Columbanus (+625)

Biography

His superiors did not want to let him go on a mission in Europe because there was a disastrous state of immorality and violence there, due to the barbarians having invaded it. At the age of forty-five, he finally obtained permission from his superiors and Columban left Ireland with twelve companions for France. God favored the monks with admirable prodigies and they were able to convert many barbarians, among them King Sigebert who gave them an old ruined castle that they arranged to live there. They lived in great poverty, but God always helped them in their needs. Columban and his monks founded convents throughout Europe and to this totally illiterate continent, these monks brought civilization and converted these ferocious barbarians into peaceful Christians. The king of Burgundy, Theodoric, greatly respected the saint, but his mother, Brunequilda, hated him and finally managed to have him banished from the country. At the age of seventy, Columban went to Switzerland, crossing the Alps in the midst of great snow storms. She founded a convent that became very famous, that of Bobbio, and there she died peacefully while praying.