Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.
Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.
ST COLUMBAN, ABBOT
“As the sun adds splendour to the dawn, so the Church receives added lustre with each new saint.” (Jonas)
BEGINNINGS
Columban was born around A.D. 540. According to his earliest biographer, the monk Jonas, Columban’s home was in the Province of Leinster, on the southeast side of Ireland.
The name Columban is a Latin one that means ‘dove’, and he is often depicted with a dove, and with a dazzling sun.
Jonas records the story that before his birth Columban’s mother dreamt she saw a great dazzling sun shine out from her to fill the world with its light, and realized that her child would be special.
COLUMBAN THE SCHOLAR
Against his mother’s wishes as a young man Columban turned his steps northward to Fermanagh and magnificent Lough Erne. There he entered a monastery on Cleenish Island founded only a few years before by Sinell, who according to Jonas ‘was famous for his holiness and for his learning in sacred things.’
Cleenish nestles in Upper Lough Erne. Its Irish name Cluan-Inis means Meadow Island, a name which reflects the nature of the island even today, where its 100 acres house numerous inlets and a profusion of reeds, home to abundant wildlife.
PRAYER AND FASTING
Cleenish, flanked by rolling hills and surrounded by distant mountains, was the setting where Columban studied Sacred Scripture, and Latin. Sinell was impressed by the young student. “Such progress did he make in his studies that while yet a young man he wrote a finished work on the Psalms, and also some other works, both hymns and books of instructions.” (Jonas)
Once he decided to become a monk he went to Bangor monastery on Belfast Lough. The Abbot, St Comgall, was the outstanding “Father of Monks” in Ireland, renowned for his insistence on study and discipline. Here Columban gave himself up to prayer and fasting.
COLUMBAN THE EXILE
Abbot Comgall’s rule at Bangor was strict. Bread, water, and vegetables made up the daily ration. The monks wore long white tunics and an outer woolen garment with a hood, and sandals. They lived in huts of wood. Work, fasting, silence, prolonged periods of prayer, mortifications – these were the daily routine.
THEY LIVED IN HUTS OF WOOD
After a time Columban felt called to go into exile as a wanderer for Christ, in the spirit of Abraham: “Go forth from your country and from your kindred, and come into the land which I will show you.” Comgall eventually allowed Columban and twelve others to set off from Bangor and sail away in a little boat into the unknown. “When they reached the sea they asked God’s blessing on their voyage, and embarked.” (Jonas)
COLUMBAN THE PREACHER
After an uneventful crossing they landed in Brittany. They stayed there long enough for others from Brittany to join them, and eventually they headed into Gaul.
They found that religious practice had collapsed, so they began to preach everywhere. Their zeal, the humble lifestyle, and their love of the Lord “brought many back to God. Whatever home he stayed in Columban drew the family into the service of God. Wherever he went Columban took care to preach the Gospel. The example of his life drew people to listen to him.” (Jonas)
COLUMBAN THE FOUNDER
Columban’s zealous spirit characterised the little group of monks. Although their rule was strict, charity became their hallmark.
News of Columban and his companions reached king Sigebert. He begged them to stay in his kingdom, so they found a place in mountainous forests of the Vosges, and settled in an old, dilapidated Roman fort at Annegray. It was a desolate place overrun with brushwood. They cleared part of the forest, using the timber to construct their cells. At first all they had to live on were herbs, roots, and the barks of trees. So began their life in the simplest of monasteries. Soon their fame spread, and crowds came to visit them. “Crowds, especially the sick, began to throng to Annegray, where Columban prayed for them.” (Jonas)
COLUMBAN THE EDUCATOR
Numbers grew, so Columban looked for another suitable place for a monastery. He found Luxeuil, just eight miles west, on the Breuchin river. Formerly a Roman fort with thermal springs, it had become a place where wolves and bears roamed at will.
FORMALLY A ROMAN FORT, IT HAD BECOME A PLACE WHERE WOLVES AND BEARS ROAMED AT WILL
Here a monastery was established around 590 AD. Work, study, and prayer, the unceasing toil of Columban and the others, began to bear fruit. Sons of the nobility came from all sides, and Luxeuil soon became known as the greatest school in Europe. Some abandoned the highest places in the land to become monks in its cloister. Over a span of 20 years it produced no less than 21 recognised saints. Luxeuil became the model of many new monastic foundations.
Montalembert wrote: “Columban’s greatness consists not so much in the establishment of any permanent organisation as in the fact that he enkindled a new spirit in monasticism in Europe, and in time this became the guiding influence in European civilisation.”
COLUMBAN THE HERMIT
An old bear cave is where according to tradition Columban used to pray in solitude. It lies, even today, in remote woods above the Breuchin valley. A nearby spring is known as Columban’s holy well. Wherever he went Columban sought out a cave where he could pray alone. Prayer was at the heart of his ministry. “It became the custom with Columban to retire alone to this cave on Sundays and before the feasts of saints, to give himself uninterrupted prayer. All he had to eat were a few herbs, and the small apples that grew in the forest. His drink was water.” (Jonas)
COLUMBAN AND THE RENEWAL OF THE LAITY
The private Penitential introduced on the continent from Ireland by Columban proved one of the major contributions of the era to the renewal of the laity.
Columban made the Irish system of private penance available to laity wherever he went. The Penitential consisted of a list of sins, together with an appropriate penance. Although the penances appear harsh today, they were lenient in comparison to the severe public excommunications which prevailed at the time. So the laity had the chance to return to a practice of the faith hitherto denied to them.
Here is one excerpt from the Penitential used by Columban:
“If any layman steals an ox or a horse or a sheep from his neighbour, he must first restore it to his neighbour and then do penance on bread and water for 120 days.”
COLUMBAN'S WAY OF SORROWS
Columban denounced the king, Theoderic, and openly reproached the nobles for their immoral ways.
THE COURT FINALLY BANISHED HIM
The court finally banished him, along with the other monks from Ireland. They were taken to the prison at Besancon.
Finally they began their journey of exile down the River Loire to the port at Nantes. At every place they stopped crowds flocked to greet them. Columban was heartbroken to leave the monasteries where he had laboured as abbot for twenty years.
AT TOURS, HE SPENT THE NIGHT IN VIGIL
At Orleans they had to sleep by the river, and beg for food. At Tours Columban spent the night in vigil.
At Nantes they were put on board a vessel that was to sail to Ireland, but a storm broke out, and the captain was afraid to sail with Columban on board.
COLUMBAN DECIDED TO HEAD DOWN THE RIVER MOSEL
As the soldiers had returned to Burgundy, they were free. Columban decided to head down the river Mosel into modern day Germany, and up the Rhine to Switzerland and Austria. St Gall, one of his companions from Ireland, remained in Switzerland. He is now that country’s patron saint (St Gallen). Columban pushed on over the Alps into Italy.
When Columban had seen that Theoderic had defeated Theodebert he decided to head into Italy. He remained some time in Milan where he attacked the Arians and wrote a short learned work against them. The king of the Lombards granted Columban permission to build a monastery, so he came to Bobbio, in the Alpine mountains where the Bobbio and Trebbia rivers meet, and where there was an abundance of fish.
HE RENDERED HIS BLESSED SOUL TO GOD
Here, after three years of wandering, he built his final foundation. He died on November 23, 615. According to tradition he died in one of the two caves where he was accustomed to retire for prayer. “Having spent one year in the monastery in Bobbio, the blessed Columban rendered his soul to God.” (Jonas)
The great abbey of Bobbio lasted down to the French Revolution. Its library, now shared between the Vatican and others, was one of the most valuable in Europe.
(From the Missionary Society of St Columban booklet)
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