Saint Columba

Like Saint Brendan, Saint Columba and his companions also left the British Isles, collected followers in France, and in collusion with the aristocracy of the western Vosges, founded the abbey of Luxeuil, which was soon to become famous. After being expelled from this region, they journeyed on to northern Italy and were instrumental in laying the foundations of the abbey at Bobbio. St. Gallen in Switzerland, too, recalls in the name of its founder Gallus one of Columba’s companions. All these sites became centers of literary culture, rich library treasures, and further dissemination of the faith. From the seventh century onward, Bobbio especially proved to be a bastion of Irish-influenced learning on the continent.Yet even at the court of Charlemagne, Irish monks who had left their homeland on religious pilgrimages still kept arriving, spreading their great fund of knowledge and their religious message. The earliest advice on ethical rule and counsel to princes also came from Irish authors; they even saw fit to reprimand the great Frankish king. (Fried, 2015)