Pilgrimage is one of those privileged times when you step away from the demands of work and daily living. Throwing your lot in with a wider group, collectively you undertake a faith journey where the camaraderie eases the challenges and affords many opportunities to exchange ideas and learn from each other and encounter God.
The pilgrimage in the footsteps of the great Irish medieval missionary, St Columban brought together Columban priests, Sisters and lay people and took us to France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, as we visited places where St. Columban made foundations.
Prior to the pilgrimage, St. Columban was really just. a name to me, the patron of the Columban missionaries. However, thanks to this immersive experience and the expertise of some of those on the pilgrimage, by the end of the two weeks I felt inspired, enthused and rather in awe of this great man. He no longer seemed to be lost in the mists of time. Seeing the actual places where he lived and died brought him alive.
Furthermore, there was a sense that at a time of political fragmentation, with war in Ukraine and the Middle East, his message of peace has as much relevance in the 21st century as it had 1,400 years ago.
Arriving in Basel Airport in Switzerland, we were greeted by two members of the Friends of St. Columban from France who kindly drove us over the border into eastern France to our first destination, the French market town of Luxeuil les Bains. Here the pilgrim group was based at the former seminary of St. Columban’s Abbey, as it prepared to close its doors as a school and change ownership.
One of the standout moments of the pilgrimage took place in St. Columban’s Abbey on European Day as a plaque was unveiled to Venerable Robert Schuman, the Luxembourg-born politician who was twice prime minister of France and is known as ‘the father of Europe’. A devout catholic, a special lecture given at St. Columban’s Abbey on Schuman revealed that he had strongly considered becoming a priest and remained something of an ascetic throughout his life.
The conference and plaque also recalled a gathering in Luxeuil les Bains in 1950 to mark the 1,400th anniversary of the birth of St. Columbanus. At that gathering Schuman outlined to scholars, as well as political and religious leaders, (including the future John XXIII) his proposal for peaceful co-existence among European nations via a community – what would later develop into the European Union. The patron for the venture was St. Columban, who is credited with first espousing the notion of a European identity. St. Columbanus was the first to use the phrase “all of Europe” in a letter he wrote to Pope Gregory in around 600AD.
In 1950, Robert Schuman referred to the Irish monk as “the patron saint of all those who seek to construct a united Europe”. His aim in uniting two of Europe’s historically hostile enemies in a new project of cooperation was to “make war unthinkable and materially impossible and to reinforce democracy”. Columban Missionaries were present at that ground-breaking meeting. The Far East magazine in November 1950 noted that the Congress focused attention on St Columban “as a guide and teacher for the world in its present need.”
St. Columbanus founded a monastery in Luxeuil after his arrival in the region in 590/591AD. It was built on the ruins of the Roman settlement, Luxovium. The trigger for St. Columban’s promotion of peace and a common bond among the peoples of Europe at the time was the horrendous experiences that followed the fall of the Roman Empire. Similarly, Robert Schuman’s desire to see unity and peaceful coexistence among Europeans followed the horrors of the two world wars in the 20th century and the Franco-Prussian war of the late 19th century.
From our base in Luxeuil, we visited Annegray, the site of St. Columban’s first monastery on the ruins of a disused Gallo-Roman fort at the end of the 6th century AD. In this heavily forested and scenic Vosges region of eastern France it is understandable that St. Columban would have felt close to nature. We also visited the cave in Sainte Marie en Chamois where Columban would retreat from the monastery for solitude and personal prayer. At the hermitage of San Valbert we explored the small chapel, the fountain and cave and saw a photo displayed commemorating the role of Columban seminarians under Fr. Bill Hallidan in 1960 reconstruction of the site.
Next stop on our pilgrimage was the Swiss city of San Gallen, which grew out of a hermitage founded by St. Gall, the patron saint of Switzerland. According to tradition, St. Gall was one of the twelve companions that left Bangor in Ireland with St. Columban on his missionary journey. The first abbey church was built over St. Gallus’ grave around 719AD. The present-day Cathedral of San Gallen was erected between 1755-1766 and is considered to be a notable example of Baroque architecture. We also got to see the city’s stunning UNESCO heritage library and an exhibition on the history of the monastery and the Irish manuscripts held by this famous abbey.
Manuscripts played an important role in Irish monasticism during the Early Middle Ages. With four manuscripts and eleven fragments, the Abbey Library of St. Gall holds the largest collection of Irish manuscripts dating from the early period until 850AD. St. Gallen is about 20 kms from the shores of Lake Constance. We undertook two pilgrim walks along the Columban Way on the shores of the lake. One was to the Chapel of St. Gall in Arbon, where St. Gall died in 627AD and the other was St. Columban’s Church in Rorschach.
Another city on the Columban Way is Bregenz in Austria and we visited St. Columban’s Church there after a short boat trip across Lake Constance. From Bregenz, the Columban pilgrimage crossed the Alps by train, travelling down into northern Italy to the city of Piacenza where the group was joined by more Columban priests and lay friends as well as a number of Irish and Italian bishops ahead of the XXV International Meeting of the Columban Communities at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta e Santa Giustina. At Sunday Mass in the Cathedral it was announced that during the ‘Jubilee of Hope’, International Columban Day would be celebrated in Carlow Cathedral on Sunday 13th July 2025.
Then it was on to Bobbio where St. Columban died on 23rd November 615AD. The monastery founded by St. Columban in Bobbio became one of the most important monastic centres in Europe, famous in medieval times for its Scriptorium, one of the most active in antiquity. The peace and tranquillity of the crypt in St. Columban’s church where the 15th century sarcophagus of St. Columban by sculptor Giovanni dei Patriarchi is located will stay with me for a long time.
Launching an exhibition, ‘Ireland and the Birth of Europe’ on the legacy of St. Columbanus and the Irish church in antiquity in Bobbio, the Irish Ambassador to the Holy See, Frances Collins noted that the monastery in Bobbio became “a great seat of learning in medieval Europe, possessing one of the largest. libraries which existed in the Middle Ages. Today we in Ireland look back upon the days of Columbanus and his contemporaries with much pride.”