We continue with J.M.Flood’s tribute to the Irish monks who laboured in continental Europe with his account of some famous Irish missionaries:

With a few exceptions, we have but few and meagre details of the lives and works of individual Irish missionaries who laboured in the various countries of Europe. Of that large multitude of devoted men, who went from Ireland in a continuous succession for three centuries — “the death of one apostle being but the coming of another” — the records are scanty and satisfactory, consisting mainly of casual references made by contemporary Writers. The period in Europe was not favourable to the cultivation of letters, and our native annals generally do not make any reference to the Irish ecclesiastics who went abroad except in a few cases. Thus we find it recorded that Vergilius of Salzburg died in 788, Dunchadh of Cologne died A.D. 813, Gilla-na-naemh Laighen, Superior of the monastery in Wursburg, died A.D. 1085; but there is no mention made of Columbanus, Gall, Cathaldus, Fiachra, Colman or Killian.

St. Vergilius, Archbishop of Salzburg, was born, reared, and educated in Ireland, according to the testimony of Alcuin, who was almost his contemporary, but the place and date of his birth cannot be ascertained with exactness. It appears from a statement in the Annals of the Four Masters that before leaving Ireland he was Abbot of Aghaboe. He arrived in France about the year 741 and spent two or three years at the Court of Pepin-le-Bref, father of the renowned Charlemagne. Pepin esteemed Vergilius highly on account of his great learning, and when he was leaving France, gave him letters of recommendation to Ottilo, Duke of Bavaria. Bavaria had at this time been partially converted to the Christian Faith by St. Boniface and the object of St. Vergilius in going to the country was to help in completing the work which St. Boniface had begun. He settled at Salzburg, and his life there was one of unceasing effort, not only for the conversion of Bavaria, but of Carinthia and the neighbouring provinces, which were still for the most part pagan. The monks of the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter at Salzburg chose him to be their Abbot, and he rebuilt the monastery in a style of great splendour. He was consecrated Bishop of Salzburg about the year 744, and he presided over the diocese for forty years. He sent many missionaries to preach the gospel throughout the country, and paid frequent visits to the newly-established churches, so as to confirm the people in the faith. He built a stately church in honour of St. Stephen, and a great basilica dedicated to St. Rudbert, the founder and first bishop of the church of Salzburg. He died about 784 and was buried in the monastery of St. Peter.

St. Vergilius was not only a great missionary saint, but was also distinguished on account of his learning, and as an astronomer he was far in advance of his age, for he held the sphericity of the earth and the existence of Antipodes long before Copernicus startled Europe with his teaching on this subject. In spite of opposition he stoutly maintained that the earth was round, that the sun passed beneath it, and that there must be inhabitants on the other side. The doctrine and other views of Vergilius were unpalatable to the ecclesiastical authorities in Germany and charges against him were brought before the Pope. He was represented as holding astronomical doctrines which were, in fact, different from those which he really advocated, and his teaching was condemned. Vergilius would appear to have explained his real tenets to the satisfaction of the Pope, for no punishment was inflicted, and he was shortly afterwards promoted to the See of Salzburg.

St. Fursey, a famous Irish missionary in France, was the son of a Munster prince named Fintan. He was trained in Connaught at a monastery on the island of Inchiquin in Lough Corrib by St. Brendan, an uncle of his father’s, and by St. Meldan, who succeeded St. Brendan as head of the community. After spending some time in England St. Fursey went to the north-east of Gaul, and landed with twelve companions at the mouth of the Somme, A.D. 638. He settled for a time at Peronne, but afterwards went to Lagny-sur-Marne at the request of King Clovis II., who was desirous of having him near his court. From the records that we possess of his life, he appears to have been a man of a quiet and retiring character. Bede describes him as being renowned both for his words and actions, as remarkable for great virtues, and as being desirous to live a pilgrim for the Lord, whenever an opportunity should offer. The same writer tells us that by the example of his virtues and the efficacy of his discourse, he converted many unbelievers to Christ, and confirmed in his faith and love those who already believed. Though St. Fursey does not appear to have possessed the learning for which his countrymen were celebrated, there was a certain exaltation in his nature which earns for him the epithet “sublime” from the Venerable Bede. He wrote an account of his ‘Visions of Heaven and Hell’ which became well known in Europe, and which are the most remarkable writings of their kind anterior to the great epic poem of Dante. They show a great spiritual insight, and are full of the most excellent moral precepts. They reflect the profound religious convictions of religious men of the period, and no small amount of imaginative power is shown in the treatment of the subject. It does not seem unlikely that the great Florentine poet was acquainted with St. Fursey’s ‘Visions,’ and derived inspiration from them in the writing of the ‘Divine Comedy.’ The Venerable Bede, who speaks with the greatest reverence of St. Fursey and his ” Visions,” was one of the writers whom Dante honoured in a special measure, and there are parallelisms between certain of the speeches in the “Inferno ” and the words used by St. Fursey which would support this conjecture.

St. Cathaldus was born about the year 615 A.D. in Munster, and went to study at the great school of Lismore. He eventually became a professor there, and the fame of his learning” and virtues attracted many pupils to the school. In addition to teaching, St. Cathaldus preached the Gospel and founded churches in the country of the Desii. He was consecrated Bishop of Rachan, a locality which was probably in Munster, but which it is difficult to ascertain. When he had presided over the diocese of Rachan for some years he set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his brother Donatus and several companions. On their way homeward from Palestine the vessel in which they sailed was wrecked in the Gulf of Taranto. St. Cathaldus escaped from the wreck, and arrived at the city of Taranto. He found the city practically pagan and the effeminate and licentious inhabitants were almost entirely addicted to pleasure and vice. He preached to them in moving language, imploring them to return to the rule and practices of Christianity, and performed many striking miracles in their sight. The bishopric of Taranto happened to be vacant at the time, and the Tarentines besought the Irish Saint to assume the office, promising to follow his councils. St. Cathaldus assented, reluctantly, in the hope that he might be able to win them back to the faith. His labours amongst them were crowned with success, Taranto became a Christian city in reality as well as in name, and the inhabitants venerated St. Cathaldus as their patron and apostle. His remains are still preserved with great honour in the cathedral, and the inscription on his tomb, ‘Cathaldus Rachan’ commemorates the debt which Southern Italy owes to Southern Ireland.

St. Donatus was bom of a noble family in Ireland, near the end of the eighth century, and was educated at the monastic school of Inishcaltra in Lough Derg. He became a priest, and obtained high distinction as a professor and a man of learning. He taught in Ireland for a number of years, and was raised to the dignity of a bishopric. He left Ireland to make a pilgrimage to Rome, accompanied by Andrew, a youth of a noble Irish family, who was one of his favourite pupils. They journeyed through France, visiting many places of pilgrimage, and then made their way through Switzerland and Northern Italy to Rome. They received there the blessing of the Supreme Pontiff, and, after staying for some time in the city, set out towards Tuscany on their return journey to Ireland. They arrived at Fiesole, situated on the mountains overlooking Florence, where there were at the time many churches and memorials of Christian Saints and martyrs. They stayed for a time at a monastery at Fiesole before resuming their journey, and the monks and people of the town became greatly attached to the two Irishmen on account of their kindly simple ways and great sanctity. Shortly after their arrival the Bishop of Fiesole died, and the clergy and people resolved that Donatus should be his successor. They approached him on the subject, but Donatus who was a man truly humble of spirit, declined the office. He told them that he was only a poor pilgrim from Ireland, and that he did not wish to be their bishop as he was not fitted for the position since he hardly knew their language or customs. The clergy persisted in their request and at length Donatus consented, and was consecrated Bishop of Fiesole about 824 A.D. He became a great and successful pastor, and laboured for thirty-seven years at Fiesole, winning the love and reverence of the people. He died in the year 861. His name is still honoured at Fiesole, and his tomb and other memories of him are held in high veneration. There is extant a short Latin poem in which he recorded his love of his native land, which he had left for ever, and celebrates the beauty of its climate, the worth of the ancient race that inhabited it, famed in the pursuits of war and peace, and noted for their attachment to the faith.

Many legends have grown around the life of Saint Fridolin, the ‘Wanderer.’ He was born in Connaught and gained a great reputation for learning. After travelling through various parts of Ireland, he distributed his possessions amongst the poor, and went to Gaul. He entered the monastery of Saint Hilary of Poitiers, where he remained for many years. His brother monks loved and esteemed him, and elected him as their Abbot. He left Poitiers and went to the north-east towards the Moselle founding churches on the way. Arriving at Strasburg he founded a monastery there, which was for a long time under the direction of Irish monks. Then he went to a place called Seckingen a little to the east of Basle, where he built a church, and lived for a time. His wandering and restless spirit would not allow him to remain anywhere for a lengthened period, and we find him soon again travelling through Switzerland, and converting the people of Glarus, who still bear his figure on their cantonal banner, in memory of his missionary labours in the country…

J. M. Flood, Ireland: its saints and scholars (Dublin, n.d.), 70-77.

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The month of July contains the commemorations of a number of interesting and important Irish saints who laboured in Europe and below is an excerpt from a book which describes some of the features of the Irish mission to the continent. The author, J.M.Flood, dedicates chapter six of his work to describing the practicalities of their endeavours. He does not hold back from describing the many hardships and dangers the Irish monks faced nor the fact that their presence wasn’t always entirely welcome:

We owe our knowledge of the labours and influence of the Irish monks in England and the Continent almost entirely to foreign sources, and, with a very few exceptions, our native annals are almost silent concerning the missionaries who went forth from Ireland in such great numbers. So frequently were they to be met with on the Continent that Walafried Strabo, a writer of the ninth century, remarks that the custom of travelling appeared to have become a part of the Irishman’s nature. St. Gildas notes that to voyage overseas, and to journey over broad tracts of land was to the Irish monks not so much a weariness as a delight. “Most of them,” he writes, “appear to have been born under a wandering planet.” … Various reasons may be assigned to account for the large number of Irish monks that went abroad, and they certainly did not leave their native land because of any idle curiosity to see foreign countries or through a desire to wander about on the Continent. There was a multitude of monks in Ireland, and an urgent and great need for missionary effort in France and Germany. The Irish Saints had a real vocation for the apostolate, and many of them were impelled by the call to a higher degree of the ascetic life. They fully realised that charity began at home and they did not go away until the faith was secure in Ireland. An early canon attributed to the epoch of St. Patrick states: — One’s first work must be to instruct the people of one’s own country, following the example of Christ. It is only in the case when no results can flow from such instruction that one is permitted to abandon it following the example of the Apostle.

…The Irish missionaries were wholly absorbed by the great mission which they had undertaken, and in the execution of it they took but little thought of their own welfare. They wandered about from place to place, sometimes through trackless solitudes, always trusting that God would provide for their support. King Clothaire the Second, while hunting the wild boar in the forest of Sequania, met one of them, St. Deicola, and asked him what were his means of livelihood, and how his brethren fared in such a wilderness as that. “It is written,” said Deicola, “that they who fear God shall want for nothing. We are poor, it is true, but we love and serve the Lord, and that is of more value than great riches.” Special hostelries had to be founded for their support in many parts of the Frankish realm by the charity of their fellow-countrymen. In one of the capitularies of Charles the Bald drawn up after the Council of Meaux, in 845, there is mention made of the hostelries of the Scots, which holy men of that nation built and endowed with the gifts acquired by their sanctity.

It is to be remembered that the Irish monks had been trained in a hard and severe school, where it was the rule that the members of the community were to support themselves by the labour of their own hands. Mendicant orders whose members were dependent chiefly on the offerings of the faithful for subsistence did not exist in Ireland at this time, and were not introduced until many centuries later. The stronger brothers in the early monasteries devoted themselves mainly to manual labour, and all the brethren, including even the scribes and artists, were required to work in the fields. Thus everything that the little community needed was produced by themselves, and it became self-supporting. The companions of St. Columbanus by their incessant labour transformed one of the wildest and most deserted regions in France into fertile cornfields and vineyards. St. Fiacre and his fellow monks changed the portion of La Brieu, near Meux, from a wild forest into a smiling garden. The biographer of St. Remi tells how he received certain pilgrims from Ireland and settled them in suitable places near the Marnei where they might visit and help one another. “They did not,” he says, “live only on the charity of those to whom pious Remi had commended them, but also on their own industry and the labour of their hands, in accordance with the custom of the religious bodies in Ireland. This life, united to wonderful holiness and constant prayer, won for them a great love among the natives of the country.”

The Irish missionaries usually travelled in groups as it would have been dangerous in that  age of violence to journey alone. The group consisted generally of a dozen individuals and their chief, who was to be the Abbot of the future settlement. They set sail first for Great Britain, and then passing through that country, re-embarked at some Kentish port for the Continent. In Europe they travelled for the most part on foot, and according to the rules of certain orders of monks could not travel in any other way, as these rules permitted only an Abbot to use a carriage of any kind. They were clad in coarse woollen garments, worn over a white tunic, their hair was tonsured from ear to ear across the front of the head and long flowing locks hung behind; they carried long staves, and bore at their sides leather water bottles and wallets in which they kept their food, writing tablets and manuscripts. They appeared thus amidst the Franks and Allemani, speaking to them with fiery eloquence, at first through an interpreter, and afterwards in the language of the country which they acquired.

Wherever they settled down they erected little wooden huts and a church within a large enclosure. They supported life by cultivation of the land and fishing and asked for nothing for themselves but a space where they might found their settlement and, at times, a little food. They laboured all day to teach and civilise and sought to influence the people who surrounded them by precept and example. They won the people by their gentleness, earnestness and humility, and both Franks and Romans joined them, so that eventually similar colonies were formed far and near from the first settlement as a starting point.

They were men whose whole mind was devoted to the great work in which they were engaged, to the exclusion of all thoughts of their own personal interests. When King Segebert offered gifts to Columbanus, the Saint replied : — ” We are followers of Christ, who has plainly said, ‘Whosoever will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up the Cross and follow me.’ The things which are in your power to bestow do not attract us, for in these things there is nothing to satisfy the heart of myself and my companions. We seek not comforts, nor to dwell in fertile lands, nor to gratify the flesh. We seek for solitude and some secluded place wherein to live in penitence and devotion.” They took no thought of the dangers which they might encounter in travelling to foreign and hostile peoples. A story is told in King Alfred’s Chronicle of three Irish missionaries who were washed on the shores of Cornwall. “They came,” writes Alfred, “in a boat without oars from Hibernia, whence they had stolen away, because for the love of God they would be on pilgrimage — they cared not where. The boat in which they fared was wrought of three hides and a half, and they took with them enough meat for seven nights.” An old French chronicle tells of the arrival about the year 589 of two Irishmen named Caidoc and Fricor with twelve companions at the little town of Quentonvic, at the mouth of the Somme, and how they followed the great Roman road into the country, preaching the gospel on their way. They arrived at Centule (now St. Riquier) and, as the chronicler puts it, “fought on, perceiving that the inhabitants were blinded by error and iniquity, and were subjected to the most cruel slavery; they laboured with all their strength to redeem their souls and wash them in their Saviour’s blood.” The people could not understand the language of these missionaries, and rebelled against their teaching. They asked angrily what these adventurers, who had just escaped out of a barbarous island, were in search of, and by what right they sought to impose their laws on them. Violence would have been used towards the missionaries, were it not that a young noble named Riquier interfered in their favour. He took the strangers under his protection, and entertained them at his house. He learned from them to love God above all things, and was filled with sorrow for his past life which he had spent as an unfruitful servant. He resigned all the splendour of his high rank, cut the long locks which were a symbol of his nobility, and became a servant of God. Henceforth his life was one of prayer and mortification, and when he had taken orders he became the founder of the celebrated Abbey of St. Riquier, where Caidoc and Fricor were buried, and where two Latin epitaphs written by St. Angilbert commemorate their virtues and the land of their nativity.

After landing in Europe they had to go amidst people whose language was unknown to them, and though themselves often of noble descent, they found that they were poor and friendless in a strange land. It is frequently recorded how great were their sufferings from poverty, fatigue and lack of equipment, and how many met their death on the way. Yet in the service to which they had devoted themselves they bore all their trials with resignation and a stout heart.  “They were competent, cheerful, and self-supporting, faced privation with indifference; caring nothing for luxuries ; and when other provisions failed them, they gathered wild fruit, trapped animals, and fished with great dexterity, and with any sort of rude appliances. They were rough and somewhat uncouth in outward appearance, but beneath all that they had solid sense and much learning. Their simple ways, their unmistakeable piety, and their intense earnestness in the cause of religion attracted the people everywhere, so that they made crowds of converts.” [Joyce: “Social History of Ireland,” Part I., p. 341.]

Near the end of the seventh and at the beginning of the eighth century the Irish monks had established a series of monasteries which extended from the mouth of the Meuse and Rhine to the Rhone. Throughout the chronicles and the lives of the Saints of this time references are often made to them; and names purely Irish are constantly found such as Caidor, Furseus, Fuilan Ultan, Frillan, Livin. Thus in the life of St. Remi, mention is made of his hospitable reception of ten pilgrims from Ireland. ” From that island, I say, seven brothers started on a pilgrimage for the love of Christ. They were men of great piety and virtue. These were Gebrian, Helan, Tressan, Germanus, Veranus, Hebranus, Petranus, and three sisters, Franda or Francla, Portia and Possena.” In the life  of St. Riquier it is recorded how a body of Irishmen preached the faith in Picardy. In Belgium they worked in Malines, Ghent and other places. In the ninth century the number of Irishmen travelling in France waas so great as to be almost burthensome and the Council of Chalons-sur-Saone made canons against the wandering Scots. There is also frequent mention made in the histories of the time of ‘ episcopi vagi,’ bishops without any fixed diocese, who journeyed through France, and of whom the great majority appear to have been our countrymen. Many of the missionary establishments in Germany were either originally Irish or were the offsprings of Irish foundations. In the tenth century we find a great number of Irish monasteries in Germany. Otho I. of Germany consecrated a monastery in the Ardennes which was to remain the property of the Scots, and of which the Abbot was to be a monk of that nation. Adalberon II. decreed that the Abbey of St. Clement in Lorraine was only to receive monks of Irish origin, while that nation supplied sufficient recruits, and his biographer states that he always held the Irish monks in the highest esteem. Cologne in the tenth century possessed a large Irish colony, and the monastery of St. Martin in that city was given to the Scots in perpetuity by Archbishop Eberger in 975. From this date to 1061 the Abbots were all Irishmen. Desibod constructed the monastery of Desibodenberg near Treves, and St. Kilian was the Apostle of Franconia. The monasteries of Honau on the Rhine and Altomunster were of Irish origin and Tirgilius became the Abbot of Salzburg. That Irish monks were present in considerable numbers in the North of Italy is evidenced by the fact that a hostelry was built near Bobbio in 883 for their reception.

In South Germany Marianus Scotus, a native of the North of Ireland, settled at Ratisbon on his way to Rome and founded a monastery in 1076. In less than forty years this monastery was not sufficiently large to accommodate the Irish monks who were labouring at Ratisbon, and a second house, the monastery of St. James, was built. From Ratisbon twelve Irish monasteries were established in various parts of South Germany, and at the time of its greatest prosperity the Abbot of Ratisbon controlled the monasteries of Dels in Silesia, Erfurt in Thuringia, Wurzburg, Nuremberg, Eichstadt in Franconia, Memningen and Constance in Swabia, and Vienna in Austria. Johannes, one of the associates of Marianus, went to Gottweich in Austria, where he died as an Anchorite; another of his monks went to Kief, and a third went to Jerusalem. Frederick of Barbarossa found in Bulgaria a monastery governed by an Irish Abbot, and there are letters still extant from the Irish Abbot of Ratisbon petitioning King Wratislaw of Bohemia for an escort for his messengers through that country on their way to Poland. There is authentic evidence that these Irish monks who went to Germany in the eleventh and thirteenth centuries were worthy successors to the Saints and Missionaries who laboured in France at an earlier period. The houses which they founded were closed to Germans, and almost entirely recruited from Ireland, so that while in France the second generation of monks was largely composed of Frenchmen, the German establishments continued to be thoroughly Irish even in the constitution of their members.

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J. M. Flood, Ireland: its saints and scholars (Dublin, n.d.), 55-66.

Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.