COLOMBANO (COLUM, COLMAN, COLUMBA, PALUMBA), saint. — Abbot of Luxeuil and Bobbio, born in Ireland in the province of Leinster around 540, died at Bobbio on 23 November 615. A wealthy and ardent young man, he bade farewell to 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. Around 590, a pilgrim for Christ, he left his homeland never to return, and with twelve companions went to France, where Gontran, king of Burgundy, received him and offered him a deserted tract of land in the Vosges region. At Annegray, deep in the forest, C. established a center of monastic life, whose reputation soon attracted disciples in such numbers that it became necessary to found two other monasteries in the vicinity, at Luxeuil and Fontaine. C. established his residence at Luxeuil, as the more central location, while retaining the governance of the other foundations.
Having come into conflict with the authoritarian queen Brunechild and her lustful nephew Theuderic, king of Burgundy, C. had to leave Luxeuil around 610. For a short time he wandered through France with several monks, among them Potentinus, founder of a monastery at Coutances. Vocations arose wherever he passed: at Meaux C. consecrated to God the daughter of Cagneric, Burgundofara, known as St. Fara, founder of the monastery of Evoriacum (Faremoutiers); her brothers were Cagnoald, future bishop of Laon, and Faro, bishop of Meaux. As a guest of the Frankish leader Autharius at the villa of Vulciacum (Ussy-sur-Marne), C. blessed his three sons, Ado, Dado and Rado: the first later erected the abbey of Jouarre; the second, who would be called Audoen (St. Ouen), established the monastery of Rebais (Seine-et-Marne) and later became bishop of Rouen; the third, Rado, founded the abbey of Roul-sur-Marne. Received with honor by Theudebert, king of Austrasia, C., accompanied by Eustasius, Atala, Gallus and other monks of Luxeuil, traveled by way of the Rhine toward Germany, where pagans were still numerous; he stopped for a short time at Bregenz on Lake Constance, leaving the monk Gallus there, and descended into northern Italy, where the Lombard king Agilulf and Queen Theodelinda allowed him Bobbio (v.), in 614. There he died at the end of the following year; his relics are preserved in the crypt of the old abbey church.
By his character and religious activity, C. is one of the most remarkable figures of the Church and of the sixth and seventh centuries. A genuine Irishman, at once impetuous and tender, bold and independent, he was both a tenacious defender of Celtic customs concerning the form of the tonsure and the date of Easter and a Roman Catholic indissolubly attached to the See of Peter. A rigorous ascetic and affectionate father, compassionate toward the wretched and fearless herald of divine vengeance before transgressing princes, this proud monk who defended the traditions of his homeland before St. Gregory the Great (600) and urged Boniface IV to preserve the Catholic faith intact appeared to his contemporaries as a prophet sent by God to lead Frankish society back to Christian life through self-denial and penance. His rule insists on the need for the most absolute renunciation and imposes rigorous fasts, prolonged vigils, severe penances and manual labor, even when arduous. C. wanted his followers to be wholly mortified and submissive, even in thought, to the will of their superior.
The reputation of C., writes his biographer, the monk Jonas of Bobbio, spread throughout all the provinces of Gaul and Germany (Vita s. Columbani, I, 18). Indeed, he was not merely an austere ascetic devoted to solitary contemplation, but also a man of action and a leader of souls who, by example, work and word, promoted among the Franks a powerful movement of penitential, monastic and apostolic renewal. The Penitential bearing his name, which not only punished serious offenses but also recommended the confession of venial faults after a careful examination of conscience, rekindled in the hearts of his contemporaries a sense of sin and the obligation of reparation, raising them to a more intense spiritual life. This is all the more remarkable because, according to the testimony of the biographer Jonas, when he arrived in France around 590, “fides tantum manebat christiana, nam poenitentiae medicamenta et mortificationis amor vix vel paucis in ea reperiebatur locis” (Vita s. Columbani, I, 5, 10).
Throughout all the regions of ancient Gaul, the monastic life established by C. at Luxeuil found fervent imitators. Donatus, a monk of Luxeuil who became bishop of Besançon, established a monastery for men there; his brother Ramolinus erected communities of monks according to C.’s rule at Romainmoutier and Baulmes. St-Ursanne on the banks of the Doubs and Moutier-Grandval in the valley of the Birse were likewise dependencies of Luxeuil. At Laon, St. Salaberga, the spiritual daughter of St. Eustasius, C.’s successor, organized the abbey of St. John the Baptist; her brother, Leudinus-Bodo, who became bishop of Toul, contributed to 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 known as Remiremont. Hautvillers and Montiérender, Bèze and Sithiu, Leuconaus (St-Valéry) and Corbie owed their origin or organization to the monks of Luxeuil: Bercharius, Valdelenus, Momolinus and Bertinus, Valerius and Theodofridus. For his monastery at Solignac, St. Eligius adopted C.’s rule; so did St. Desiderius of Cahors and St. Sulpicius of Bourges. St. Wandrille at Fontenelle (St-Wandrille) and St. Philibert at Jumièges remained under the protection of Dado (St. Ouen), a great admirer of C. To Merovingian France, Luxeuil gave several bishops: Donatus to Besançon, Momolinus and Aicharius to Noyon, Cagnoald to Laon, Ragnacharius to Basel, Audomar to Boulogne and Thérouanne, and Theofridus to Amiens.
C.’s influence would have been still greater had he not encountered opposition from the Frankish bishops because of his obstinate attachment to Celtic customs concerning the form of the tonsure and the date of Easter. His successors in the governance of Luxeuil, Eustasius and Valdebert, abandoned these customs; Valdebert tempered with the Rule of St. Benedict the somewhat excessive austerities of the Columbanian rule. From this mitigation arose a mixed rule that tempered the lofty ideal of extreme penance, continual prayer and independent apostolate promoted by C. with the discretion and precise norms of governance introduced by St. Benedict.
C.’s Celtic character, Roman devotion and penitential and monastic activity are extensively documented in his writings: 6 Letters (PL 80, 259 ff.; ed. W. Gundlach, in MGH, Epistolae, III, p. 154 ff., with the Poems); Regula monachorum, in 10 chapters (ed. O. Seebass, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 15 [1895], p. 366 ff.); Regula coenobialis, in 15 chapters of penal sanctions (PL 80, 259 ff.; ed. O. Seebass, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 17 [1897], p. 218 ff.); Instructiones curiae (ed. O. Seebass under the title Ordo de vita et actione monachorum, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 14 [1894], p. 76 ff.); Liber de mensura paenitentiarum (PL 80, 225 ff.; O. Seebass, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 14 [1894], p. 442 ff.).