Abbot (563-615)
His life
+ As a young man, he was tormented by temptations of the flesh and sought the counsel of an elderly hermit. Columban recognized in the hermit’s counsel a call to leave the world, and he traveled, with twelve companions, throughout Ireland and England before finally settling in Annegray, France; it was here that he composed his famous Rule.
+ Columban would later establish other monasteries in other parts of France, as well as in Switzerland and Italy.
+ Saint Columban died in 615 at Bobbio, the last of his foundations. He was honored as a saint immediately after his death. He has come to be honored as the greatest of the Irish missionaries who worked on the European continent.
For prayer and reflection
“Let Christ paint his image in us with his words: My peace I give you, my peace I leave with you. But the knowledge that peace is good is of no benefit to us if we do not practice it.”—Saint Columban
Spiritual bonus
On November 23, the Church also honors the memory of Pope Saint Clement I (d. 99) and the Mexican Jesuit priest and martyr Blessed Miguel Pro (d. 1927).
Prayer
O God, who in Saint Columban
wonderfully joined the work of evangelization
to zeal for the monastic life,
grant, we pray,
that through his intercession and example
we may strive to seek you above all things
and to bring increase to your faithful people.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from The Roman Missal)
Saint profiles prepared by Father Silas Henderson, S.D.S.
And today we celebrate...