St. Columbanus

St. Columbanus was born around 543 in the province of Leinster, Ireland, and died on 23 November 615 at Bobbio in northern Italy. Formed in the rigorous monastic tradition of the Irish Church, he set out around the age of forty-five with twelve companions as a 'pilgrim for Christ,' journeying to the Continent to preach the Gospel and revive the faith in a Gaul unsettled by the collapse of Roman order.

He founded a string of influential monasteries — including Annegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines in Gaul, and finally Bobbio in Italy — which became great centers of learning and holiness, and he gave them a strict monastic rule. Fearless in defending Christian morality, he rebuked kings and bishops alike, which cost him exile from Luxeuil for confronting the Frankish court over its sins. A towering figure of the Irish missionary movement that helped re-Christianize Europe, he is venerated as a saint, his monasteries seeding the faith across the Continent.