Fergal or Vergil , the surveyor and satirist , from Kilkenny , & Colman , as Patrons of Salzburg and the province of Lower Austria respectively .
Wendel in Saarland , one of the 16 regions of Germany ; Willibrod in Luxembourg ; Columcille or Columba from Derry , prince of Tirconell , went to Lindsfarne , Northumbria , to Iona in Scotland and then to Iceland ; Fursa , the Visionary , travelled from Ireland to East Anglia , then to Lagny , just east of
Paris , and Peronne , which would be known in time as Peronna Scottorum , Peronne of the Irish and City of Fursey ; Caidoc and Fricor advanced on Picardy ; Rufus in Val d ’ Aosta ; Gall , Columbanus
best friend , founded St . Gallen in Switzerland ; the scholar Donatus , scottorum sanguine creatus , was bishop of Fiesole from 826 to 877 ; Fiachra or Fiacre left Kilkenny and could claim to have opened the first Irish-run B & B in France when he established a priory and a guest house in the village of Brueil ( now St . Fiacre ), about 50 km east of Paris .
He became famous as a healer ; today he is known as the patron saint of gardeners and his statue – a spade in one hand and a book in the other – can be found in churches across France ; Brendan , the Navigator , reached Greenland and North America , to mention but a few . All of them had a profound influence on the history of Europe for centuries .
In 870 Heiric of Auxerre wrote in his Life of St . Germanus : Almost all of Ireland , despising the sea , is migrating to our shores with so many philosophers . This is The Irish Miracle , as Daniel Rops stated . The Irish Miracle is the second setting out of Christianity , from a country which had just been baptized , and which was immediately dreaming of giving Christ back to the world .
According to Arthur Kingsley Porter , Yale professor , the success of the Celtic Church was a religious and political event of the first magnitude . Also the French writer Montalembert wrote : " It has been said and cannot be sufficiently repeated , Ireland was then regarded by all Christian Europe as the principal centre of knowledge and piety – superior to anything that could be seen in any other country of Europe ."
We have to agree with Card . Tòmàs O ’ Fiaich , writing : Even after allowing that a number were doubtfully Irish , the achievement of the remainder , culturally as well religiously , borders on the incredible . It both challenges us & fills us with pride .
Irish monasticism is an important moment of history , equal to the one of Greece , centuries before , civilizing Rome , the conqueror , or to the later one of the Italian