Messingham, Florilegium (1624) — collected from various authors. Modern British English translation.

From the eighth book of Orderic Vitalis’s Ecclesiastical History, book 8, on the monks who converted the people of Maine — under Abbot Robert of Chesne #

¹ We have set down these things for posterity concerning modern teachers who prefer new traditions to the teachings of the ancient Fathers, and call other monks “secular” and temerariously condemn them as transgressors of the rule. Considering the zeal and rigour of such men, we do not greatly blame them — yet we do not set them above the proven elder Fathers. For I judge, not ignorantly, that the blessed Father Columbanus, sprung from Ireland, was contemporary with St Benedict; that, leaving his father’s house and country, he sailed into Gaul with his chief monks and, received by Childebert king of the Franks, son of Sigibert, built the monastery of Luxeuil in Burgundy; and afterwards, expelled by the most savage Queen Brunhild, withdrew into Italy and, received by Agilulf king of the Lombards, founded the monastery of Bobbio. This Father of admirable holiness laboured among the first, and shone gloriously among mortals in signs and prodigies; and, led by the Holy Spirit, he published the monastic rule of St Columba and first handed it on to the Gauls. His most flourishing monks came forth from Ireland and shone in the world with virtues like stars in the firmament: Eustasius of Luxeuil, Agilus of Rebais, Faro of Meaux, Audomarus of Boulogne, Filibert of Jumièges, and very many other bishops and abbots of most excellent religion — whose holiness was shown to all in manifest miracles, and by whose zeal the Church was splendidly propagated among her sons. These, I think — as they were near neighbours — knew the blessed Maur and his companions and disciples; and they received from them, as from other writings of learned men, the rule of St Benedict for edification — yet so that they did not shrink from the statutes of their own master, namely the holy Columbanus: for from him they had learned the manner of the divine office and its order, and the forms of prayers for all the orders in God’s Church, the wearing of garments and other observances, which they kept for religion and his honour, and which their followers reverently observe to this day.

² What manner of man the foresaid teacher was before God and men, and how great, the book of his life — full of signs and virtues — shows. He is often mentioned also in the deeds of Audoin archbishop of Rouen, of Eligius of Noyon, and of the other men who were gathered to him and advanced to the summit of virtues through his teaching.

Annotation from the eighth volume of the Annals, at the year of Christ 610 #

¹ This is the year in which St Columbanus, abbot of most proven sanctity, died at Pavia — concerning whom Bede and Paul the Deacon have made mention in the aforementioned year. It plainly appears to have happened by a great benefit of God that a holy man, coming from Ireland into Gaul, should enlighten God’s Church in these most perilous times. If anyone should in any part liken him, exalted in merits, to Elijah, he would not stray far from the mark of truth, in my judgement — since one may see in that most holy man Elijah’s company: besides his wondrous abstinence and most exact monastic observance and his other eminent virtues, the zeal for God’s honour and fortitude of soul in rebuking princes — in which also he is seen the more like to Elijah, that he lacked not persecutors, a new Ahab and another Jezebel, as you will readily learn when you take up the deeds of this year wrought by him. Likewise to the same year. “Columbanus afterwards, being driven from those parts, was followed by his intimate disciple Eustasius, as Luke followed Paul — who recorded the whole journey to Italy in writing in an itinerary, which Jonas, who wrote the holy man’s life, received and wove into his work, as he himself seems plainly to profess, rehearsing each place and each person by whom the saint was received in hospitality; and so he composed a history not only true and sure but most elegant — which if you read in full, you will plainly learn that all that journey of exile was nothing else than a long triumph of the same man of God, in which his victory over kings and their detestable cruelty was everywhere proclaimed in signs and prodigies. But we, for brevity’s sake, omit to relate the miracles then wrought on the way in many places.” In the year 615 — in this manner, in this year, that wondrous worshipper of God, Columbanus, terror and avenger of wicked kings, departed this life.

Bellarmine, De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, at the year 610 #

¹ Jonas, an Englishman or Irishman, in the time of Heraclius wrote the life and deeds of St Columbanus (as is clear from Bede, book 3 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapter 19) — who, as a certain new apostle, wondrously enlightened England, Gaul and Italy. He died in the sixth year of Heraclius, which was the year of our Lord 616. This life exists in Surius at 23 November.

Peter Natalibus, in his Catalogue, book 10, f. 49 #

¹ Columbanus the abbot flourished in Gaul in the times of Theoderic and Clothar, kings of the Franks. He was born in the island of Ireland, and while he was yet borne in his mother’s womb his mother saw in a dream that she bore a sun illuminating the world, etc.

Marianus Scotus, book 3, at the year of Christ 615, fol. 370 #

¹ St Columbanus the father came from the island of Ireland with St Gall and other proven disciples into Burgundy, and there — King Theoderic permitting — built the monastery called Luxeuil. From there, driven out by Brunhild, he entered Alemannia, where he left St Gall. Passing himself into Italy, he built the monastery called Bobbio, where he was the father of many monks.

Hermannus Contractus, in his Chronicle #

¹ The blessed abbot Columbanus, coming with his disciples St Gall and others from Ireland in the times of King Sigibert, built the monastery of Luxeuil, gleaming with many virtues. But when he often rebuked Theoderic for his crimes, and most of all for his adulteries, urging him to lawful marriage — by the machination of Brunhild, the queen who fiercely hated him — he was driven from there at King Theoderic’s command, and left St Eustasius there as abbot in his stead.

Varinus, in the Chronicle of the Order of St Benedict, concerning the monastery of Bobbio in Italy #

¹ Its founder was St Columbanus, an Irishman by birth — who also raised up the coenobium of Luxeuil in Burgundy, as I have said, etc.

² On the same, see also chapter 56 added to book 11 of the History of the Franks of St Gregory of Tours in ten books.

Capgrave, in the Legenda of the Saints of England, Scotland and Ireland — at the beginning of the life of St Columbanus #

¹ The blessed Columbanus was born in the island of Ireland situated in the ocean, which the Scots nation inhabits. For Ireland was called Scotia in antiquity — from which the Scots nation, inhabiting Albania nearest to greater Britain (which is now called Scotia), drew its origin and had its progress.