BIOGRAPHY OF COLUMBANUS
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Columbanus is sometimes referred to by historians as Columban.
He was born in 543 AD in Ireland.
He was a student for several years at Bangor in County Down on the east coast of
Ireland.
St. Comgall founded the Abbey at Bangor in 559 building on the church which
Patrick helped to found.
Just as Columba had left Ireland to evangelise Scotland, Columbanus left for Gaul –
now known as France.
He was welcomed by King Guntram a descendant of Clovis and given a ruined fort
at Anagrates (Anegray) in eastern France in the Vosges Mountains
Soon this school was insufficient for the needs and a second training school was
opened at Luxeuil – and later another at Fontaine.
The Church of Rome with its bishops objected to the stern rebuke by the industrious
and pure lives of these Celtic missionaries who were making disciples from across
Europe.
Queen Brunhilda the wife of King Sigebert and brother of Guntram violently opposed
Columbanus and urged the Roman Church to attack the Celtic faith.
During this time the influence of Columbanus reached across Europe with increasing
converts to the simple life of the disciples of Jesus.
Columbanus was also welcomed by King Clotaire II of Neustria (later expanded into
France) and also King Theodebert of Austrasia.
The area of the kingdom of Austrasia is part of what today is Germany. Here the
Celtic missionaries brought Celtic Christianity to Germany long before Boniface
came from Rome.
Columbanus worked for some years in Germany and Switzerland and established a
series of missions.
Columbanus left Bregenz – now in Austria – in the charge of Gallus who was later
known as St. Gall, he now made his way over the Alps to Lombardy – though being
more than seventy years of age.
Agilulf the King of the Lombards received him joyfully and he was granted Bobbio in
northern Italy as his headquarters.
Here the early Christians led by Jovinianus from the 4th century had spread
throughout Lombardy.
Columbanus established a school with a library unequalled in much of Europe and
Italy.
Columbanus had been such a successful Celtic missionary that like Patrick and
Columba he has been claimed by later historians as a monk of the Catholic Church.
Columbanus died shortly after establishing Bobbio as a great centre for the Christian
church in 543AD.
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Truth Triumphant by B.G. Wilkinson
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church