Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Furthermore, ‘Columbanian’ monasteries were governed by the same alliance of
interests that earlier foundations had been, even if these interests themselves differed
slightly. The combination of family piety and episcopal need that drove the foundations
of Caesaria and, probably, Tarsicia was now the combination of family piety melded with
Columbanus’ perceived need for re-evangelising the region and for missionary work,
providing a background for the coenobium of Burgundofara. It therefore seems
something of an overstatement to suggest, as does Pierre Riché, that ‘Despite itself the
Merovingian Church was saved by the presence of Columbanus and his monks. The Irish
tonic spread and revived the sclerotic body.’ 215 This may have been the impression Jonas
wished to record for posterity, but it cannot be accepted unchallenged.
Burgundofara and the monastery of Eboriac
It is to the foundation of one particular monastery, that of Eboriac, that we now
turn. From the beginning, it is useful to bear in mind the differences between this
foundation and that of St John, particularly in terms of the people involved. The
foundation of Eboriac is described in Jonas’ account of Columbanus and his followers.
However, it appears not in the section dedicated to the miracles and visions experienced
in the monastery, but in the portion of the work recounting the life of Eustasius, abbot of
Luxeuil. This has implications for the way in which new foundations resulting from
Columbanus’ presence were conceived; the issue, for Jonas and hence for his audience,
seems to have been the tension between monastic and lay responsibility for new
foundations. Evidently, the circumstances of the foundation are included for the
glorification of Eustasius, rather than for that of Burgundofara or the wider circle of
Faronids; the foundation is in his vita, not hers. Of course, one reservation may be
expressed, in that the section on Eboriac is in the form of a miracula, rather than a vita
Burgundofarae. Such a vita Burgundofarae could not be composed or included while the
subject was yet living. The inclusion of the foundation in that section would therefore
have interrupted the tightly planned and heavily didactic series of visions. The foundation
215 P. Riché, ‘Columbanus, his Followers and the Merovingian Church’, 65.
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