Charles Hole

“ He first chose the ruined Roman fort of Anagrates, now Annegray, a hamlet of the commune of Faucogney (Haute-Saône) ; then, needing a larger foundation, removed, A.D. 590 or 591, to the ruins of the ancient Luxovium, about 8 miles from Annegray, and established his celebrated monastery of Luxeuil, on the confines of Burgundy and Austrasia. But soon he had to erect another monastic establishment at Fontaines, or Fontenay, and divide his monks among these houses. ”

“ In his writings St. Columbanus everywhere shews sound judgment, solid ecclesiastical learning, elegant taste, and deep spiritual discernment, which says much for the man and for the school in which he was educated. ”

“ Columba is, it is written rather to extol its subject than to present a picture of the time, and so gives little chronological sequence to the events of the thirty years and upwards of his sojourn in Iona. We gather, however, that in his monastery he was indefatigable in prayer, teaching, study, and transcription of the Scriptures; people came to him from all quarters, some for bodily aid, but most for spiritual needs; and soon smaller societies had to be formed, as at Hinba (one of the Garveloch Islands) , Tyree, etc., for the requirements of the monastery. ”

“ David's life, omitting such as are clearly legendary, meet with various degrees of credence from authors of repute. Rees, in his Essay on Welsh Saints, while rejecting several circumstances as manifestly fabulous or incredible, such as his going to Jerusalem to be consecrated, is disposed to accept enough to make a biographical narrative. ”

“ Columbanus laboured with his monks, and all classes of men gathered round him, notwithstanding the severe discipline. His own inclination was always to retire into the wood and caves and hold unrestrained communion with God ”

“ It is 8 miles from Lampeter, and from recent archaeological discoveries has been identified with an important Roman station, the Loventium of the itineraries (Lewis, Top. Dict. of Wales; cf. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, i. 117) . The Pelagian heresy, however, still survived, and the new archbishop convened another synod, the issue of which was so decided as to gain it the name of the Synod of Victory. ”

“ Columba was the first to enter the oratory, and when the brethren followed with lights they found the saint prostrate before the altar, and he soon passed away, with a sweet smile upon his face, as though he had merely fallen into a gentle sleep. This, according to Dr. Reeves's computation, was early in the morning of Sun. June 9, 597. Ireland justly mourned for one of the best of her sons; Scotland for one of her greatest benefactors. The Life of St. Columba, written by Adamnan, ninth Abbat of that Monastery, by W. Reeves, D.D. (Dubl. 1857) ; a more modern ed. ”

“ They express much doubt as to the purpose of those assemblies being to crush Pelagianism. Valuable documentary information and references as to the whole subject of the early Welsh episcopate are given in Appendix C (op. cit.) , and it is maintained that "there is no real evidence of the existence of any archiepiscopate at all in Wales during the Welsh period, if the term is held to imply jurisdiction admitted or even claimed (until the 12th cent.) by one see over another."
David was canonized by pope Calixtus c. A.D. 1120, and commemorated on Mar. 1 (Rees, op. cit. 201) . ”

“ Agilulf, in 613, presented Columbanus with a district in the wild gorges of the Apennines, between Genoa and Milan, not far from the Trebbia, and there he built his celebrated monastery of Bobbio, and there, Nov. 21, 615, calmly resigned his spirit. For his life and times, see Lanigan, Eccl. Hist. Ir. ii. c. 13; Ussher, Eccl. Ant. cc. xv. xvii.; Ind. Chron. A.D. 59, 614; Montalembert, Monks of the West, ii. bk. vii. ”

“ Gifts and flattery proving in vain, he was first carried prisoner to Besançon, and finally banished from the kingdom, A.D. 610. He departed from Luxeuil after 20 years' labour there, never to return. With his Irish monks he eventually arrived at the Lake of Constance. First he came to Arbon on its W. coast; then, hearing of the ruins of Bregentium, now Bregenz, at its S.E. corner, he went thither with St. Gall and his other monks, and spent three years preaching to the people, and contending with privation and difficulty. When Bregenz was brought under the power of Burgundy, St. ”

“ It is entered in the Annales Cambriae, "Synodus Victoriae apud Britones congregatur," under A.D. 569, but not with full confidence (M. H. B. 831) . It is also mentioned, without a date, in the Annales Menevenses (Wharton, Angl. Sac. ii. 648) . ”

“ On a Sat. afternoon he was transcribing the 34th Psalm (Ps. xxxiii. E.V.) , and coming to the verse, "They who seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good," he said, "Here I must stop—at the end of this page ”

“ These instances, moreover, abound in a well-defined district; and Rees has ingeniously used these circumstances as indicating the limits of the diocese of archbp. David's immediate jurisdiction (ib. pp. 197-199) . David's successor was Cynog.
Jones and Freeman (St. David's, 246 seq.) conclude that we may safely accept as historical facts: that St. David established a see and monastery at Menevia early in the 7th cent., the site being chosen for the sake of retirement ”