The Irish Missionaries In Europe
Above : Picture Of St. Columbanus
The religious energy of the Irish people during these centuries was not confined to their native country. It also carried bands of devoted missionaries to preach the Gospel to the pagan tribes of Britain and the Continent. While the Irish schools gave free education to the harassed natives of the ravaged Christian countries, Irish missionaries carried the light of Christianity amongst the barbarians themselves. Other workers, no doubt, were labouring in the same fields. But the conversion of many parts of Europe was due mainly to the self-sacrificing devotion of the Irish.
The same energetic zeal that created lona and Lindisfarne also carried numerous Irish missionaries into the heart of Europe. The fate that threatened the Continent in the time of St. Patrick had now overtaken it and the ” Dark Ages ” had begun. The Empire of Rome had been destroyed (a.d. 476), and all its provinces had become the prey of the fierce Northern barbarians. Their chiefs ruled over ruined cities and ravaged countries in petty Kingdoms, which were the fragments that eventually formed the modern nations of Europe. From the first two distinct groups are noticeable. The earliest of the Teutonic conquerors had fallen under Roman influence and become Latin in language, laws and government. These were in the West and South, and the tribe amongst them whose name became most famous was that of the Franks. But beyond the Rhine the numerous tribes still remained German in speech and habits. Some of the early comers had also adopted Christianity—but it was purely nominal and they were little better than pagan. The German tribes were still frankly heathen. Religion, learning, and order had almost disappeared from Europe. Their revival was due, in great part to the devoted labours of Irish missionaries.
* St. Chad, the founder of the See of Durham, was educated in Ireland.
The greatest of the Irish missionaries to Europe was St. Columbanus. A native of Leinster, he studied for many years in Bangor, and was well advanced in life when, with twelve companions, he landed in Gaul or modern France. Traversing the Prankish Kingdoms, into which the northern parts of that country were then divided, he reached the Kingdom of Burgundy and near the Vosges mountains he established the monastery of Luxeuil (a.d. 590), and afterwards that of Fontaines. For twenty years Columbanus lived in Burgundy, attracting crowds of disciples, including many from the German tribes which lay towards the Rhine. At length, because he reproved the vices of the King, he was banished from the country and conducted to the coast. Intent upon reaching the German peoples, he proceeded to the mouth of the Rhine and made a long and toilsome voyage up that river, until he gained the country lying beyond Burgundy. On the shores of Lake Constance at Richenau he preached to the German tribes of modern Switzerland. Next he made his way across the icy passes of the Alps and reached the Lombards, who had settled in the North of Italy. At Bobbio in the Appenine Mountains he founded (a.d. 613) a celebrated monastery described as ” the light of Northern Italy,” the library of which was famous throughout the Middle Ages. Here, two years later, he died.
Columbanus was an accomplished scholar and writer. Numerous sermons, letters, and poems written by him are still existing and testify not only to the extent of his knowledge, but also to the high state of learning in the Irish schools where he acquired it.
St. Columbanus was not the first of the Irish missionaries to either Switzerland or Italy.* In the former he was preceded by St. Fridolin, who afteiwards became the first Bishop of Alsace. Next in fame to Columbanus in those regions, however, was his companion, St. Gall. When Columbanus departed for Lombardy he left behind him at Lake Constance most of his companions. Amongst those was St. Gall, who laboured for thirty years afterwards, converting the German tribe of Alemanni, whose apostle he was. He founded a monastery called after him, which became a great centre of Irish missionary effort and gives a name to a Swiss canton.
In North Italy Columbanus had been preceded in the sixth century by St. Frigidian, who helped to convert the Lombards and became Bishop of Lucca. Away in the far south of the Peninsula St. Cathaldus, who had been a teacher in the school of Lismore, became Bishop of Tarentum in the seventh century. At the same time another Irishman was Bishop of Lecce in the same district.
* Modern names of countries are here used for convenience only, and not as indicating the existence of definite nations at the time.
The southern countries of Germany owe their conversion, to a great extent, to Irish disciples of Columbanus, who travelled eastwards from Luxeuil or northwards from St. Gaul. In Alsace, two Irishmen were Bishops of Strasburg in the seventh century. St. Kilian became the apostle of Franconia and Lower Saxony and was martyred at Wurzburg, a.d. 689. In the next century St. Virgilius (Fearghal), who had been Abbot of Aghaboe, completed the conversion of the Bavarians and became Bishop of Salzburg and Carinthia. He was a famous geometer and was the first to teach that the earth was a sphere. He died a.d. 785.
In the west and centre of France the principal Irish influence came from the monasteries which rapidly sprang up as offshoots from Luxeuil. Many of these were founded on the slopes of the Vosges and on the banks of the tributaries of the Rhone, Rhine and Seine, and were frequented by Franks, Burgundians, and Goths. In the north of France prominent Irishmen were St. Fiachra, who established a monastery near Paris, and St. Fursa (a.d. 650) from the shores of Lough Corrib, who, with his brothers, founded monasteries at Peronne and St. Quenlin.
In the Netherlands St. Livinius (a.d. 635) suffered martyrdom in Brabant, and St. Dymphna, a native of Oirghialla, died at Gheel, where her shrine has ever since been venerated and resorted to by those mentally affected, of whom she is the patron saint.
The few prominent names which are here mentioned represent but a small part of the work for Christianity performed in Europe by Irish zeal. Most of it was done by unknown monks in the numerous monasteries which spread from St. Gall or Luxeuil over western and central Europe. To Luxeuil alone, no less than sixty-three monasteries owed their origin. These monasteries were continually being recruited by monks from Ireland, who for many ages continued the work of St. Columbanus and St. Gall. Irish influence on the Continent was the result of no temporary effort, but was due to a great movement which lasted for 600 years—from the sixth century to the twelfth.
A broad belt, stietching from the North Sea to the eastern limit of the German peoples, formed the theatre in which Irishmen taught Christianity along the entire front line of the still unconverted Teutonic tribes. The many generations of Irish missionaries who thus rebuilt Christianity in so many parts of Europe carried Irish art and literature along with them. From their monasteries have come the numerous Irish manuscripts which are still preserved in the libraries and museums of Austria, Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
