Ireland's first European

St Columbanus

Q: When is St Columbanus's feast day?

23 November. His feast is 23 November in Ireland and in the Roman Martyrology; the Benedictines keep it on 21 November.

Q: Who was St Columbanus?

Ireland's first European. Left Bangor about 590 with twelve companions and spent the rest of his life founding monasteries across Frankish Gaul and northern Italy (Luxeuil, Bobbio and more) quarrelling with kings and bishops the whole way. He died at Bobbio in 615.

Naomh Columbán

Feast day · 23 November

🏔 Down 🏔 Carlow Source: Wikipedia ↗

The story

Columbanus — St Columbanus — Photograph: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/f/fe/San_Colombano.jpg · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Left Bangor about 590 with twelve companions and spent the rest of his life founding monasteries across Frankish Gaul and northern Italy (Luxeuil, Bobbio and more) quarrelling with kings and bishops the whole way. He died at Bobbio in 615. Robert Schuman called him the patron saint of those who seek to build a united Europe.

Worth knowing His feast is 23 November in Ireland and in the Roman Martyrology; the Benedictines keep it on 21 November.

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