84 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590 TO 1049.
of St. Benedict (about 540), with four companions, crossed the Alps, founded Glanfeuil on the Loire, the first Benedictine mo nastery in France, and gave his name to that noble band of scholars who, more than a thousand years after, enriched the church with the best editions of the fathers and other works of sacred learning.1 He had an interview with King Theodebert (the grandson of Clovis), was treated with great reverence and received from him a large donation of crown lands. Monastic establishments soon multiplied and contributed greatly to the civilization of France.2
§ 23. Columbanus and the Irish Missionaries on the Continent.
I. SOURCES.
The works of COLUMBANUS in PATRICK FLEMING'S Collectanea Baera (Lovanii, 1667), and in MIGNE : Patrolog.r Tom. 87, pp. 1013- 1055. His life by JONAS in the Acta Sanct. Ord. Bened., Tom. II., Sec. II., 2-26. (Also in Fleming's Coll.)
II. WORKS.
LANIGAN (R. K.): Ecdes. Hist, of Ireland (1829), II. 263 sqq. MONTALEMBERT : MonJcs of the West, II. 397 sqq. PH. HEBER: Die vorkarolingischen Glaubenshelden am Rheln, 1867. LUTOLF (R. C.): Die Glaubensboten der Schweiz vor /St. Gallus. Luzern,
1871.
EBRARD: Die iroschottlsche MissionsJclrche (1873), pp. 25-31; 284-340. KlLLEN: Ecclesiast. Hist, of Ireland (1875), I. 41 sqq. W. SMITH and H. WACE: Diet. Christ. Biography (1877), I. 605-607. G. HERTEL: Ueber des hell. Columba Leben und Wirken, besonders seine
Klosterregel In the "Zeitschrift fur hist. Theol.," 1875, p. 396;
and another article in Brieger's "Zeitschrift fur Kirchengesch.,"
1879, p. 145.
While the Latin Benedictine monks worked their way up from the South towards the heart of France, Keltic missionaries carried their independent Christianity from the West to the North of France, the banks of the Rhine, Switzerland and Lom-
1 The brotherhood of St. Maur was founded in 1618, and numbered such scholars as Mabillon, Montfaucon, and Huinart.
2 The legendary history of monasticism under the Merovingians is well told by Montalembert, II. 236-386.
g 23. COLUMBANUS AND THE IRISH MISSIONARIES. 85
bardy; but they were counteracted by Roman missionaries, who at last secured the control over France and Germany as well as over the British Isles.
ST. COLUMBANUS l is the pioneer of the Irish missionaries to the Continent. His life has been written with great minuteness by Jonas, a monk of his monastery at Bobbio. He was born in Lcinster, A.D. 543, in which year St. Benedict, his celebrated monastic predecessor, died at Monte Casino, and was trained in the monastery of Bangor, on the coast of Down, under the direc tion of St. Comgall. Filled with missionary zeal, he left his native land with twelve companions, and crossed over the sea to Gaul in 590,2 or in 585,8 several years before Augustin landed in England. He found the country desolated by war; Christian virtue and discipline were almost extinct. He travelled for several years, preaching and giving an example of humility and charity. He lived for whole weeks without other food than herbs and wild berries. He liked best the solitude of the woods and caves, where even the animals obeyed his voice and received his caresses. In Burgundy he was kindly received by King Gontran, one of the grandsons of Clovis; refused the offer of wealth, and chose a quiet retreat in the Yosges mountains, first in a ruined Roman fort at Annegray, and afterwards at Luxeuil (Luxovium). Here he established a celebrated monastery on the conn ncs of Burgundy and Austrasia. A similar institution he founded at Fontaines. Several hundred disciples gathered around him. Luxeuil became the monastic capital of Gaul, a nursery of bishops and saints, and the mother of similar insti tutions.
1 Also called Columba the younger, to distinguish him from the Scotcli Columba. There is a second St. Columbanus, an abbot of St. Trudo (St. Troud) in France, and a poet, who died about the middle of the ninth century.
2 The date assigned by Hertel, I. c., and Meyer von Knonau, in " Allg. Deutsche Bio<jmphic," IV. 424 (1876).
3 The date according to the Bollandists and Smith's Diet, of Chr. Biogr. Ebrard puts the emigration of Columbanus to Gaul in the year 594.