St. Columban – November 23rd
Columban, the greatest of Irish missionary-monks, had a good education as a boy. But when he was a teenager, he was strongly tempted to sins of impurity by certain immodest girls. Columban felt a great inclination to give in, and in this terrible situation, he turned to a holy nun for advice.
“You must run away from this temptation,” she told him. “Turn from the river of impurity into which many fall!”
Columban decided not only to avoid those young women but to go off into the wilderness to become a monk. His mother could not bear the thought of him leaving her, but Columban felt he must serve God in solitude.
After many years as a monk in Ireland, Columban and twelve other monks set sail for France where good priests were badly needed. People saw their penance, devotion and charity, and many young men came to join them. Soon they had to build other monasteries to house all the disciples of St. Columban.
There were some people, however, who gave trouble because they thought the rules of these monks were too strict, and St. Columban also faced danger when he scolded the king for his sins. As a result, he and his Irish monks had to leave France. St. Columban, though fairly old, still tried to preach to unbelievers in Switzerland. When he was seventy, he went into Italy and defended the Faith against the Arian heretics.
In his letter to the Pope, St. Columban proclaims his great devotion to the Holy Father. “All we Irish, living in the furthest parts of the earth,” he says, “are bound to the Chair of St. Peter.” He calls the Pope the “leader of leaders,” and “the only hope, mighty through the honor of Peter the Apostle.”
In his last years, St. Columban built the great monastery of Bobbio in Italy, and after his death, both the Irish and the Italians were very devoted to this wonderful missionary.
If I find someone to be an occasion of sin, I will make sure to avoid that person.
