He was a good-looking Irish lad

who made the women swoon. Those who didn’t swoon chased him.

He was flattered and very much tempted, but his heart belonged to God, so he decided to become a monk (over the energetic objections of his mother). For many years he devoted himself completely to prayer, reflection, and spiritual writing.

Then, he felt a new current in his prayer. He felt God calling him to leave his refuge and to become a missionary. When he was sure that it was the Lord’s will, he and several of his fellow monks left Ireland and set sail to preach the Gospel of Christ in foreign lands.

The foreign lands were not happy to receive them. In fact, the Church was already there (although the fire of Christian devotion was not what it once was) and local clergy grumbled about these Irishmen. In some places, the local bishops even asked Rome to deal with these strange Irish monks. But, here and there, the monks were able to establish small monasteries from which they could work to evangelize the people anew.

Towards the end of his life, he and his brother monks found a place that would accept them and they built a new monastery amid beautiful snowcapped mountains. Feeling life begin to slip away, he retired to a small cave where he had built a chapel high above a river.

There in the mountains of northern Italy, St. Columbanus, son of Ireland and re-evangelist of Europe, died on November 21, 615.