Columbanus

Columbanus (Columbán; 543 – 23 November 615) was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries after 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in present-day Italy. 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 Susa'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 Columbanus, written by an anonymous member of the Bobbio community. Columbanus (the Latinised form of Columbán, meaning the white dove) was born in Leinster, Ireland in 543. After his conception, his mother was said to have had a vision of her child's "remarkable genius". He was first educated under Abbot Sinell of Cluaninis, whose monastery was on an island of the River Erne, in modern County Fermanagh. Under Sinell's instruction, Columbanus composed a commentary on the Psalms. Columbanus then moved to Bangor Abbey where he studied to become a teacher of the Bible. He was well-educated in the areas of grammar, rhetoric, geometry, and the Holy Scriptures. Abbot Comgall taught him Greek and Latin. He stayed at Bangor until c. 590, when Comgall reluctantly gave him permission to travel to the continent. Columbanus set sail with twelve companions: Attala, Columbanus the Younger, Gallus, Domgal, Cummain, Eogain, Eunan, Gurgano, Libran, Lua, Sigisbert and Waldoleno.