Background
About 574 he led a group of twelve young followers, one of whom was later to become known as St. Gall, to the Continent, where he preached in Upper Burgundy. He founded monasteries and abbeys at Arnegray, Luxeuil, Fontenoy, and elsewhere, and revitalized the teaching of Christianity in many places. Columban constantly attacked the laxity and impiety which he found prevalent in the Frankish and Burgundian lands, especially in the courts, going so far as to rebuke Thierry II, king of the Franks, and Brunehaut, the queen mother, for their vices. Ecclesiastical and civil authorities turned against him, and he was forced to flee to Switzerland, and then to Italy, where he settled in 612 on a grant from Pope Boniface IV in Bobbio. He founded a monastery there in 614. Columban died at Bobbio, Nov. 23, 615.
Columban was celebrated as a scholar in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and as a poet as well as a missionary. His writings, published in Latin, included extremely austere rules for monastic life that were widely adopted. The order which he founded, the members of which were called Columbans, was incorporated under Benedictine rule in the eighth century. Columban's saint's day is November 23.