Supporters of St Columban converged on Bangor from where St Columban left to evangelize Europe.
A Columban Festival takes place annually in a European location where the memory of St Columban lives on. On June 26-27 this year, the XIII International Festival was hosted in Bangor, Co. Down and at Armagh Cathedral, Northern Ireland.
It was the first time that an organised commemoration of St Columban took place in his native land.
Bus loads of parishioners and their bishops from parishes dedicated to Columban in mainland Europe, the backbone of past festivals, made Bangor the focal point of their 2010 pilgrimage. Their parish names read like a travel diary of St Columban and his band of 12 monks in France, Germany, Austria and Italy.
Along with St Benedict, St Columban has been declared a patron saint of Europe. The pilgrims from there wanted to celebrate the influence of this sixth century missionary as a man of God, and they witnesses to his continuing influence today.
The monasteries that Columban monks founded at Luxeuil in France, St Gallen in Switzerland and Bobbio in northern Italy became centres of classical learning after the barbarian invasions and the catalyst for further foundations. It is noteworthy that the Pope elected at the turn of the first millennium was the Abbot of Bobbio. ‘How the Irish saved Civilisation’ by Thomas Cahill is the quirky title of a book which tells that story.
The XIII Festival began early with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Noel Treanor of Belfast and presided over by Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh. Celebrations then moved to the abbey church in Bangor now cared for by the Church of Ireland. It was at this monastery under the leadership of St Comgall that Columban and his companions studied Scripture and the classics, and from where they set out on mission in Europe around 570.
The Belfast Cathedral choir, The Three Priests Irish tenors and a navy brass band were parts of an impressive ecumenical service.
Most of the assembly then moved to Bangor’s civic centre where the North Down Borough Council welcomed pilgrims and dignitaries. Principle guest, Ireland’s President Mary McAleese, addressed the assembly.
She said, I am proud to join with you to honour the memory of Columbanus - a great Irish saint, a great European and a potent symbol of this Island’s links with continental Europe … It was here, to use Bryan McMahon’s great phrase that “the windows of wonder” were opened up to the young Columbanus.
President McAleese went on to recount that Columban incurred the wrath and displeasure of established hierarchies, both religious and royal, for he never shirked from condemning wrongdoing [quoting Columban], If you take away man’s freedom you destroy his dignity.
She pointed out that in this pursuit of peace Columban exhorted us to clean the field of our heart... Root out its vices and plant its virtues, and asked in hope if our Ireland could become, like the Ireland of Columbanus, a beacon of light in a world of darkness? ...do we have a powerful, transferable message to all those other parts of the world where neighbour holds neighbour in fear and contempt?
After her address, the President of Ireland warmly greeted Fr Donal Hogan, Director of the Columban Society in Ireland and other Columban priests whom she had met on previous occasions.
The influence of St Columban has spread worldwide. Australia and New Zealand benefited from the mission spirit of many Irish priests. This spirit of preaching the Gospel in foreign lands was further concretised when the Missionary Society of St Columban was established in Melbourne in 1920.
Not so much geographic that mission now focuses on the Gospel in dialogue with religious pluralism, and on the Social Gospel addressing issues ranging from the migration of peoples to the environmental trilogy of climate change, peak oil and food security.
The focus of the festival moved on to Armagh where pilgrims were greeted in Irish. There followed lectures on Columban’s influence in four languages and local tours. Both days of the festival finished with meals filled with laughter and good will.
Fr Charles Rue is on the staff of the Columban Mission Institute, Strathfield, NSW.
Read more from The Far East, November/December 2010