Open [38.2 MB]

Lineaments in the Conspectus
to the world and the seed planted by the stranger would
fructify for ever more. Thus St. Gall, whose father and
patron was Ceallach or Callus, thus Lure, whose founder
was Dicuil, thus Bobbio, whose founder was Columbanus,
thus Perrone, whose father and patron was Fursa, grew
into mountain villages or noble cities. Thus scores of
cities and towns from the Irish Sea to the Adriatic
St. Bees, Malmesbury, St. Gibrian, St. Gobain, St. Die,
St. Ursanne, Dissentis, San Columbano, San Cataldo,
Altomunster, St. Desibod and Beatenberg, among them '
came into being under the fostering arm of the missionary
Gael.
A sacred fanaticism carried these tireless Irish pilgrims
over the broad expanse of Europe, their tracks studded
with hermit haunts and holy wells, round which rose up
in the fulness of time noble monasteries and enduring
cities. When the fiery Columbanus was expelled from
Luxeuil, where on the buried heaps of a Roman city he
had founded a lasting school and city, he wended his slow
and tortuous way to northern Italy, and as he proceeded,
parted one by one with compatriots who were disciples
precious to him as life. Dicuil's failing limbs gave way
as he accompanied the evicted superior to Besangon, and
with his master's blessing he settled in a desert waste to
lay the foundation of the noble monastery of Lure.
Potentin was left behind at Soissons to become Abbot
eventually of Coutances. Ursicinus1 bade his superior a
fond farewell at Basel and, penetrating into the passes
of Jura, founded his great monastery at the foot of Mont
i The names of Irishmen abroad assumed a Latin form in the mouths of
continental writers. Colum became Columbanus; Cathail, Cataldus; Siadhail,
Sedulius; Ceallach, Gallus; Moengal, Marcellus; Muiredach, Marianus; Duncadh,
Donatus ; and so on. A new sobriquet was given in some cases. Thus Comgall,
founder of Bangor. figures as Faustus in one of the directions of Columbanus.
Other forms were arbitrary, Ailill becoming Ellas. "Scotus" meaning "IrisJt,inan,"
was a common appellation.
15