Columbanus, one of the most influential personalities of his era, defined as “The first true European Saint,” was born in 540 in Leinster, Ireland. In 591, he set sail with twelve disciples from Bangor, near Belfast, and for over thirty years, he traveled across Europe, founding communities and monasteries in territories that, today, are modern European states: Ireland, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy.
The itinerary traced in Italy gives the opportunity to retrace the steps of the Irish abbot who crossed the Alps in 612, arriving in Milan at the court of the Lombard rulers, Agilulf and Theodelinda, who, after two years of staying in the capital, they directed towards the town of Bobbio, located at the northern end of the Apennines.
Here, San Colombano, now old, founded his last monastery in 614, which soon became an important center of spirituality in an era of violence, devastation, heresies, and turbulence, and would remain for centuries the most influential institution also from a cultural sight throughout northern Italy and beyond. Colombanus died in 615. His remains are kept in the crypt of the Abbey, a destination for centuries of pilgrimages every year.
The process of integration of the European peoples, which began in the Middle Ages, owes to the work of the monks, and Irish monasticism played a fundamental role. This process generated a new cultural structure, within which ethnic contrasts were smoothed out without the differences being erased, outlining the development of the European identity, bearer of the common values that still characterize it today: human rights, dialogue, exchange, and cultural enrichment.
Santi Columban  contributed to the construction of modern Europe, and retracing his path means paying homage to this great man whose memory is still alive after 14 centuries.