COLOMBA (Colum, Colman, Columba, Palumba), Saint. — Abbot of Luxeuil and of Bobbio. Born in Ireland in the province of Leinster about 540; died at Bobbio on 23 November 615. A wealthy and ardent young man, he renounced the world and, after studying Holy Scripture under the direction of Senill, abbot of Cluain-Inis, embraced the monastic life in the abbey of Bangor (Ulster), founded by Comgal, a disciple of St Finnian. About 590, as a pilgrim for Christ, he left his homeland never to return, and with twelve companions crossed into France, where Guntram, king of Burgundy, received him and offered him a deserted tract of land in the Vosges region. At Annegray, deep in the forest, Columba established a centre of monastic life whose reputation soon attracted so many disciples that it became necessary to found two other monasteries nearby, at Luxeuil and at Fontaine. Columba made his residence at Luxeuil as the most central location, while retaining governance over the other foundations.
Coming into conflict with Queen Brunhilda and her dissolute nephew Theuderic, king of Burgundy, Columba was obliged to leave Luxeuil about 610. For a short time he wandered through France with some monks, among them Pontius, founder of a monastery at Coutances. Vocations arose in his wake: at Meaux he consecrated to God the daughter of Cagneric, Burgundofara, known as St Fara, foundress of the monastery of Evoriacum (Faremoutiers); her brothers Cagnovald, future bishop of Laon, and Faro, bishop of Meaux. As a guest of the Frankish chieftain Autarius at his villa of Vulciacum (Ussy-sur-Marne), Columba blessed his three sons, Ado, Dado and Rado: the first built the abbey of Jouarre, the second, who would be called Audoenus (St Ouen), established the monastery of Rebais (Seine-et-Marne) and later became bishop of Rouen; the third, Rado, founded the abbey of Reuil-sur-Marne. Received with honour by Theudebert, king of Austrasia, Columba, accompanied by Eustasius, Attala, Gallus and other monks from Luxeuil, made his way down the Rhine into Germany, where the pagans were still numerous, and halted
For a brief time he stayed at Bregenz on Lake Constance, leaving there the monk Gall, and then descended into northern Italy, where the Lombard king Agilulfo and Queen Theodolinda allowed him to build a monastery at Bobbio (q.v.) in 614. There he died at the end of the following year; his relics are preserved in the crypt of the ancient abbey church.
On account of his character and religious activity, COLUMBAN is one of the most notable figures in the Church of the 6th–7th centuries. A true Irishman, at once impetuous and tender, bold and independent, he was firmly attached to Celtic customs regarding the tonsure and the date of Easter, yet indissolubly linked as a Roman Catholic to the Chair of Peter. A stern ascetic and a loving father, compassionate toward the poor and an intrepid herald of divine vengeance against corrupt rulers, this fiery monk defended the national traditions to St Gregory the Great (600) and urged Boniface IV to preserve the Catholic faith intact. To his contemporaries he appeared as a prophet sent by God to restore Frankish society to Christian life through self-denial and penance. His Rule insists on the necessity of absolute renunciation and imposes rigorous fasts, long vigils, two daily penances, and manual labor, even painful toil. COLUMBAN wanted his followers to be completely mortified and to submit even in thought to the will of their superior.
His reputation, writes his biographer, the monk Jonas of Bobbio, spread through all the provinces of Gaul and Germany (Vita s. Columbani, I, 18). Indeed, he was not merely an author who loved solitary contemplation; he was also a man of action and a leader of souls who, by example, work, and word, promoted among the Franks a powerful monastic and apostolic movement of penance. The Penitential that bears his name, which not only punished grave crimes but also recommended the confession of lighter faults after careful examination of conscience, revived in the hearts of his contemporaries the sense of sin and the obligation of reparation, elevating them to a more intense spiritual life. This was all the more remarkable because, according to the testimony of Jonas, when COLUMBAN arrived in France around 590, “Christianity existed there in name only, for the remedies of penance and the love of mortification were scarcely or never found in those parts” (Vita s. Columbani, I, 5, 10).
In every region of ancient Gaul, the monastic life introduced by COLUMBAN at Luxeuil found eager imitators. Donatus, a monk of Luxeuil who became bishop of Besançon, established there a monastery for men; his brother Ragnemirus founded monastic communities according to COLUMBAN’s Rule at Romainmôtier and Baulmes. St Ursanne on the Doubs and Moutier-Grandval in the Birse valley are likewise offshoots of Luxeuil. At Lons-le-Saunier, Salaberga, a spiritual daughter of St Eustasius (COLUMBAN’s successor), organized the abbey of St John the Baptist; her brother Leudin-Bodo, made bishop of Toul, assisted in the foundations of Bonmoutier, St-Dié, Moyenmoutier, and Senones. St Amatus, also a disciple of St Eustasius, together with Romaric, established in the Moselle valley the double monastery later called Remiremont. Hautvillers and Montiérender, Bèze and Sithiu, Leuconay (St-Valéry) and Corbie owe their origin or organization to monks of Luxeuil: Bercar, Waldelem, Mummolus, and Bertin, Valery and Theofrid. For his monastery of Solignac, St Eligius chose COLUMBAN’s Rule; so too did St Desiderius of Cahors and St Sulpicius of Bourges. St Wandrille at Fontenelle (St-Wandrille) and St Philibert at Jumièges placed themselves under the protection of Dadon (St-Ouen), a great admirer of COLUMBAN. In Merovingian France, Luxeuil supplied several bishops: Donatus to Besançon, Mummolus and Agiulf to Noyon, Chagnoald to Laon, Ragnachar to Basel, Audomar to Boulogne and Thérouanne, and Theofrid to Amiens.
COLUMBAN’s influence would have been even greater had he not encountered opposition from the Frankish bishops because of his stubborn adherence to Celtic customs regarding the tonsure and the date of Easter. His successors in the government of Luxeuil, Eustasius and Waldebert, abandoned these customs; Waldebert softened the somewhat excessive austerities of the COLUMBANIAN Rule with the Rule of St Benedict. From this mitigation there arose a mixed rule that tempered the high ideal of extreme penance, continual prayer, and independent apostolate promoted by COLUMBAN with the discretion and precise norms of government introduced by St Benedict.
The Celtic temperament, Roman devotion, and penitential-monastic activity of COLUMBAN are amply documented in his writings: six Letters (PL 80, 259 ff.; ed. W. Gundlach, in MGH, Epistolae, III, pp. 154 ff.; together with the Poems); Regula monachorum, in 10 chapters (ed. O. Seebass, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 15 [1895], pp. 366 ff.); Regula coenobialis, in 15 chapters of penal sanctions (PL 80, 259 ff.; ed. O. Seebass, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 17 [1897], pp. 218 ff.); Instructiones variae (ed. O. Seebass under the title Ordo de vita et actione monachorum, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 14 [1894], pp. 76 ff.); Liber de mensura paenitentiarum (PL 80, 225 ff.; O. Seebass, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 14 [1894], pp. 442 ff.).