A monk among the “fathers of Europe”

“He was a beacon also for our times, for a life based on the Gospel, for a renewed thrust in the footsteps of Christ”.The “beacon”, the light, is Saint Colombanus, Irish monk, “pilgrim for Christ” in medieval Europe between the second half of the year 500 and 615, when he died, after a life of mission, in Bobbio, on the Appennines in the area of Piacenza (Italy). Father Notker Wolf, Abbot Primate of the Benedictine order, arrived in Bobbio on August 30 to celebrate the 1400th anniversary of Columbanus. Wolf delivered his homily during the Mass attended by fifteen-hundred faithful from European and other world countries, over one hundred priests, some twenty bishops, as well as Cardinals Angelo Scola (archbishop of Milan, “special delegate” of Pope Francis) and Irish Cardinal Sean Brady. A Christian on a journey. Wolf described Colombanus as a man of faith, devoted “to the radical adherence to the path of Jesus” to bring the Gospel in his homeland and in what today is France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. “Saint Colombanus challenged others, but he challenged himself in particular. He had to surmount many obstacles. Journeys across Europe were extremely arduous at the time. He crossed inaccessible territories, faced dangers along the way, suffered hunger and deprivation and went to live in a foreign country, far from his beloved monastery of Bangor in Ireland”.Persecuted in the Kingdom of the Franks and in Switzerland, he arrived in Bobbio, where he laid the foundations of the present abbey, where he is buried. He wrote a very severe rule of life, then superseded by that of Benedict. “Pilgrimage propter Christum was his ideal, and this peregrination means leaving everything and displaying incredible courage. Thanks to this ideal his monks brought Christianity” to many regions of the continent. Young people challenge us. The abbot Primate of the Benedictines recalled Colombanus’ capability of “motivating many young people to monastic life”, transmitting to them “unconditional love for Jesus” “.This raises a question for us to answer: who is transmitting the beauty of following Christ to contemporary youths?” For Wolf, “we need a new pilgrimage” towards the Gospel and towards our brethren. “Europe is no longer a Christian continent. That is why Pope Benedict XVI exhorted the Church to a new evangelization. And Pope Francis called upon his shepherds to a sincere life according to the Gospel”.Bergoglio “proclaimed a year of religious life to renew the ideals of the Sequela Christi, which Colombanus devoted himself to. The Pope calls for a conversion of the entire Church to convert the rest of the world. Let us bring renewed light to beauty, to the joy of following Jesus Christ” in everyday life, in the family, in cities, in Europe. Unity and differences. The figure of Saint Colombanus, “a monk Saint”, “stands before us in its powerful contemporary relevance. One of the founding fathers of the European Union, Robert Schuman, used to quote Saint Colombanus as the ‘Patron Saint of those engaged in constructing united Europe.’ This reminds us that in him Christian faith has been a concrete factor that brought good life and civilization”.Cardinal Angelo Scola, who spoke in Bobbio as special envoy of the Pope, undertook a reflection on the figure of the monk. “In a situation that is under certain aspects similar to our present one, with a mixture of peoples and cultures (Celts, Latins, Slavs…) Saint Colombanus – he said – managed to create unity, whilst enhancing the differences”.Colombanus became a “pilgrim for Christ”, “crossing barren lands and wounds from wars and pillage; he brought peace and reconciliation wherever he went. He founded monasteries and met the powerful without fearing to stand as a sign of contradiction. Today’s disoriented Europe can find in the Saint’s noble figure good reasons for recovery”. To live in peace. “Saint Colombanus, who can be considered with Benedict XVI a true ‘Father of Europe’, believed that in the heart” of the continent “there can be brotherhood among peoples only if there is a civilization that is open to God”, wrote cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, in the letter sent on behalf of the Pope to Monsignor Gianni Ambrosio, bishop of Piacenza-Bobbio, on the occasion of the International Meeting of the Communities of St. Colombanus in Bobbio. “His great culture, his spiritual energy and his moral stature stand as an example we must look up to in order to revive that civilization in today’s European continent”, added Parolin, who recalled that “Colombanus was an Irishman by family and education, and always had a European understanding of his ecclesial commitment”, especially regarding “the duty of all Christians to give their contribution to ensure that the different peoples of the continent may live in unity and peace”.