St. Columban’s lifetime was devoted in selfless giving.  Though a son of a highborn Christian and belong to the nobility, his great love was to give himself to God in the loving service of God’s children.  He decided to become a monk and came in contact with men famous for their holiness and who inspired him with a love for the sacred sciences. St. Columban was born in Leinter, Ireland, believed to be in 543 A.D. He was noble in his bearing and handsome.  He studied in his boyhood, probably learned his letters in his Psalter as other Irish saints and wrote Latin in the Sacred Scriptures.  When young Columban told his mother to leave home to become a monk, his mother utterly refused, however, his mother’s pleading and refusal not to give him permission was to no avail.  He left his native Leinster, put himself under the care of a venerable man named Sinell in Cluain Inis, where the foundations of his learning were laid.  Sinell was famous for his holiness and for his learning in sacred things.  Under him, St. Columban was inspired with a love of the sacred sciences and taught how to think clearly and with intellectual curiosity and freedom.  After Cluain Inis, St. Columban decided to be a monk and set out for the monastery of Bangor, to place himself under the rule of Comghall, the most notable father of monks in Ireland, well known for his insistence on study and strict discipline.  He prayed, fasted, denied, and mortified himself, taking up his cross to follow Christ.  Columban was scholarly and intellectually very able and had been, according to tradition, incharge of the monastic school of studies.  St. Columban is intellectually gifted — a man of wisdom. After many years, Columban asked permission to go on exile from Comghall who refused but in the end, putting his own interest below those of his monks and companion and equip them for the journey.  St. Columban and his 12 companions left Ireland to proclaim Jesus Christ and his Gospel to western Europe where people had fallen into barbarism.  They were humble, unassuming, gentle and considerate.  Charity between them is so potent that they act as one.  They were never idle.  They check the slightest stir of anger, arrogance, or envy.  They never spoke of harsh word.  So greatly were patience, gentleness and love developed in them that on would thnk the Lord himself lives among them.  They went to England where they were well received by King Guthram.  At Anagrates, they built the first of the Columbanian monasteries, within a few years at Luxeil, France, the second and most famous monastery was built where St. Columban lived for twenty years (591-610 A.D.). Encouraged by the growth in the number of the servants of the Lord, St. Columban went off to found the third monastery at nearby Fontaines, Germany.  His frank advice to the King Theuderich to change his sinful ways led to such hostility that the King had all the monks shipped to Ireland but the cargo ship met a storm.  God did not wish his monks to return to Ireland.  Then back to Germany where at Lake Bregenz, they found a monastery and lived there for two years.  They continued their journey through the Alps going to Milan, Italy.  King Agiluf and Queen Theudalendia received them well.  From then on, St. COlumban became a great missionary abbot who founded monastic centers in France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy that became centers of evangelization and institutions of learning in that particular area in Europe during that time.  He is recognized as one of the great pioneers in western European civilization.  He died and buried in Bobbio, Italy where he founded his last monastery and November 23, 615 is the Patron Saint’s feast day. Such was the life of St. Columban who travelled far and wide to sow the seeds of God’s love.  His total giving and emptying of himself thru penance and sacrifices received the accolade of the many lives he touched who followed his footsteps.  St. Columban and all the other monks wherever they travelled manifested God’s love not so much in their words but in the way of life.  While they unselfishly gave themselves in service, they received God’s tremendous blessings and enjoyed the gift of life.  St. Columban’s Motto, “Christi Simus Non Nostri” [Let us be Christ, not our own.],  they lived in their great love for Christ.  Their tendency in becoming closer to God’s image and likeness made them internalized and lived the value of Jesus.  People in all the places where they travelled to bring the Good News admire them, yet they were not seduced by the whisperings of pride and vainglory.  Like the apostles, they “looked and saw no one but only Jesus.”  St. Columban did not preach the RULE, he lived it.  Each day was a calling of obedience, lowliness, humility, self-control and even reticence especially in life’s mystifying moments.