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 COLUMBANt}S

139

COLUMBANUS

Luxeuil and ordered the abbot to conform to the iijes of the country. Cohmibanus refused, wlierr- on he was taken prisoner to BesanQoii to await fiir- iT orders. Taking advantage of the absence of rc- laint he speedily returned to his monastery. On aring this, Thierry and Brunehault sent soldiers to i\e hini back to Ireland. None but Irish monks •re to accompany him. Accordingly, he was hurried .Severs, made to embark on the Loire, and thus pro- cil to Nantes. At Tours he visited the tomb of St. iirtin and sent a message to Thierrj- that within three
 * irs he and his children would perish. At Nantes,

fore the embarkation, he addressed a letter to his inks, full of affection. It is a memorial of the love id tenderness which existed in that otherw'ise austere il p;issionate soul. In it he desires all to obey lala, whom he requests to abide with the com- iiiiity unless strife should arise on the Easter qucs-

■ 11. His letter concludes thus: "They come to tell

■ the ship is ready. . . . The end of my parchment inpels me to finish my letter. Love is not orderly; IS this which has made it confused. Farewell, dear arts of mine; pray for me that I may live in God." • .-ioon as they set sail, such a storm arose that the i|> was driven ashore. The captain would have 'tiling more to do with these holy men; they were lis free to go where they pleased. Columbanus ade his way to the friendly King Clothaire at Sois- iis in Neustria, where he was gladly welcomed.

■ ■thaire in vain pressed him to remain in his terri- r>-. Columbanus left Neustria in Oil for the court

King Theodebert of .\ustrasia. At Metz he re- ived an honourable welcome, and then proceeding Mainz, he embarked upon the Rhine in order to irh the Suevi and Alamanni, to whom he wished preach the Gospel. Ascending the river and its ihutaries, the Aar and the Limmat, he came to the ike of Zurich. Tuggen was chosen as a centre from ueh to evangelize, but the work was not successful, stead of producing fruit, the zeal of Columbanus ily excited persecution. In despair he resolved to iss on by way of .Arbon to Bregenz on Lake Con- ince, where there were still some traces of Chris- iiiity. Here the saint found an oratory dedicated St. Aurelia, into w'hich the people had brought three iss images of their tutelary deities. He commanded <iall, who knew the language, to preach to the habitants, and many were converted. The images •re destroyed, and Columbanus blessed the little irch, placing the relics of St. Aurelia beneath the I ir. .4 monastery was erected, and the brethren ithwith observed their regular life. After about a ar, in consequence of another rising against the iiimunity, Columbanus resolved to cross the Alps 111 Italy. An additional reason for his departure IS the fact that the arms of Thierry had prevailed linst Theodebert, and thus the country on the nk.s of the Upper Rhine had become the property his enemy.

On his arrival at Milan in 612, Columbanus met

til a kindly welcome from Kng Agilulf and Queen

M'odelinda. He immediately began to confute the

ians and wrote a treatise against their teaching,

lich has been lost. At the request of the king, he

'te a letter to Pope Boniface on the debated sub-

I Iff "The Three Chapters". These writings were

- idered to favour Nestorianism. Pope St. Gregorj',

Mver, tolerated in Lombardy those persons who

liiided them, among whom was King .Agilulf. Col-

ihanus would probably have taken no active part

this matter had not the king pressed him so to do.

It on this occasion his zeal certainly outran his

wledge. The letter opens with an apology that a

ish Scot" should lie charged to write for a Lom-

■il king. He acquaints the pope with the imputa-

is brought against him, and he is particularly severe

h the memory of Pope VigiUus. He entreats the

ki •■ tool

pontiff to prove his orthodoxy and assemble a council. He says that his freedom of speech accords with the usage of his country. "Doubtless", Montalembert remarks, "some of the expressions which he employs would be now regarded as disrespectful and justly rejected. But in those young and vigorous times, faith and austerity could be more indulgent" (II, 440). On the other hand, the letter expresses the most affectionate and impassioned devotion to the Holy See. The whole, however, may be judged from this fragment : "We Irish, though dwelling at the far ends of the earth, are all disciples of St. Peter and St. Paul . . . Neither heretic, nor Jew, nor schismatic has ever been among us; but the Catholic Faith, just as it w-as first ili'hv. i-.d to us by yourselves, the succes- sors of the A|"'-ih -, is held by us unchanged. . . We are bound |'/r n nn,\ tn theChair of Peter, and although Rome is great and renowned, through that Chair alone is she looked on as great and illustrious among us. . . On account of the two Apostles of Christ, you [the pope] are almost celestial, aiul Rome is the head of the whole world, and of the Churches". If zeal for orthodoxy caused him to overstep the limits of discre- tion, his real attitude towards Rome is sufficiently clear. He declares the pope to be: "his Lord and Father in Christ", "The Chosen Watchman", "The Prelate most dear to all the Faithful", "The most beautiful Head of all the (^hurches of the whole of Europe", "Pastor of Pastors", "The Highest", "The First", "The First Pastor, set higher than all mor- tals", "Raised near unto all the Celestial Beings", "Prince of the Leaders", "His Father", "His imme- diate Patron", "The Steersman", "The Pilot of the Spiritual Ship" (Allnatt, "Cathedra Petri", 100).

But it was necessary that, in Italy, Columbanus should have a settled abode, so the king gave him a tract of land called Bobbio, between Milan and Genoa, near the River Trebbia, situated in a defile of the Apennines. On his way thither he taught the Faith in the town of Mombrione, which is called San Colom- bano to this day. Padre della Torre considers that the saint made two journeys into Italy, and that these have been confounded by Jonas. On the first occasion he went to Rome and received from Pope Gregory many sacred relics (Stokes, Apennines, 132). This may po,ssihily explain the traditional spot in St. Peter's, where St. Gregory and St. Columba are sup- posed to have met (Moran, Irish SS. in Great Britain, 105). At Bobbio the saint repaired the half-ruined church of St. Peter, and erected his celebrated abbey, which for centuries was a stronghold of orthodo.xy in Northern Italy. Thither came Clothaire's messen- gers inviting the aged abbot to return, now that his enemies were dead. But he could not go. He sent a request that the king would always protect his dear monks at Luxeuil. He prepared for death by retiring to his cave on the mountain-side overlooking the Trebbia, where, according to a tradition, he had dedi- cated an oratory to Our Lady (Montalembert, "Monks of the West", II, 444). His body has been preserved in the abbey chtirch at Bobbio. and many miracles are said to have been wrought there through his interces- sion. In 1482 the relics were placed in a new shrine and laid beneath the altar of the crj'pt, where they are still venerated. But the altar and shrine are once more to be restored, and for this end in 1907 an appeai was made by Cardinal Logue, and there is every pros- pect of the work being speeilily accomplished. The sacristy at Bobbio possesses a portion of the skull of the saint, his knife, wooden cup, bell, and an ancient water vessel, formerly containing sacred relics and said to have been given him by St. Gregory. Accord- ing to certain authorities, twelve teeth of the saint were taken from the tomb in the fifteenth century and kept in the treasury, but these have now disappeared (Stokes, Apennines, p. 1S;{). St. Columbamis is named in the Roman Martyrology on 21 November,