Above: One of the jars imported by Gaulish pottery

When Columbanus bad lived for some years at Luxeuil, a dispute arose between himself and the secular clergy. The French bishops and priests in the neighborhood complained that the Columban monks wore the tonsure differently from the Gaulish clergy. The Columban monks, in accordance with the Irish custom, shaved the front of the head as far as the ears, while the priests of Gaul shaved the top of the head. It was also complained that Columbanus and his followers calculated the time of Easter in accordance with the practice introduced into Ireland by St. Patrick, and did not conform to the usage of the French church in this matter.

Above: Portraits depicting the Paschal Cycle

St. Columbanus was summoned to attend before an assembly of Gaulish bishops to answer on these points, but he did not appear lest, as he tells us, ” he might contend in words.” He wrote instead a letter to the French churchmen, in which he admonished them to hold Synods more frequently, and to pay attention to matters more important than the celebration of Easter. As to his Paschal Cycle arid himself, he said : ” I am not the author of this divergence. I came as a poor stranger into these parts, for the cause of Christ, Our Saviour. One thing alone I ask of you, Holy Fathers, permit me to live in solitude in these forests near the bones of seventeen of my brothers now dead. . . . Surely it is better for you to comfort than to disturb us, poor old men, strangers, too, in your midst. Let us rather love one another in the charity of Christ, striving to fulfil his precepts, and thereby to secure a place in the assembly of the just made perfect in heaven.”