He covered about 5.000 km of desolate lands, marshes, Alpine and Appennine passes, preaching passionately the faith among the Franks, the Swabians and the Lombards. Many arehis foundations at Annegray, Luxeuil, Fontaines, in France, and afterwards in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, which were for many centuries, beacons of light for all Europe.
He wrote to Popes and Kings in defence of the human dignity, proclaiming everywhere a message of peace and universality. He contributed with his mission as evangelizer and legislator to the construction of Europe, based upon Christian values, the centrality of the human person and the primacy of the common good. These are elements common to the Europe of the 3rd millennium, that sees in Columbanus its natural protector.
For his diplomatic skills as builder of peace, his vast culture and his work at the Christian origins of the same Europe, he should be proclaimed Patron Saint of Europe, at the dawn of the new European Union, seen as the land of all its citizen, be they Galls, British, Irish, Italians or of any other nationality. His European vision of this new social world, called to grow in justice and perfection, and his untiring
work make of him the most equipped man of European spirit, almost 200 years before Charlemagne. And Columbanus is certainly, together with the founder of the Sacred Roman Empire, the most eminent personality of the late Middle Ages. Robert Schuman wrote that Columbanus is the Saint Patron of those who are trying to build a united Europe.
St. Columbanus merits becoming copatron of Europe because in the 6th century he anticipated with his pilgrimage throughout the nations what became later the European Union, is said in a ANSA news flash on the 23th November 2007. These are words of Dermot Ahern, Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs, who, in Bobbio, received, together with Cardinal Cathal Daly, the Freedom of the city by the town made famous by this Irish monk.
Today the European West owes in part its history to the work of this“ itinerant” for Christ, a true European, pioneer of civilization, father founder of monasteries, precursor of justice and freedom, witness and champion of the supreme dignity of the human being for his time and also for ours. For his pilgrimage throughout Europe, for the creation of so many communities on the continent, for the Christian civilizing European function of his foundations, for his message and for his social vision, Columbanus represents the man and the European Saint who was a true engine in the reunification of the various countries, promoting their freedom and dignity in an universal vision. Robert Schuman, father of the new Europe, saw in Columbanus its Patron. Fra Anselmo Tommasini, in Irish Saints in