We should honour St Columban’s inspiring mission through Europe

I call your attention to St Columban, a Leinster man who with some others left their monastery at Bangor, Co. Antrim to bring their faith to some then dark places in Europe. The 1,400th anniversary of his death is November 23.

Don’t confuse him with St Colm Cille of Donegal, Derry, and Iona fame, whose 14th centenary we celebrated 18 years ago.

Instead of a camino to Santiago, I decided with some of today’s Columbans to see where our hero had gone. But instead of rowing boats and riding mules, we had a bus. We had our minds set on four cities in four countries: Luxeuil, France; St Gallen, Switzerland; Bregens, Austria, and, over the Alps, Milan/Bobbio Italy.