I must work for God:

[Weedy]

I must work for God:

I must work for God, with God, and through God's help. By helping to
bring about a true fellowship of human beings, I am working for God. I
am also working with God because this is the way God works, and He is
with me when I am doing such work. I cannot do good work, however,
without God's help. In the final analysis, it is through the grace of
God that any real change in human personality takes place. I have to
rely on God's power, and anything I accomplish is through His help. I
pray that I may work for God and with God. I pray that I may be used
to change human personalities through God's help.
--From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

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• 23 November – Saint Columbanus
Also known as
Columbanus of Luxeuil
Columbanus of Bobbio
Columba of….
Columban of….

Memorial
23 November
formerly 21 November
24 November (Benedictines and Ireland)
2 July on some local calendars

(543-615)
Monk, Irish Missionary, Abbot, Writer, Reformer, Teacher,
Miracle-worker, Founder of numerous monasteries in present-day France
and Italy. Patronages – against floods, Bobbio, Italy, Missionary
Society of Saint Columban, motorcyclists. Columban is named in the
Roman Martyrology on 23 November, which is his feast day in Ireland.
His feast is observed by the Benedictines on 24 November and 26
November by the Franciscans.

Well-born, handsome and educated, Columban was torn between a desire
for God and easy access to the pleasures of the world. Acting on
advice of a holy anchoress, he decided to withdraw from the world. His
family opposed the choice, his mother going so far as to block the
door. He became a Monk at Lough Erne and studied Scripture
extensively, writing a commentary on the Psalms. He then became a
Monk at Bangor under abbot Saint Comgall.

In middle age, Columban felt a call to missionary life. With twelve
companions (Saint Attala, Columban the Younger, Cummain, Domgal,
Eogain, Eunan, Saint Gall, Gurgano, Libran, Lua, Sigisbert and
Waldoleno) he travelled to Scotland, England and then to France in
585. The area, though nominally Christian, had fallen far from the
faith but were ready for missionaries and they had some success. They
were warmly greeted at the court of Gontram and king of Burgundy
invited the band to stay. They chose the half-ruined Roman fortress of
Annegray in the Vosges Mountains for their new home with Columban as
their abbot.

The simple lives and obvious holiness of the group drew disciples to
join them and the sick to be healed by their prayers. Columban, to
find solitude for prayer, often lived for long periods in a cave seven
miles from the monastery, using a messenger to stay in touch with his
brothers. When the number of new monks over-crowded the old fortress,
King Gontram gave them the old castle of Luxeuil to found a new house
in 590. Soon after, a third house was founded at Fontaines. Columban
served as master of them all and wrote a Rule for them which
incorporated many Celtic practices, was approved by the Council of
Macon in 627 but was superseded by the Benedictine.

Problems arose early in the 7th century. Many Frankish bishops
objected to a foreign missionary with so much influence, to the Celtic
practices he brought, especially those related to Easter and his
independence from them. In 602 he was summoned to appear before them
for judgement, instead of appearing, he sent a letter advising them to
hold more synods and to concern themselves with more important things
than which rite he used to celebrate Easter. The dispute over Easter
continued to years, with Columban appealing to multiple popes for help
but was only settled with Columban abandoning the Celtic calendar
when he moved to Italy.

In addition to his problems with the bishops, Columban spoke out
against vice and corruption in the royal household and court, which
was in the midst of a series of complex power grabs. Brunehault
stirred up the bishops and nobility against the abbot, he was ordered
to conform to the local ways. Columban refused and was briefly
imprisoned at Besançon but he escaped and returned to Luxeuil. An
armed force was sent to order Columban and his foreign monks back to
Ireland. As soon as his ship set sail, a storm drove them back to
shore, the captain took it as a sign and set the monks free.

They traveled to Metz, France, then Mainz, Germany, Suevi, Alamanni
and finally Lake Zurich. Their evangelisation work there was
unsuccessful and the group passed on to Arbon, then Bregenz and then
Lake Constance. Saint Gall, who knew the local language best, took the
lead in this region and many were converted to the faith. The group
founded a new monastery as their home and base. However, a year later
political upheaval caused Columban to cross the Alps into Italy,
arriving in Milan in 612. The Christian royal family treated him well
and he preached and wrote against Arianism and Nestorianism. In
gratitude, the Lombard king gave him a tract of land call Bobbio
between Milan and Genoa in Italy. There he rebuilt a half-ruined
church of Saint Peter and around it he founded an abbey that was to be
the source for evangelisation throughout northern Italy for centuries
to come.

Columban always enjoyed being in the forests and caves and as he
walked through the woods, birds and squirrels would ride on his
shoulders. Toward the end of his life came word that his old enemies
were dead and his brothers wanted him to come back north, but he
declined. Knowing that his time was almost done, he retired to a cave
for solitude and died as he had predicted. His influence continued for
centuries as those he converted handed on the faith, the brothers he
taught evangelised untold numbers more and his brother monks founded
over one hundred monasteries to protect learning and spread the faith.

Miracles ascribed to Columban during his lifetime, include –
• to obtain food for a sick brother monk, he cured the wife of the donor;
• once when he was surrounded by wolves, he simply walked through them;
• at one point he needed a cave for his solitary prayers; a bear lived
there; when Columban asked, the bear left;
• when he needed water in order to live in the cave, a spring appeared nearby;
• when the Luxeuil Abbey granary ran empty, Columban prayed over it
and it refilled;
• he multiplied bread and beer for his community;
• he cured several sick monks, who then got straight out of bed to
reap the monastery’s harvest;
• gave sight to a blind man at Orleans;
• he destroyed a vat of beer being prepared for a pagan festival by
breathing on it;
• when the monastery needed help in the fields, he tamed a bear, and
yoked it to a plough.
He impressed his contemporaries as a giant of a man in mind and
spirit, who revived religion on the continent and prepared the way for
the Carolingian renaissance. He died at Bobbio on 23 November 615.

Columban did not lead a perfect life. According to biographers, he
could be impetuous and even headstrong, for by nature he was eager,
passionate and dauntless. These qualities were both the source of his
power and the cause of his mistakes. His virtues, however, were quite
remarkable. Like many saints, he had a great love for God’s creatures.
Stories claim that as he walked in the woods, it was not uncommon for
birds to land on his shoulders to be caressed, or for squirrels to run
down from the trees and nestle in the folds of his cowl. Although a
strong defender of Irish traditions, he never wavered in showing deep
respect for the Holy See as the supreme authority. His influence in
Europe was due to the conversions he effected and to the rule that he
composed. The life of Columban stands as the prototype of missionary
activity in Europe.

The remains of Columban are preserved in the crypt at Bobbio Abbey.
Many miracles have been credited to his intercession. In 1482, the
relics were placed in a new shrine and laid beneath the altar of the
crypt. The sacristy at Bobbio possesses a portion of the skull of the
saint, his knife, wooden cup, bell and an ancient water vessel,
formerly containing sacred relics and said to have been given to him
by Pope Gregory I. According to some authorities, twelve teeth of the
saint were taken from the tomb in the fifteenth century and kept in
the treasury but these have since disappeared.

The St Columban’s Missionary Society took its name from him,
recognising in him a missionary genius with a uniquely Irish spirit.
St Columban’s works are:
• Penitencial
• Seventeen short Sermons
• Six Epistles
• Latin Poems
• A Monastic Rule

https://anastpaul.com/2018/11/23/


Quote/s of the Day – 23 November – The memorial of St Columban (543-615)

“Be helpful,
when you are,
at the bottom of the ladder
and be the lowest,
when you are in authority.”
by St Columban

“Be slow to anger,
swift to learn,
slow also to speak,
as St James says,
equally swift to hear.”

“Be respectful to the worthy,
merciful to the poor.”

“Be mindful of favours,
unmindful of wrongs.”

Excerpts from a “Letter to a Young Disciple”
by St Columban (543-615)


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DEAR JESUS,
help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul
I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus.
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others.