Читать книгу Irish History: People, places and events that built Ireland - Neil Hegarty - Страница 22

As the culture and politics of Ireland influenced Britain, so they influenced Europe too. In these years, many Irish peregrinari, or wandering monks, travelled the continent, imprinting specifically Irish influences on European life, and the first and most famous of these was St Columbanus (540–615). Columbanus comes down to us as a distinctly forbidding individual, for he was given to a life of fearsome austerity – including starvation rations and limited sleep – the better to conquer the intrinsic sinfulness of his human nature. Born in the province of Leinster, he studied in the monastery at Bangor in County Down, before departing for exile in France. Here he founded three monasteries, complete with tonsured monks and a stricter-than-strict code governing every conceivable aspect of life. However, his dauntless attitude to life and scorn for authority – he even picked a fight with the Pope of the day – led at length to his banishment from France, and years of further wandering. His last and greatest monastery was at Bobbio, in what is now northern Italy, but at least sixty such institutions were founded in his name, and generations of his monks fanned out across Europe, disseminating Latin literature and knowledge in the process.