Truth Triumphant - Benjamin G. Wilkinson

new settlements starting with Metz as the center.
King Theodebert was happy over the arrival of
Columbanus at his court. He besought him to
remain in his kingdom permanently and to carry on
his work. The scholar, however, wished to do more
for Europe which was in a state of barbarism.[19]
As Benedict Fitzpatrick says, “The Irish were the
first missionaries in Germany, and Germany had in
the main been made a Christian land by them when
Boniface, who has been called the Apostle of
Germany, first arrived there.”[20]
It might be well at this point to protest against
crediting the Benedictine monks with the work that
was done by the Irish missionaries. Fitzpatrick
says, “The general belief that the Benedictines,
who were the only ‘rivals’ of the Irish monks in the
period under review, were learned men is totally
erroneous. No branch of the Benedictines making
learned studies their aim existed till the
establishment of the Maurists in the seventeenth
century.”[21]
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