Above: Map showing Lexeuil and other neighboring places

In parting from the community at Luxeuil, Columbanus sent a letter of farewell, in which, writes Montalembert, recollections of classical antiquity mingle with evangelical instruction to dictate to the Saint some of the finest and proudest words which Christian genius has ever produced.

The letter runs as follows:—” I had at first meant to write a letter full of sorrows and tears, but knowing well that your heart is overwhelmed with cares and labours, I have changed my style, and sought to dry the tears rather than call them forth. I have permitted only gentleness to be seen outside, and chained down the grief in the depths of my soul. But my own tears begin to flow! I must drive them back; for it does not become a good soldier to weep in front of the battle. After all, this that has happened to us is nothing new. Is it not what we have preached every day? Was there not of old a philosopher wiser than the others who was thrown into prison for maintaining against the opinion of all that there was only one God ? The Gospels also are full of all that is necessary to encourage us. They were written with that purpose, to teach the true disciples of Christ crucified to follow Him bearing their cross. Our perils are many; the struggle that threatens us is severe, but the recompense is glorious, and the freedom of our choice is manifest. Without adversaries no conflict, and without conflict, no crown. Where the struggle is, there is courage, vigilance, patience, fidelity, wisdom, prudence; out of the fight there is misery and disaster. Thus then, without war no crown, and I add without freedom no honour.”

Above: Aerial shot of the Rhine River

On leaving Luxeuil St. Columbanus went northward and was hospitably received by Clotaire, King of Neustria, at Soissons. Thence he went to Metz, the capital of Austrasia, where he was joined by some of his brethren, who had escaped from Luxeuil in order to accompany him, and with their help, he began a mission amongst the pagan populations who dwelt on the right bank of the Rhine. He established monasteries at Tuggen on Lake Zurich and at Constance.

After spending three years in Switzerland, he crossed the Alps by the Pass of St. Gothard into Italy, and Agilulph, King of the Lombards, gave him lands for the foundation of a monastery at Bobbio, a lonely spot in the Appenines. There was a ruined church at Bobbio dedicated to St. Peter, and St. Columbanus, who was now over seventy years of age, set about to repair it, to build his monastery, and to clear away the surrounding district of timber in order to prepare it for cultivation. When the monastery was built St. Columbanus went to Rome to obtain the Pope’s approval for his rule, and placed the monastery under his protection. He lived but one year after the foundation of Bobbio, and passed away from the brotherhood in the year 615, when he was in his seventy-third year.