The Sermons (Instructiones) of St. Columban (543-614), one of the greatest men born in Ireland, were intended for his monks. Western monasticism was refounded through them, and everything we know about Catholic principles governing abbeys can be found in them. In this sense, these short texts are absolute classics.

When you've forgotten what fundamental Catholicism is, and are beginning to argue from modern political and philosophical traditions, it's a good idea to read or reread these Instructions, which are far more authentic than the speculations of relatively self-interested parties.

There's little in them that's marvellous, but there are some fundamental ideas: firstly, that it's pointless to argue about the mysteries of faith on the basis of abstract concepts, of words moved by the intellect. For Saint Columban, it is impossible to understand the Trinity through reason.

We can only rely on faith, on the feeling of love that radiates from this Trinity, and that blazes, beyond the stars, with the cosmic fire of charity! Still, there are a few images, and God is a person.

Angels are sometimes mentioned. Among other things, Colomban says that clear ideas about the mysteries can only be established by starting from Sacred Scripture, which is the fundamental doctrine of the Catholic religion already enunciated by Saint Augustine.

But Colomban adds that the Holy Spirit, or angel, can also deliver divine communications - as he did, in principle, when writing the Bible. The prophets remind us, however, that angels express themselves through mysterious figures.

Colomban readily employs comparisons with ordinary life: the efforts made by peasants for their harvests are projected into the future; similarly, monks must live a painful life on Earth in anticipation of the graces of Heaven.

We must die to the perishable world below, in order to live the eternal life that awaits human beings," he reminds us. This perspective lends grandeur and beauty to these Sermons. He makes the beyond of the stars, the beyond of the sensible universe, the fountain of life, the eternal source of the soul, of the spirit, of everything. To her we must devote ourselves!

Comparisons with the military art also recur frequently. These are the seven inner breaths - the seven sins, if you like, but the point is not to annihilate them, only to tame them, to turn them into virtues.

Behind the apparently smooth sermons, we must undoubtedly conjecture esoteric knowledge. Colomban only hints at it: in writing, the clarity of admonition was maintained.

These Sermons are reminiscent of the writings of François de Sales. The same fundamental principles are found there, but the Bishop of Geneva is more explicit about what was reserved, it seems, for religious: the true means of penetrating the mysteries, and of meditating on them, and thus purifying oneself.

The Trinity, he said, could be apprehended in its truth through love of God, without any real science; and the first threshold of initiation into God passed through the imagination, the inner representation of angels and other biblical figures - the Dove of the Holy Spirit, the Last Judgment, and so on.

François de Sales was criticized for revealing these indications, which were reserved for priests. It may have been demeaning, but it gave rise to Baroque art. Irish medieval art is, admittedly, more hieratic. More allusive. Bigger, perhaps. But also less adapted to modern man.

By the time of François de Sales, people were no longer as submissive to priests as they had been in the past; they demanded the freedom to choose and act for themselves. This secularization of the inner life undoubtedly paved the way for Joseph de Maistre and later Romanticism.

Saint Columban's writings remained within the rules of monasticism: they were addressed solely to other religious. He demanded excellence from them. It was another time, glorious in itself.

We also have a number of letters from Saint Columban. They are generally addressed to the Pope. Yet, beneath their apparent submission, they are full of reproaches.

In particular, he accuses the Bishop of Rome of remaining inactive in the face of heretics and troublemakers, among whom he places the Franks and their bishops. He was, in fact, in conflict with them, at the time when he lived with his monks in their empire, because he did not celebrate Easter according to the same rules and on the same dates as they did.

The venerable Bede has discussed this debate in detail: we'll come back to it later. Indeed, it continued a century later in England. On one side were the supporters of Columban, the Bretons and the Irish, on the other those of Rome and the French.

For English Christianity was originally sponsored by both the Irish and the French, whose influences intersected - and often clashed.

Colomban suggests that if the Pope followed the advice of the Franks, or at least did not prevent them from persecuting the Irish monks settled in Gaul, it was out of weakness, and because he needed them for his own political interests.

He claims to be right, holding, he says, his tradition from St. Peter and St. Paul, while the Franks only hold their principles from a low-level thinker whose only motivation is to distance himself from the Jews and their own Passover: a concern he in no way shares!

The Pope's accusation of meddling too much in politics, and therefore supporting the Frankish kings, was taken up, curiously enough, by Dante, who did not mince his words in this respect.

Like the Irish sage, he did not blame the Merovingian kings, but the Capetians, to whom he collectively condemned - in particular Philip the Fair, persecutor of the Knights Templar, to whom Dante was attached. He did, however, place the Carolingians in paradise, in keeping with medieval tradition: the hero Roland is to be found on Mars!

It's worth noting that, fed up with Frankish persecution, Columban and his monks fled to Italy. This may explain their ultimate influence on Dante.

The wise man from Ireland often refers to the Church of the West, i.e. the Celtic Church, which he says is pure because it is linked only to the Rome of the apostles, and not involved in Roman politics, since Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire.

This is heavy with innuendo. Dante, again, went in the same direction, reproaching the Pope for his politicization, and lamenting Emperor Constantine's stranglehold on the Church.

In truth, Colomban's difficult style is very allusive, full of convolutions and long sentences. Nevertheless, it reveals a strong personality captured in an exciting period.

Despite what we sometimes hear, Colomban does not claim to be particularly influenced by Eastern theologians, even if the principles he follows for the Easter celebrations are based on Greek authorities. He classically attacks heretics such as St. Augustine, and quotes the Church Fathers liberally, giving them an authority superior to his own.

He is even astonished that the Pope did not fulminate more against the followers of Arius, who were infesting Italy at the time (through the Lombards). We shouldn't imagine that his Irish origin made him particularly close to Gnosis, or the Neoplatonists, that sort of thing: in his letters, it doesn't appear.

The Irish are more Latin than we think, no doubt. Besides, Saint Patrice was a Breton who learned almost everything from the Gauls (in particular Saint Germain d'Auxerre). They were indeed part of the West.
 

Rémi Mogenet (12 février 2024).

Extracts from Saint Columban's letters

(...) Do not expect men to persecute you of their own accord; it is the devils who put in their hearts the envy of your goods, and it is against them that you must put on the armor of which the apostle speaks (Paul, Eph, 6, 13-1?).(...)

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