Part 15 (2/2)
Comgall, who then governed the great Monastery of Bangor (Banchorr).
It was not until he entered his fiftieth year that he decided on quitting his native land, so that there can be no reason to doubt that his high intellectual attainments were acquired and perfected in Ireland.
With the blessing of his superior, and the companions.h.i.+p of twelve faithful monks, he set forth on his arduous mission; and arduous truly it proved to be. The half-barbarous Franks, then ruled by Thierry or Theodoric, lived more a pagan than a Christian life, and could ill brook the stern lessons of morality which they heard from, and saw practised by, their new teacher. The saint did not spare the demoralized court, and the Queen-Dowager Brunehalt became his bitterest foe. He had already established two monasteries: one at Luxovium, or Luxeuil, in a forest at the foot of the Vosges; the other, on account of its numerous springs, was called Ad-fontanas (Fontaines). Here the strict discipline of the Irish monks was rigidly observed, and the coa.r.s.est fare the only refection permitted to the religious.
For a time they were allowed to continue their daily routine of prayer and penance without molestation; but the relentless Brunehalt, who, from the basest motives, had encouraged the young king in every vice, could no longer brave either the silent preaching of the cloister or the bold denunciations of the saint. As Columba.n.u.s found that his distant remonstrances had no effect on the misguided monarch, for whose eternal welfare he felt the deep interest of true sanct.i.ty, he determined to try a personal interview. For a brief s.p.a.ce his admonitions were heard with respect, and even the haughty queen seemed less bent on her career of impiety and deceit; but the apparent conversion pa.s.sed away as a summer breeze, and once more the saint denounced and threatened in vain.
Strict enclosure had been established in the monasteries professing the Columbanian rule[182] and this afforded a pretext for the royal vengeance. Theodoric attempted to violate the sanctuary in person; but though he was surrounded by soldiers, he had to encounter one whose powers were of another and more invincible character. The saint remained in the sanctuary, and when the king approached addressed him sternly:
”If thou, sire,” he exclaimed, ”art come hither to violate the discipline already established, or to destroy the dwellings of the servants of G.o.d, know that in heaven there is a just and avenging power; thy kingdom shall be taken from thee, and both thou and thy royal race shall be cut off and destroyed on the earth.”
The undaunted bearing of Columba.n.u.s, and, perhaps, some lingering light of conscience, not yet altogether extinguished, had its effect upon the angry monarch. He withdrew; but he left to others the task he dared not attempt in person. The saint was compelled by armed men to leave his monastery, and only his Irish and British subjects were permitted to bear him company. They departed in deep grief, not for the cruel treatment they suffered, but for their brethren from whom they were thus rudely torn. As the monks who were left behind clung weeping to their father, he consoled them with these memorable words: ”G.o.d will be to you a Father, and reward you with mansions where the workers of sacrilege can never enter.”
Nantes was the destination of the exiled religious. Here they were put on board a vessel bound for Ireland; but scarcely had they reached the open sea, when a violent storm arose, by which the vessel was driven back and stranded on the sh.o.r.e, where it lay all night. The captain attributed the misfortune to his travelling companions, and refused to carry them any farther. Columba.n.u.s, perceiving in this accident an indication of the will of heaven in their regard, determined to seek a settlement in some other part of the Continent. In the third year after his expulsion from Luxeuil, he arrived at Milan, where he was hospitably received by the Lombard king, A.D. 612. On his journey thither he had evangelised Austrasia, then governed by Theodebert. This prince, though a brother of the monarch by whom he had been expelled, entertained him with the utmost courtesy. At Mentz, the bishop vainly endeavoured to detain him. Zeal for the conversion of souls led the saint to desire a less cultivated field of labour. As he pa.s.sed along the Lake of Zurich, and in the Canton of Zug, he reaped a rich harvest; from, thence he directed his course to Bregentz, then inhabited by an idolatrous people.
Here he was repulsed by those who most needed his apostolic labours; but, undaunted, he retired to the neighbouring county, where he secured a band of zealous converts. Surrounded by these, and attended by his faithful monks, he once more entered the idolatrous city, and proceeded boldly to the temple where their false G.o.ds were enshrined. Here he invoked the Holy Name, and by its power the idols were miraculously overthrown, and a mult.i.tude of the people were converted, including in their number some of the princ.i.p.al inhabitants of Bregentz.
The theological controversy, known as that of the ”Three Chapters,” was now prevalent in northern Italy. A letter is still extant which St.
Columba.n.u.s addressed to Pope Boniface on this subject, in which, while he uses the privilege of free discussion on questions not defined by the Church, he is remarkably, and perhaps for some inconveniently, explicit as to his belief in papal supremacy. A brief extract from this important doc.u.ment will show that the faith for which Ireland has suffered, and still suffers so much, was the same in the ”early ages” as it is now. He writes thus to the Holy Father:--
”For we Irish [Scoti] are disciples of St. Peter and St. Paul, and of all the divinely inspired canonical writers, adhering constantly to the evangelical and apostolical doctrine. Amongst us neither Jew, heretic, nor schismatic can be found; but the Catholic faith, entire and unshaken, precisely as we have received it from you, who are the successors of the holy Apostles. For, as I have already said, we are attached to the chair of St. Peter; and although Rome is great and renowned, yet with us it is great and distinguished only on account of that apostolic chair. Through the two Apostles of Christ you are almost celestial, and Rome is the head of the churches of the world.”[183]
In the year 613 St. Columba.n.u.s founded the world-famed Monastery of Bovium, or Bobbio,[184] in a magnificently romantic site on the Apennines. Near his church was an oratory dedicated to the Mother of G.o.d, who, as we shall presently see, was as devoutly wors.h.i.+pped in ancient as in modern Erinn.
Agilulph, the Lombardian monarch, was ever a warm patron of the monks.
Clothaire had now ascended the French throne. He earnestly pressed the saint to return to Luxeuil, but Columba.n.u.s excused himself on the plea of age and infirmities. He did not fail, however, to send advice for the government of the monasteries which he had founded, where his rule had continued to be observed with the utmost fervour.
St. Columba.n.u.s died at Bobbio, on the 21st of November, 615, at the age of seventy-two years. His name is still preserved in the town of St.
Columbano. His memory has been ever venerated in France and Italy.
While the saint was evangelizing in Switzerland, one of his disciples became seriously ill, and was unable to travel farther. It was a providential sickness for the Helvetians. The monk was an eloquent preacher, and well acquainted with their language, which was a dialect of that of the Franks. He evangelized the country, and the town of St.
Gall still bears the name of the holy Irishman, while his abbey contains many precious relics of the literature and piety of his native land. St.
Gall died on the 16th October, 645, at a very advanced age. The monastery was not erected until after his decease, and it was not till the year 1798 that the abbey lands were aggregated to the Swiss Confederation as one of the cantons.
Another Irish saint, who evangelized in France, was St. Fiacre. He erected a monastery to the Blessed Virgin in a forest near Meaux. The fame of his sanct.i.ty became so great, and the pilgrimage to his tomb so popular, that the French hackney coaches _(fiacre)_ obtained their name from their constant employment in journeys to his shrine.
About the same period, St. Fursey founded a monastery near Burgh Castle, in Suffolk, where he was kindly received by Sigbert, King of the East Angles. From thence he proceeded to Lagny, in France, where his missionary zeal was long remembered. His brothers, St. Foillan and St.
Altan, were his constant companions. St. Fursey died on the 16th January, 650, at Macerius. His remains were subsequently translated to Peronne, in Picardy. The evangelic labours of many of his Irish disciples, are matter of history in the Gallic Church. It is said that the fame of the Irish for their skill in music, was so well known on the Continent at this period, that St. Gertrude, daughter of King Pepin, and Abbess of Nivelle, in Brabant, invited the brothers of St. Fursey to instruct her community in sacred music. They complied with her request, and soon after erected a monastery at Fosse, near Nivelle. Nor were the Scoti without their missionary martyrs, amongst whom the great St.
Kilian holds a distinguished place. The spirit of devotion to the Holy See seems almost to be an heirloom in the little island of the western sea. True to the instincts of his native land, the martyr-saint would not undertake his mission in Franconia, great as was its necessity, until he knelt at the feet of the Vicar of Christ to obtain his permission and blessing. Thus fortified, he commenced his glorious race, so happily crowned with the martyr's palm. His bold rebuke of the open scandal given by the conduct of the ruling prince, was the immediate cause of his obtaining this favour. St. Kilian was a.s.sa.s.sinated at midnight, while singing the Divine Office, with two of his faithful companions. Their remains were interred in the church of Wurtzberg, where St. Kilian is still revered as its patron and apostle.
We can but name St. Mailduf, from whom Malmsbury has been named; St.
Livin, who converted the inhabitants of Flanders and Brabant; St.
Cataldus and his brother, St. Donatus, the former patron of the metropolitan see of Tarentum, and whose name is still preserved in the little town of _San Cataldo_, the latter Bishop of Lecce, in the kingdom of Naples, and both famous for miracles and sanct.i.ty of life; St.
Virgilius, called in the ancient annals ”Ferghil the Geometer,” and by Latin writers Solivagus,[185] or the ”solitary wanderer,” who died Bishop of Saltzburg, distinguished for literary fame; St. Fridolin, ”the traveller,” son of an Irish king, who evangelized Thuringia, and was appointed by the Pope Bishop of Buraburgh, near Fritzlar, in the year 741; St. Sedulius the younger, who wrote commentaries on Holy Scripture, and a.s.sisted at a council held in Rome, in the year 721, under Gregory II. It is noticeable that this saint was consecrated Bishop of Oreto, in Spain, while in Rome. When he entered on the mission thus confided to him, he wrote a treatise to prove that, being Irish, he was of Spanish descent; thus showing that at this period the idea of a Milesian origin was common to men of learning in Ireland.[186]
But if Ireland gave saints and martyrs to foreign lands, her charity was in some measure repaid in kind. True, she needed not the evangelic labours of other missionaries, for the gospel-seed had taken deep root, and borne a rich harvest on her happy sh.o.r.es; still, as the prayers of saints are the very life and joy of the Church, she could not choose but rejoice in the hundreds of pure and saintly souls who gathered round her altars at home, who crowded her monasteries, or listened devoutly to the teachers of her distinguished schools. In the Litany of Aengus the Culdee[187] we find hundreds of foreign saints invoked, each grouped according to their nation. ”The oldest tract, or collection of the pedigrees of the saints of Erinn,” says Professor O'Curry, ”of which we have now any recognizable copy remaining, is that which is ascribed to Aengus Ceile De, commonly called Aengus the Culdee. The genuineness of this composition is admitted by all writers of modern times, Protestant and Catholic, by Usher and Ware as well as by Colgan.”
<script>