Columbanus ad Locum: The Establishment of the Monastic Foundations
Alexander O'HaraColumbanus established a number of important monasteries in Merovingian Gaul, Alamannia, and Lombard Italy between AD 591 and his death in AD 615: Annegray, Luxeuil, Fontaine, Bregenz, and Bobbio. But what were the factors that lay behind his choice of these sites? Did he play an active role in the foundation process or was he at the whim of his royal patrons, who gave him these lands on which to establish his monasteries? This article proposes that a more complex and dynamic process underlay the choice of these sites, whereby Columbanus and his royal patrons acted in concert to appropriate ancient healing cult sites within a Christian pastoral framework. The commonalities shared by these sites at Annegray, Luxeuil, Fontaine, Bregenz, and Bobbio reveal a pastoral element to Columbanus’ establishment of his monasteries. This has important implications for how these sites are interpreted and for understanding Columbanus’ role as a peregrinus and monastic founder on the continent.
Related papers
Monastic Landscapes A new approach to Columbanian Monasticism
SVMMA. Revista de Cultures Medievals, 2022
This contribution proposes different notions of "monastic landscapes" (geographic, political, textual, economic, spiritual) and discusses whether applying them to the monastic movement allegedly initiated by Columbanus may help us to refine or deconstruct the concept of "Columbanian monasticism." Comparing evidence on monastic life in Gregory of Tours' hagiographic and historiographic works with the depiction of monastic life in Jonas of Bobbio's Vita Columbani shows that we can indeed identify a shift from a "landscape with monasteries" in sixth-century Merovingian Francia to a politically integrated "monastic landscape" in the seventh century. However, this does not mean that the fundamental shift was necessarily the result of the activities of the Irish monk Columbanus. An investigation of Jonas' depiction of the spiritual and physical landscape around Columbanus' main foundation Luxeuil shows the grade of continuity between monastic foundations in Gaul before Columbanus and the alleged center of a new "Columbanian" monastic movement.
Review of Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus: Sanctity and Community in the Seventh Century by Alexander O'Hara
Journal of Late Antiquity, 2019
M. Richter, Bobbio in the Early Middle Ages: The Abiding Legacy of Columbanus
The Catholic Historical Review, 2010, 98-100, 2010
When the Byzantine Mount Athos also prayed in Latin: The amazing history of the foundation of the Benedictine Monastery
I. M. Ţiplic, M. E. Ţiplic (eds.), ArhIn 2016 - Medieval changing landscape: settlements, monasteries and fortifications, Astra Museum, Sibiu, 2016: 191-226., 2016
The present study aims at giving a comprehensive and consistent account of the founding of the Benedictine house on Mount Athos at the end of the first millennium. It belonged to the first generation of coenobia that started the structured monastic life on the Holy Mountain. It was a Western outpost in the stronghold of the Eastern monastic tradition for three centuries, from circa 985 to 1287 A.D. In spite of the violent split between the Eastern Church and the Western Church and, more generally, between East and West, the Benedictine Athonite house not only took an active part in governing the community of Mount Athos, but became a chief monastery. Dating and rationale of the construction of this “anomalous” monastery remained an open discussion for a long time. Previous studies acknowledged a reasonable founding date, but due to their misunderstanding of some Latin signatures on Athonite acts, the myth of an Amalfitan foundation of the Athonite Benedictine coenobium was established. Merlini explains that this once thriving medieval monastery known only since 1010 as Amalfion (Αμαλφιόν) was possibly founded around 985 as “Apothikon” (τῶν Ἀποθηκῶν, of the Warehouses) by Longobards of Benevento. Around the turning of the millennium, other Benedictine fathers from the small but dynamic duchy of Amalfi took possession and ruled it. They could then easily assert themselves over the brothers who founded Apothikon, who enjoyed much less economical resources and were politically less influential. The study describes the reasons why this monastic foundation was associated with the city of Amalfi in the subsequent Athonite collective memory as well as in most modern scholarship, even if Apothikon originated from the political-religious plans of the autonomous Longobard Principality of Benevento. The Principality of Benevento was basically obedient to the Western imperial authority and often in open diplomatic and military confrontation against the Duchy of Amalfi, which was pro-Byzantine, free of any Longobard political and legal control, and strictly Roman-Orthodox. The article sets up the origin of Apothikon and the related foundation myth within the Grand Game at the turning of the first millennium that was based on the subtle balance of conflict-cooperation between Mount Athos, the Longobard kingdom and in particular the southern Principalities of Benevento and Capua, the Byzantine Empire, the Papacy, the Benedictine Order, the town of Amalfi, and the powers of Jerusalem. The construction of the Latin house by a Longobard noble person occurred under the tradition according to which the earliest not-Greek Athonite monasteries have been built or taken over by monks who were rulers, in their previous secular life, of their respective countries, or members of the reigning families. They were driven by Christian piety, spiritual prestige, and strategic geopolitical approach. These aristocratic monks arrived and settled at the Holy Mountain in topic moments of the relationship between their countries of origin and the Byzantine Empire.
Monasteries in a Peripheral Area: seventh-century Gallaecia
M. de Jong & F. Theuws with C. van Rhijn (eds.), Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages, Leiden-Boston-Köln 2001, pp. 329-359
The Pursuit of Salvation. Community, Space, and Discipline in Early Medieval Monasticism (with a critical edition and translation of the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines)
Turnhout: Brepols (Disciplina Monastica, vol. 13), 2021
This book is published with open access: https://www.brepolsonline.net/action/showBook?doi=10.1484/M.DM-EB.5.120300 A history of the monastic pursuit of eternal salvation in the early medieval West, revolving around a seventh-century monastic rule for nuns, the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines ("Someone’s Rule for Virgins") The seventh-century Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines (Someone’s Rule for Virgins), which was most likely written by Jonas of Bobbio, the hagiographer of the Irish monk Columbanus, forms an ideal point of departure for writing a new history of the emergence of Western monasticism understood as a history of the individual and collective attempt to pursue eternal salvation. The book provides a critical edition and translation of the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines and a roadmap for such a new history revolving around various aspects of monastic discipline, such as the agency of the community, the role of enclosure, authority and obedience, space and boundaries, confession and penance, sleep and silence, excommunication and expulsion. Table of Contents Summary The book consists of two sections. The first is a critical edition and translation of the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines, a seventh-century Frankish monastic rule for nuns, along with the short treatise De accedendo ad Deum, which most likely formed a part of the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines. The second section is a study on the transformations and diversification of monastic theology, concepts of communal life and monastic discipline in the early medieval period. It revolves around the Regula cuisudam ad uirgines in its historical and intertextual context. The study is divided four parts that are related to the four key words of the title of the book (Community, Space, Discipline, and Salvation). Each part consists of a chapter that makes an argument about the place of the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines in intertextual contexts and a chapter that applies these arguments in a historical inquiry. Introduction Section I: Edition and Translation of the Regua cuiusdam ad uirgines Section II: Study Part I: Community revolves around the question to what extent the monastic community can serve as an agent of the collective and individual pursuit of salvation Chapter 1: Quidam pater – quaedam mater? The Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines and its author provides a survey of the monastic milieu in which the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines was written, discusses potential authors and stakeholders in the monastic foundation that may have been addressed by the Rule and shows on the basis of semantic and stylistic similarities and shared content and ideas that Jonas of Bobbio, the author of the Vita Columbani, is to be considered the author of the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines as well. Chapter 2: The dying nuns of Faremoutiers: the regula in action argues that Jonas of Bobbio’s description of the deaths of the nuns of Faremoutiers, which is a part of Book 2 of his Vita Columbani, and the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines represent the same monastic program, once presented as a "narrated rule", once as a normative text. The Faremoutiers episodes are closely modelled after Book 4 of the Dialogi of Gregory the Great and can be read as a critical response to Gregory’s eschatology and his notion of pursuing salvation by living a virtuous life. After having fleshed out the parallels and differences between the Dialogi and the Faremoutiers miracles, the chapter analyzes each episode of the Faremoutiers miracles, showing that Jonas wrote his monastic program in a highly sophisticated manner into stories describing the deaths occurring in the founding generation of nuns in Faremoutiers – deaths that were most likely still remembered by the primary audience of the Vita Columbani. Part II: Space discusses the role of space and boundaries for the monastic pursuit of salvation and explores the origins of the medieval cloister Chapter 3 The Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines, a supplement to Caesarius’ Rule for Nuns? compares the provisions of Caesarius of Arles’ Rule for Nuns with the Regula cuisudam ad uirgines and argues that Jonas wrote his Rule as an expansion and revision of Caesarius work: an "early medieval" update of a "late antique" monastic program, as it were. Chapter 4: Enclosure re-opened: Caesarius, Jonas, and the invention of sacred space discusses the evolution of Caesarius of Arles’ notion of enclosure as salvific instrument and then shows how Jonas of Bobbio tried to face the aporias of Caeasarius’ theology of enclosure by expanding it towards a system of total control of all physical, social and corporeal boundaries and the implementation of various enclosures. Part III: Discipline provides a historical survey of the evolution of various aspects of monastic discipline in early medieval monastic rules leading to the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines. Chapter 5: The Regula Benedicti in seventh-century Francia explores the role of the Regula Benedicti in Frankish monasticism in the aftermath of Columbanus and shows how Jonas used and revised the Regula Benedicti and refuted some of his main theological premises. Chapter 6: The Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines and its context describes the history of the topics addressed in each chapter of the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines and provides a detailed commentary to the Rule itself, showing how Jonas rewrote the Regula Benedicti. I discuss every chapter of the Rule but put a special emphasis on the following topics: abbatial authority, hierarchy, boundaries, love, confession, silence, work, sleep, excommunication, and family ties. Part IV: Salvation focusses on the short treatise De accedendo ad Deum which provides a unique theological rationale why monastic discipline enables monks and nuns to pray effectively and to attain eternal salvation. Chapter 7: De accedendo ad Deum – a lost chapter of the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines? shows that De accedendo was most likely a lost chapter of the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines and thus written by Jonas of Bobbio as well. Chapter 8: Prompto corde orandum: the theological program of De accedendo analyzes the theological argument that monastic discipline enable a nun or monk to approach God through prayer, which forms one of the most sophisticated early medieval responses to the challenge of the doctrine of prevenient grace and the "semi-Pelagian" debate. De accedendo essentially explains how the monastic pursuit of salvation works.
Peritia
Journal of the Medieval Academy of Ireland
Peritia is an international and interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal published
by the Medieval Academy of Ireland and Brepols. It champions medieval studies in
the broadest sense, welcoming contributions from all disciplines. Potential contributors are encouraged to submit their manuscripts in electronic format to the editors
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should familiarise themselves with the journal’s formatting instructions and Guidelines for Contributors, which can be accessed at http://peritia.ie. Papers considered
for publication are blind-refereed to ensure academic integrity.
Editors
Elva Johnston & Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
Editorial Advisory Board
Jacopo Bisagni (NUI Galway)
Damian Bracken (University College Cork)
Mary Clayton (University College Dublin)
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Anthony Harvey (Royal Irish Academy)
Colin Ireland (Arcadia University)
Kimberley Lo Prete (NUI Galway)
Bernard Meehan (Trinity College Dublin)
Pádraic Moran (NUI Galway)
Tomás Ó Carragáin (University College Cork)
Ralph O’Connor (University of Aberdeen)
Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh (University College Cork)
Jean-Michel Picard (University College Dublin)
Robin Chapman Stacey (University of Washington)
Clare Stancliffe (Durham University)
Joanna Story (University of Leicester)
Immo Warntjes (Queens University Belfast)
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Orders (current and for back-issues) and subscriptions should be
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Peritia
Journal of the Medieval Academy of Ireland
Volume 26
2015
In Honour of Donnchadh Ó Corráin
Editors
Elva Johnston & Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
Medieval Academy of Ireland
F
Peritia strongly supports intellectual freedom and freedom of academic expression.
However, the opinions expressed by authors and reviewers in any issue of the journal should
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ISSN 0332-1592
Printed on acid-free paper
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Contents
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Dáibhí Ó Cróinín: Donnchadh Ó Corráin, Founder-Editor of Peritia . . . . . 11
Richard N. Bailey & Eric Cambridge: St Cuthbert’s Posthumous
Biography: A Revised Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Bernhard Bischoff †: En route for CLA: For E. A. Lowe and
with E. A. Lowe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
E. T. Dailey: To Choose One Easter from Three: Oswiu’s Decision and
the Northumbrian Synod of ad 664 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Walter Dunphy: Pauline Fragmenta:
An Unlisted Commentary on the Pauline Letters from the HibernoLatin Tradition (St Gall 877) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Elke Krotz: Sedulius Scottus and the Recensio Scotica of Priscian’s Ars . . . . . . 81
Pádraic Moran: Language Interaction in the St Gall Priscian Glosses . . . . . 113
Alexander O’Hara: Columbanus ad Locum:
The Establishment of the Monastic Foundations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
I. N. Wood: The Irish in England and on the Continent in the Seventh
Century: Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Notes and Corrigenda
Michael Brennan: Das Buch von Lindisfarne: A Facsimile with a Difference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Dáibhí Ó Cróinín: Irish Prayers in a Zürich Codex of the Ars Prisciani . . . 205
Johan Corthals: Corrigenda to ‘Decoding the “Caldron of Poesy”’,
Peritia 24‒25 (2013–14) 74‒89. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
6
CONTENTS
Review Article
Colin Ireland: Bishop Wilfrid: Assessing Accomplishments and Failures . . . 211
Reviews
Sparky Booker & Cherie N. Peters (eds), Tales of medieval Dublin / Mags
Mannion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Jacqueline Borsje, The Celtic evil eye and related mythological motifs in
medieval Ireland / Claire Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Elizabeth Boyle & Deborah Hayden (eds), Authorities and adaptations:
the reworking and transmission of textual sources in medieval Ireland /
Eoin Ó Donnchadha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Michael Brown, Disunited kingdoms: peoples and politics in the British Isles
1280‒1460 / Brendan Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Warren C. Brown, Violence in medieval Europe / Patrick Gleeson . . . . . . . . . . 233
John Carey, Emma Nic Cárthaigh & Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh (eds), The
end and beyond: medieval Irish eschatology / Nathan Millin . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
José Chabás & Bernard R. Goldstein, A survey of European astronomical
tables in the late middle ages and José Chabás & Bernard R. Goldstein,
Essays on medieval computational astronomy / Philipp Nothaft . . . . . . . . . . 239
Christiaan Corlett & Michael Potterton (eds), The Church in early medieval Ireland in the light of recent archaeological excavations / Elizabeth
O’Brien. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Aidan Doyle & Kevin Murray (eds) In dialogue with the Agallamh: essays
in honour of Seán Ó Coileáin / William Sayers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Seán Duffy (ed), Princes, prelates and poets in medieval Ireland: essays in
honour of Katharine Simms / Neil McGuigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Matthrew Hammond (ed), New perspectives on medieval Scotland,
1093‒1286 / Patrick Gleeson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Frank-Rutger Hausmann, Das Fach Mittellateinische Philologie an
deutschen Universitäten von 1930 bis 1950 / Markus Wesche . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Richard Jones, The medieval natural world / Hannah Burrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
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CONTENTS
7
Justin Lake (ed), Prologues to ancient and medieval history: a reader /
Edward Roberts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Loredana Lazzari, Patrizia Lendinara & Claudia Di Sciacca, (eds), Hagiography in Anglo-Saxon England: adopting and adapting saints’ Lives
into Old English prose (c. 950‒1150) / Rhonda L. McDaniel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Crystal Lynn Lubinsky, Removing masculine layers to reveal a holy womanhood: the female transvestite monks of late antique Eastern Christianity /
Elva Johnston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Joseph H. Lynch & Phillip C. Adamo, The medieval Church: a brief
history / Salvador Ryan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Hiroshi Ogawa, Language and style in Old English composite homilies /
Mary Clayton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Thomas O’Loughlin, Gildas and the scriptures: observing the world
through a biblical lens / Paul Byrne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Timothy O’Neill, The Irish hand. Scribes and their manuscripts from the
earliest times / Michelle P. Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
James Siemens, The Christology of Theodore of Tarsus: The Laterculus
Malalianus and the person and work of Christ / Conor O’Brien . . . . . . . . . 282
Alain J. Stoclet, Fils du Martel: la naissance, l’éducation et la jeunesse de
Pépin, dit ‘le Bref ’ (v. 714‒v. 741) / Mary Alberi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Emily V. Thornbury, Becoming a poet in Anglo-Saxon England / Colin
Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Jonathan M. Wooding, with Rodney Aist, Thomas Owen Clancy &
Thomas O’Loughlin (eds), Adomnán of Iona: theologian, lawmaker,
peacemaker / James W. Houlihan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
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Abbreviations
These abbreviations may be used in footnotes without any further explanation.
AASS
AClon
AConn
AFM
AI
ALC
ALI
ASC
AT
AU
CCCM
CCH
CCSG
CCSL
CGH
CIH
CMCS
CS
CSEL
DIL
DMLCS
eDIL
EHR
Acta Sanctorum … a Sociis Bollandianis
Annals of Clonmacnoise (ed. Denis Murphy, Dublin 1896)
Annals of Connacht (ed. A. Martin Freeman, Dublin 1944)
Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters (ed. John O’Donovan, Dublin 1848‒51)
Annals of Inisfallen (ed. Seán Mac Airt, Dublin 1951)
Annals of Loch Cé (ed. W. M. Hennessy, Dublin 1871)
Ancient Laws of Ireland (ed. W N. Hancock et al, Dublin & London
1865‒1901)
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Annals of Tigernach (ed. Whitley Stokes, Revue Celtique
16 (1895) 374‒419; 17 (1896) 6‒33; 119‒263; 337‒420; 18 (1897)
9‒59, 150‒97, 267‒303; repr. Felinfach 1993)
Annals of Ulster (ed. Seán Mac Airt & Gearóid Mac Niocaill, Dublin
1983)
Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaeualis (Turnhout 1971‒)
Collectio Canonum Hibernensis (ed. Herrmann Wasserschleben,
Leipzig 1885)
Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca (Turnhout 1977‒)
Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (Turnhout 1953‒)
Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae i (ed. M. A. O’Brien, Dublin 1962)
Corpus Iuris Hibernici (ed. D. A. Binchy, Dublin 1978)
Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies (formerly Cambridge Medieval
Celtic Studies)
Chronicon Scottorum (ed. W. M. Hennessy, London 1866)
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (Vienna 1866‒)
Dictionary of the Irish Language based mainly on Old and Middle
Irish materials (Dublin 1913‒75, repr. in compact ed. with continuous
pagination, Dublin 1983)
Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources (ed. Anthony Harvey, Dublin 2005‒)
Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language based mainly on Old and
Middle Irish materials (online at http://edil.qub.ac.uk/dictionary/
search.php)
The English Historical Review
10
HBS
HE
ITS
JRSAI
Lec
LL
LU
MGH
PG
PL
PRIA
RS
SC
SLH
STT
TU
ZCP
ABBREVIATIONS
Henry Bradshaw Society for editing rare liturgical texts (London
1891‒)
Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica / Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Irish Texts Society (London 1899‒)
The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
Book of Lecan: Leabhar Mór Leacáin (facimile, ed. Kathleen
Mulchrone, Dublin 1937)
Book of Leinster (ed. R. I. Best et al, 1954‒83)
Lebor na hUidre: Book of the Dun Cow (ed. R. I. Best & Osborn
Bergin, Dublin 1929)
Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Patrologia Graeca (ed. J. P. Migne, Paris 1857‒86)
Patrologia Latina (ed. J. P. Migne, Paris 1844‒64)
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C
Rolls Series: Chronicles and memorials of Great Britain and Ireland
during the middle ages (London 1858‒97)
Sources Chrétiennes (Paris 1941‒)
Scriptores Latini Hiberniae (Dublin 1955‒)
Studia Traditionis Theologiae / Explorations in Early and Medieval
Theology
Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur
(Leipzig 1882‒)
Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie
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IT MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER.
Donnchadh Ó Corráin,
Founder-Editor of Peritia
Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
[email protected]
The publication of Peritia 24–25 in December 2014 was a milestone in medieval
studies, not just in Ireland but beyond. A project that took its first tentative steps as
far back as 1980 not only flourished in the years that followed but saw the journal
emerge as one of the leading ones in the field. This success was due, almost entirely,
to the efforts of one individual: Professor Donnchadh Ó Corráin.
I can still remember vividly the occasion, in late 1979, when Donnchadh asked
to speak with me in the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic
Studies, where I was then a Research Scholar, and invited me to join a new venture
that he was planning. Standing on the bottom steps of the stairs outside the Scholars’ Room, he outlined to me the vision of a new journal in which archaeology and
art, history and genealogy, language and literature, and all the ancillary disciplines
that scholars elsewhere regarded as central to the study of Altertumswissenschaft,
would be combined, but with its roots set firmly in an Irish context. Peritia was
to be ‘an Irish journal of medieval studies’, not ‘a journal of Irish medieval studies’.
At the same time, subjects intrinsic to the study of medieval Ireland, such as vernacular (‘Brehon’) law and the hagiography of the early Irish Church, were to be
set alongside those regularly encountered in European historical studies. Peritia
was to be innovative too in that it provided a regular forum for studies devoted to
computistics and Hiberno-Latin and a robust review section. This was not to be a
popular magazine but a fully-fledged scholarly academic journal produced to the
very highest international standards. Peritia 1, which appeared in 1982, demonstrated what those standards would be; every subsequent volume has maintained
them to an exemplary degree.
My connection with the journal continued after I took up a position in University College Galway (now NUI Galway) in 1980. The first five volumes of Peritia were typeset in Galway under the supervision of a colleague in History, Prof.
Gearóid Mac Niocaill († 2004). In fact, the very first ‘demo’ pages set in various
sample fonts was of an article of mine that appeared subsequently in the first volume (‘Mo-Sinu maccu Min and the Computus at Bangor’, Peritia 1 [1982] 281‒95);
12
DÁIBHÍ Ó CRÓINÍN
I still have those sample galley-proofs! In more recent years, however, Donnchadh
added to his duties as editor the onerous task of typesetting the journal himself,
with what success can be gauged from the remarkable series of volumes that have
appeared since then. It is no exaggeration to say that Peritia has carved out a unique
place for itself in the ranks of international scholarly publications; it set new standards for journals produced in Ireland, while it matched those produced everywhere
else in the world of learning.
On 1 January 2015 Donnchadh relinquished the position as chief editor of Peritia. The new editors of the journal are Dr Elva Johnston and myself. We wish
Donnchadh well in his other endeavours (of which there are several!). With Peritia
vols 1‒25 he has left a monumentum aere perennius. It is a striking and lasting legacy.
If we can continue to produce a journal to the same standards that he achieved
during the years of his stewardship, we will be more than happy.
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Columbanus ad Locum:
The Establishment of the Monastic Foundations
Alexander O’Hara
Abstract. Columbanus established a number of important monasteries in
Merovingian Gaul, Alamannia, and Lombard Italy between ad 591 and his death
in Bobbio in ad 615. But what were the factors that lay behind his choice of these
sites? Did he play an active role in the foundation process or was he at the whim of
his royal patrons, who gave him these lands on which to establish his monasteries?
This article proposes that a more complex and dynamic process underlay the
choice of these sites, whereby Columbanus and his royal patrons acted in concert
to appropriate ancient healing cult sites within a Christian pastoral framework.
The commonalities shared by these sites reveal a pastoral element to Columbanus’
establishment of his monasteries. This has important implications for how these
sites are interpreted and for understanding Columbanus’ role as a peregrinus and
monastic founder on the continent.
Keywords. Columbanus, Annegray, Luxeuil, Bregenz, Bobbio, pagan cult, Woden,
Diana, early medieval monasticism, Christianization, Gregory the Great, Jonas of
Bobbio, Christian topography of Rome, cultural appropriation, springs.
Alexander O’Hara
Institut für Mittelalterforschung
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Wohllebengasse 12‒14
1040 Vienna
[email protected]
Like many early medieval monastic sites, the remoteness of Annegray, in the wooded back-country of the Haute-Saône in eastern France, belies the importance of
the place.1 Annegray was the first monastery founded by the Irish peregrinus and
The genesis of this article goes back to August 2012, when I had the opportunity to assist in
the first season of excavations at Annegray undertaken by Sébastien Bully and his team. I am very
grateful to Dr Sébastien Bully, Dr Emmet Marron, and M. Jacques Prudhon for their many kindnesses shown to me during my stay in Luxeuil. I would also like to thank Philipp Dörler, Dr Gerhard
Grabher, Dr Thomas Klagian for guidance on the Bregenz material, and the anonymous readers and
the editors of Peritia for their work. The views expressed in this article are, of course, my own. The
research for this study is supported by the Austrian Science Fund Project P25175, ‘The Columbanian
network: elite identities and Christian communities in Europe (550–750).’
1
DOI 10.1484/J.PERIT.5.108318
Peritia 26 (2015) 143–170
© Medieval Academy of Ireland & F H G
144
ALEXANDER O’HARA
abbot, Columbanus, after his arrival in Merovingian Gaul in 591.2 It was the first
in a series of monastic foundations that continued well into the seventh century
and that transformed the inter-relationship between monastic groups and secular authorities in early medieval Europe.3 Recent excavations of this site have
shed new light on this important foundation and provide valuable information
for interpreting its early history.4 While survey work and archaeological investigation present new evidence for interpreting Annegray, and Columbanus’ other
monastic sites, the reasons why Columbanus chose these particular places remain
obscure. Because these sites were given to him by his respective royal patrons, we
can minimize Columbanus’ agency in the foundation process by assuming he had
effectively little say in the matter.5 When these sites are studied from a comparative
perspective, however, a number of patterns begin to emerge that indicate common
dynamics were at play.
A Tale of Two Kings: the Foundation of Annegray
The earliest source for Columbanus’ foundation at Annegray is Jonas of Bobbio’s
Vita Columbani, written between 639 and 642, some two decades after its subject’s death.6 After narrating Columbanus’ birth, youth, and monastic formation
Donald Bullough, ‘The career of Columbanus’, in Michael Lapidge (ed), Columbanus: studies
on the Latin writings (Woodbridge 1997) 1–28: 11.
3
On this process, see now Yaniv Fox, Power and religion in Merovingian Gaul: Columbanian
monasticism and the formation of the Frankish aristocracy (Cambridge 2014), and the classic studies by Friedrich Prinz, Frühes Mönchtum im Frankenreich: Kultur und Gesellschaft in Gallien, den
Rheinlanden und Bayern am Beispiel der monastischen Entwicklung (4. bis 8. Jahrhundert) (Munich
1965) 121–51, and Friedrich Prinz, ‘Columbanus, the Frankish nobility and the territories east of the
Rhine’, in Howard B. Clarke & Mary Brennan (eds), Columbanus and Merovingian monasticism,
British Archaeological Reports [BAR], International Series 114 (Oxford 1981) 73–87.
4
Sébastien Bully et al, ‘Le site du monastère d’Annegray (Haute-Saône): les prospections
géophysiques’, Bulletin du Centre d’Études Médiévales d’Auxerre 15 (2011) 9–15; Emmet Marron
& Sébastien Bully, ‘Recent archaeological work on the site of the Columbanian monastery of Annegray (Haute-Saône)’, forthcoming in Bulletin du Centre d’Études Médiévales d’Auxerre. The most
comprehensive study of the site and surrounding landscape is Emmet Marron, In his silvis silere:
the monastic site of Annegray — studies in a Columbanian landscape, unpubl. PhD thesis, National
University of Ireland, Galway, 2012. I am grateful to Dr Marron for sending me extracts from his
PhD dissertation and for sharing his expertise.
5
See, for example, Fox, Power and religion in Merovingian Gaul, 44.
6
Jonas of Bobbio, Vita Columbani abbatis discipulorumque eius, i 6 (hereafter Vita Columbani),
Bruno Krusch (ed), Ionae Vitae sanctorum Columbani, Vedastis, Iohannis, MGH SRG (Hannover
& Leipzig 1905) 163. On Jonas and the Vita Columbani, see I. N. Wood, ‘The Vita Columbani and
Merovingian hagiography’, Peritia 1 (1982) 63–80; Clare Stancliffe, ‘Jonas’ Life of Columbanus and
his disciples’, in John Carey, Máire Herbert & Pádraig Ó Riain (eds), Studies in Irish hagiography:
saints and scholars (Dublin 2001) 189–220; Albrecht Diem, ‘Monks, kings, and the transformation
2
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145
in Ireland, Jonas turns to Columbanus’ arrival in Gaul and his reception at the
court of King Sigibert i of Austrasia (561‒75).7 As a peregrinus, Columbanus relied
on the protection of kings — he needed to work through established networks
of power. By undertaking ascetic exile from his homeland (potior peregrinatio),
Columbanus’ status rose to that of a bishop or petty king in Ireland and, according
to Irish custom, it was the duty of a king to provide hospitality and protection to
a peregrinus.8 Yet, in the Vita Columbani, Jonas consciously chose to minimize the
role of kings (and outsiders) as active agents in the foundation process.9 Jonas presents a slightly one-sided, and not always reliable, narrative for Columbanus’ role
in the foundation of his monasteries. This first becomes apparent in his account of
the foundation of Annegray. Columbanus’ initiative to seek the patronage of the
Merovingian ruler, and the subsequent dependency that this relationship implied,
are reversed in Jonas’ account. It is the fama or reputation of Columbanus that
precedes him at the court of Sigibert. The king and his courtiers warmly welcome
him on account of his religious learning and it is the king who requests Columbanus to remain within his kingdom, and not to continue to other peoples. It is
the king who suggests he settle in a wilderness within his dominion, and he offers
to provide everything needed for the holy man and his community. The roles are
reversed — it is not Columbanus who asks, but the king who offers.10
Columbanus has a choice of where to settle, and it is he who determines the
location for his monastery: ‘Having been given the choice, Columbanus was persuaded by the king’s arguments, and sought out a wilderness’.11 In practice, this
process would have been one of dialogue between both parties. The king played a
more active role than Jonas cared to admit. Jonas characterised the Vosges in which
Annegray was situated as a vasta heremus, ‘a vast wilderness’. Jonas’ use of the term
of sanctity: Jonas of Bobbio and the end of the holy man’, Speculum 82 (2007) 521–59; Alexander
O’Hara, ‘The Vita Columbani in Merovingian Gaul’, Early Medieval Europe 17 (2009) 126–53.
7
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 5–6 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 161–63).
8
T. M. Charles-Edwards, ‘The social background to Irish peregrinatio’, Celtica 11 (1976) 43–59:
53–54; for further discussion, see Alexander O’Hara, ‘Patria, peregrinatio, and paenitentia: identities
of alienation in the seventh century’, in Walter Pohl & Gerda Heydemann (eds), Post-Roman transitions: Christian and barbarian identities in the early medieval West (Turnhout 2013) 89–124: 97–98.
9
I. N. Wood, ‘Jonas, the Merovingians, and Pope Honorius: diplomata and the Vita Columbani’,
in Alexander Callander Murray (ed), After Rome’s fall: narrators and sources of early medieval history.
Essays presented to Walter Goffart (Toronto 1998) 99–120.
10
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 6 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 162–63). The later Vita Agili notes the intermediary role played by the Frankish aristocrat Chagnoald in helping Columbanus gain access to
the king, on which see Fox, Power and religion in Merovingian Gaul, 44.
11
Data itaque obtione, obtemperavit regis persuasionibus, heremum petiit: Jonas, Vita Columbani
i 6 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 163).
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ALEXANDER O’HARA
heremus is loaded with religious significance.12 In this instance, although it may
be translated as ‘wilderness’ or ‘wasteland’, it is best read as a Christian-technical
term for the ‘desert’, recalling the deserts of the Old Testament prophets and the
first monks. It is not surprising in the least to discover that Annegray was far from
being a desertum.13 There was a royal hunting reserve in the area, as we know from
Gregory of Tours. He mentions King Guntram’s anger when he was hunting in
the Vosges and discovered the carcass of an auroch that had been killed in the
royal forest without his consent. The forester told him it was his own chamberlain, Chundo, who was responsible. Chundo was arrested, forced to undergo trial
by combat and, his guilt confirmed, was stoned to death in Chalon-sur-Saône,
Guntram’s capital. This occurred in 590, around the same time that Columbanus
was making his way to Gaul.14 Annegray thus lay within or near a royal hunting
reserve, and the land would have belonged to the royal fisc.15 The gift of the site to
Columbanus and his monks was the act of the king. Columbanus’ role in the selection of the site was probably undertaken in negotiation with his royal benefactor.
Jonas is also misleading when it comes to the identity of the king who donated
the site. He states that ‘the fame of Columbanus reached the court of King Sigibert,
who at that time ruled nobly over the two Frankish kingdoms of Austrasia and Burgundy’.16 However, this is clearly false, as other scholars have noted.17 Sigibert never
ruled both kingdoms. He was king of Austrasia only (561‒75). He died fifteen years
before Columbanus arrived in Gaul. His arrival can be dated independently from
Jonas, thanks to Columbanus’ surviving letters.18 The majority of the manuscripts
that contain the Vita Columbani name Sigibert, including the earliest manuscript,
from the mid-ninth century (St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 553). However, the
only other ninth-century manuscript (Metz, Grand Séminaire, 1), which was discovered subsequent to Bruno Krusch’s standard editions for the MGH in 1902
See Jean Leclercq, ‘“Eremus” et “Eremita”: pour l’histoire du vocabulaire de la vie solitaire’,
Collectanea Cisterciensia 25 (1963) 8–30; Duncan Fisher, ‘Liminality: the vocation of the Church
(I). The desert image in early Christian tradition’, Cistercian Studies Quarterly 24 (1989) 181–205.
13
Marron, In his silvis silere: the monastic site of Annegray, 85. Jonas mentions local people who
came to the monastery: Jonas, Vita Columbani i 7 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 166).
14
Bruno Krusch & Wilhelm Levison (eds), Gregorii Turonensis episcopi opera 1: Libri historiarum x. 10. MGH SRM 1/1 (Hannover & Leipzig 1885, repr. 1951) 494.
15
Wood, ‘Jonas, the Merovingians, and Pope Honorius’, 106.
16
Pervenit ergo fama Columbani Sigiberti regis ad aulam, qui eo tempore duobus regnis Austrasiorum Burgundionorumque inclitus regnabat Francis: Jonas, Vita Columbani i 6 (Krusch, Ionae
Vitae, 162).
17
Bullough, ‘The career of Columbanus’, 9–10; I. N. Wood, The Merovingian kingdoms 450–751
(Harlow 1994) 195; Wood, ‘Jonas, the Merovingians, and Pope Honorius’, 105–06.
18
Columbanus, Ep. ii 6. See G. S. M. Walker (ed & trans), Sancti Columbani opera, SLH 2
(Dublin 1957, repr. 1997) 16–17.
12
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COLUMBANUS AD LOCUM
147
and 1905, reads Hyldebert.19 Only one other manuscript, Metz, Bibliothèque Municipale, 523, from the eleventh century (Krusch’s A3) has Childebert instead of
Sigibert.20 Childebert ii is unquestionably factually correct, since he ruled both
kingdoms of Austrasia (575‒96) and Burgundy (593‒96), following the death of
his father, Sigibert i. Jonas deliberately changed the true identity of the king who
founded Annegray to fit the contemporary political situation, after the Neustrian
branch of the Merovingian dynasty had defeated rival branches of the family in 613.
The memory of Sigibert was acceptable to the Neustrian court, but not that of his
progeny from Queen Brunhild, the arch-enemy of the Neustrian king Chlothar ii
(584‒629), who had her torn to pieces by a wild horse in front of his army.21 Jonas
was writing with this Neustrian court in mind and his substitution of Childebert
for Sigibert is one indication of the changing function of hagiography and its application in shaping political and social discourse during this period.22
‘Castrum dirutum olim’: Annegray and the Romans
Jonas’ one-sided and deliberately tailored account of the foundation of Annegray
makes it clear that he needs to be read with caution. Every facet of his account
should be queried. A clear understanding of his literary strategies needs to be
considered when interpreting Annegray. This applies also to his statement that
Columbanus established his monastery on the site of a ruined fort: ‘a fortress, long
since in ruins, called Anagrates, according to ancient tradition’.23 This reference to a
castrum has been interpreted as a Roman route-way fort of the late empire.24 Such
forts were constructed near the limes to guard the roads.25 Jonas, however, does not
19
This is often mistakenly identified as the oldest manuscript. A transcription of the Metz manuscript was published by Michele Tosi (ed), Vita Columbani abbatis discipulorumque eius (Piacenza
1965).
20
For a revised and updated complete list of manuscripts, which contain the Vita Columbani, see
Appendix I in Alexander O’Hara, Jonas of Bobbio and the Vita Columbani: sanctity and community
in the seventh century, unpubl. PhD thesis, University of St Andrews 2009, 272–80.
21
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 29 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 219–20); Fredegar iv 42: see Bruno Krusch
(ed), Chronicarum quae dicuntur Fredegarii Scholastici libri iv cum continuationibus, MGH SRM
2 (Hannover 1888, repr. 1984) 1–193: 141–42, and J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (ed), The fourth book of the
chronicle of Fredegar (London 1960) 35–35.
22
On this aspect of Merovingian hagiography, see now Jamie Kreiner, The social life of hagiography in the Merovingian kingdom, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought (Cambridge
2014).
23
Castrum dirutum olim, quem antiquorum traditio Anagrates nuncupabant: Jonas, Vita Columbani i 6 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 163).
24
Marron & Bully, ‘Recent archaeological work’ (forthcoming).
25
On the typology of these forts, see Raymond Brulet, ‘L’architecture militaire romaine en
Gaule pendant l’antiquité tardive’, in Michel Reddé et al (eds), L’architecture de la Gaule romaine:
148
ALEXANDER O’HARA
specifically indicate that it was a Roman fort, although castrum, in classical usage,
usually refers to such military fortifications.
The word castrum appears a number of times in Jonas’ vitae, but the use of the
term in seventh-century sources is quite rare. Isidore of Seville defines a castrum
in the contemporary Etymologiae: ‘The ancients called a town sited on a very high
place a fort (castrum) … The plural of this is “camp” (castra), and its diminutive is
“fortress” (castellum)’.26 The first mention of the term in Jonas is that of Annegray.
The word is next used for Avallon (Avallonem castrum), a Roman fort and staging-post mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary and in the Tabula Peutingeriana,
through which Columbanus passed on his banishment from Burgundy in 610.27
Jonas also mentions castrum Bismantum, in central Italy, where he and the Bobbio
party travelling from Rome spent the night of 11 June 628.28 This was a Byzantine
military fort built on top of the impressive Pietra di Bismantova in the Reggiano
Apennines. Luxeuil, which was a sizeable Gallo-Roman town, is also termed a
castrum, as is the Roman town of Zülpich (Tulbiacensem castrum), the site of the
battle where Theuderic defeated Theudebert in 612. In his Vita Iohannis abbatis
Reomaensis Jonas mentions the castrum in Sinemurum (Semur-en-Auxois) and in
Ternoderense (Tonnerre), where John of Réomé was born.29 Jonas’ use of the word
applies both to Roman military structures and to smaller Roman towns (he uses
oppidum for larger ones).
What would such a fort have looked like? The fourth-century Roman author
Vegetius, in his Epitoma rei militaris, provided detailed guidelines of the types of
camp the Roman army employed, and how they were to be constructed.30 Building camps formed an essential part of Roman military practice: when the army
bivouacked at the end of a day’s march, a makeshift camp needed to be erected,
if no other fortification was available. These were simple, hastily erected camps
with a fosse, earthen rampart, and a wooden palisade, with enough room inside
to accommodate the unit and the baggage train. Vegetius distinguishes between
three kinds of camps: makeshift camps, built by the army on the march, stationary
camps for longer periods, and temporary forts or castella, which were to protect
les fortifications militaires (Bordeaux 2006) 159–174; Duncan B. Campbell, Roman auxiliary forts
27 bc–ad 378 (Oxford 2009).
26
Isidore, Etymologiae, xv ii.13. See W. M. Lindsay (ed), Isidori Hispalensis episcopi Etymologiarum sive originvm libri xx, 2 vols (Oxford, 1911) i, and Stephen A. Barney et al (trans), The Etymologies
of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge 2006) 306.
27
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 20 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 197). On the Peutinger Map, an illustrated
road-map showing the cursus publicus, or road network, of the Roman Empire, see Richard J. A.
Talbot, Rome’s world: the Peutinger Map reconsidered (Cambridge 2010).
28
Jonas, Vita Columbani ii 23 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 283).
29
Jonas, Vita Iohannis 2 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 329–30).
30
Michael D. Reeve (ed), Vegetius Epitoma rei militaris (Oxford 2004).
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the supply lines. These were also known as burgi, or route-way forts. Whatever
kind of camp it was, a number of criteria had to be met when selecting the site.
Camps needed to be built in a safe place, where there was enough firewood, fodder,
and access to water, but without the danger of flooding. They should not be built
adjacent to mountains, or high ground, from where the enemy could command a
strategic advantage.31 Depending on the terrain, camps could be square, triangular,
semicircular, or oblong in shape.32 By the end of the fourth century most frontier
fortifications had been substantially reduced and were staffed by barbarian recruits. Some small road stations continued in use into the fifth century, but their
defensive function was greatly decreased as the local populations had to increasingly fend for themselves.33
The site of Annegray is strategically located about two kilometres off the RD6,
which may follow the course of a Roman road that led from the Moselle valley
and Trier to Luxeuil.34 Its location beyond two bluffs and at the head of the flood
plain of the river Breuchin, which would have been a water meadow or marshland
in late antiquity, means that the site was easily defended. It controlled the passage
along the Roman road (from the Montagne St Martin), at the very point where
the narrow valley of the Breuchin widens. There is also a raised mound feature to
the south of the site that may have served as a look-out post.35 The re-use of ancient
and pre-existing structures by monastic groups is, of course, well-attested.36 The
use of such pre-existing structures had obvious practical benefits for the monastic
founders but, as has been recognized, the appropriation of these sites was also a
deliberate strategy in the Christianization of ancient cult sites. The decision by
monastic groups to settle in forested areas was motivated not only by the desire to
find a locus desertus but, following the example of the Desert Fathers, to appropriate liminal spaces associated with demons and pagan rites.37
Vegetius, Epitoma rei militaris, i 21–24, iii 8, iv 10. See N. P. Milner (trans), Vegetius: epitome
of military science, TTH 16 (Liverpool 2001, 2nd rev. ed.) 23–25, 79–83, 126.
32
Vegetius, Epitoma rei militaris, iii 8 (Milner, Vegetius, 80).
33
On the frontier defence system during the late empire, see Thomas S. Burns, Rome and the
barbarians, 100 bc–ad 400 (Baltimore & London 2003) 356–60; Harald von Petrikovits, ‘Fortifications in the north-western Roman Empire from the third to the fifth centuries ad’, Journal of
Roman Studies 61 (1971) 178–218.
34
Marron & Bully, ‘Recent archaeological work’ (forthcoming).
35
Vegetius also mentioned look-out posts. See Epitoma rei militaris iii 8 (Milner, Vegetius, 82).
36
Bonnie Effros, ‘Monuments and memory: repossessing ancient remains in early medieval
Gaul’, in Mayke de Jong & Frans Theuws (eds), Topographies of power in the early middle ages (Leiden
2001) 93–118; G. Cantino Wataghin, ‘… ut haec aedes Christo domino in ecclesiam consecretur. Il riuso
cristiano di edifici antichi tra tarda antichità e alto medioevo’, in Ideologie e pratiche del reimpiego
nell’alto Medioevo (Spoleto 1999) 673–749.
37
G.-P. Brogiolo & M. Ibsen, ‘Eremitic settlements and political and military contingencies
in the sixth century: the case of the Alto Garda Bresciano (Lake Garda, N. Italy)’, in Hendrik Dey
31
150
ALEXANDER O’HARA
On a practical level, the Roman fort at Annegray provided Columbanus and his
monks with ready materials and a pre-existing structure, which they could use in
building the monastery. But other symbolic levels also need to be considered. For
example, the military aspect may have appealed to Columbanus, who saw the monastic life in terms of a spiritual battle. His writings on the spiritual life are couched
in military terminology.38 Jonas also employed military and anachronistic classical
terms for monastic groups and Frankish warriors.39 Columbanus’ appropriation
of Roman military structures and Jonas’ use of Roman military terminology may
have been a strategy meant to appeal to Frankish warrior elites with classicizing
tendencies.40 It may also be related to the subtle influences that Roman military
norms and codes had on the development of early monastic identities. This aspect
has been little studied by historians of monasticism, but Stefan Esders has recently
drawn attention to how the Roman military oath may have influenced the practice
of taking monastic vows.41 Brogiolo and Ibsen have observed that ‘the overlap with
military structures in the case of Columbanus suggests that several additional considerations were at work, and confirms the complexity of the motivations behind
such choices’.42 They suggest that the sites chosen by Columbanus in liminal areas
may have been particularly affected by the abandonment of Roman settlements,
which made them incompletely evangelized, and thus attractive for missionary
activity.
It is difficult to gauge the extent to which the Church exercised pastoral care
in the rural areas where Columbanus established his monasteries. According to
& Elizabeth Fentress (eds), Western monasticism ante litteram: the spaces of monastic observance
in late antiquity and the early middle ages (Turnhout 2011) 201–237: 227, with further references;
Béatrice Caseau, ‘Polemein Lithois. La désacralisation des espaces et des objects religieux païns
durant l’antiquité tardive’, in Michel Kaplan (ed), Le sacré et son inscription dans l’espace à Byzance
et en Occident. Études comparées (Paris 2001) 61–123.
38
Clare Stancliffe, ‘Columbanus’ monasticism and the sources of his inspiration: from Basil to
the Master?’, in Fiona Edmonds & Paul Russell (eds), Tome: studies in medieval Celtic history and
law in honour of Thomas Charles-Edwards (Woodbridge 2011) 17–28.
39
On Jonas’ various terms for the monastic community, see Adalbert de Vogüé, ‘En lisant Jonas
de Bobbio. Notes sur la vie de Saint Colomban’, Studia Monastica 30 (1988) 63–103: 64–71.
40
See Yitzhak Hen, ‘Conversion and masculinity in the early medieval west’, in Ira Katznelson
& Miri Rubin (eds), Religious conversion: history, experience and meaning (Farnham 2014) 151–67;
Yitzhak Hen, Culture and religion in Merovingian Gaul, ad 481–751 (Leiden 1995); Laury Sarti,
Perceiving war and the military in early Christian Gaul (ca. 400–700 ad) (Leiden 2013). I am grateful
to Professor Hen for sending me offprints of his work and for stimulating discussion.
41
Stefan Esders, ‘“Faithful Believers”: oaths of allegiance in post-Roman societies as evidence
for eastern and western “visions of community”’, in Walter Pohl, Clemens Gantner & Richard L.
Payne (eds), Visions of community in the post-Roman world: the West, Byzantium, and the Islamic
world, 300–1100 (Farnham 2012) 357–74.
42
Brogiolo & Ibsen, ‘Eremitic settlements’, 227.
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Jonas, Columbanus was friends with a priest in the area around Annegray and
Luxeuil named Winioc.43 This priest, who bears a Brittonic name, may have been
associated with the nearby monastery of Salicis, whose abbot, Carantoc, also appears to have been of Brittonic origin, or he may have been a local priest based in
Luxeuil.44 This was also the case in the area around Bregenz (if the earliest vita of
Gallus, from c. 680, and the later ninth-century re-writings are to be believed),
where Columbanus made contact with a local priest in Arbon named Willimar.45
Recent excavations in Luxeuil, carried out by Sébastien Bully, have shown that
there was continuity in Christian practice from the Gallo-Roman period up to
the time of Columbanus’ settlement in the town.46
Diana in the Woods: Annegray as a Gallo-Roman Cult Site
There may have been other factors determining Columbanus’ choice of Annegray
that, at first sight, might appear elusive. Columbanus’ short stay at Annegray, before he established his more famous monastery at Luxeuil, some fifteen kilometres
away, could suggest that it was a stopping-off point before Columbanus moved
into the urban centre of Luxeuil. This may well be misleading. Annegray was carefully chosen and played an important preliminary role in Columbanus’ monastic
work in the area.
In 1718 a bas relief in pink granite of the Roman goddess Diana was discovered
on the summit of the Montagne St Martin, not far from the present church of St
Martin, which commands a view down to Annegray and along the valley leading
to Luxeuil. The bas relief, which no longer survives, depicted Diana as a young
woman with a crescent moon resting crosswise on her head, as eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century antiquarian illustrations show. In the eighteenth century, traces
of red pigment could still be seen on her face, which suggests that her whole face
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 15, i 17 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 178, 182).
On the presence of Brittonic clergy in this area, see François Kerlouégan, ‘Présence et culte
de clercs irlandais et bretons entre Loire et Monts Jura’, in Jean-Michel Picard (ed), Aquitaine and
Ireland in the middle ages (Dublin 1995) 189–206.
45
Vita Galli vetustissima 4, where the priest Willimar is mentioned; Wetti, Vita Galli 5 and
Walahfrid Strabo, Vita Galli i 5. These can be found in Bruno Krusch & Wilhelm Levison (eds),
Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi merovingici, MGH SRM 4 (Hannover & Leipzig 1902) 253, 260,
288, respectively. On the dating of the Vita vetustissima, see Walter Berschin, ‘Gallus abbas vindicatus’, Historisches Jahrbuch 95 (1975) 257–77; Max Schär, Gallus: der Heilige in seiner Zeit (Basel
2011) 20–25.
46
Sébastien Bully et al, ‘Les origines du monastère de Luxeuil (Haute-Saône) d’après les récentes
recherches archéologiques’, in Michèle Gaillard (ed), L’empreinte chrétienne en Gaule (de la fin du
ive au début du viiie siècle) (Turnhout 2014) 311–55.
43
44
152
ALEXANDER O’HARA
was originally painted red.47 A statuette of Diana was also discovered at the same
time, as well as two statuettes of Mercury and bronze figures of wild boars, which
no longer survive.48 Lunar Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon, was especially
venerated in wooded areas and by hunters. This area was a hunting reserve during
the Merovingian period, and would have been heavily wooded, as it is today. Diana
Trivia was also venerated as the guardian of roads, particularly where paths converged or diverged in junctions. The Montagne St Martin, where the finds were
made, stood at such a junction. The site commands a view over the Roman road,
which led down the narrow valley of Faucogney and turned right into the valley
of the Breuchin leading to Luxeuil, while the castrum of Annegray stood off to the
left, probably joined by a path or road that led under the lee of the Montagne to the
main Roman road. The flat terrain between the Roman road and the castrum would
have been a watery marshland flooded by the Breuchin river. Another element in
the Diana cult, water, would thus have been present. As Green explains, with regard
to the elements important for classical cult sites to Diana, the hunter needed moisture in order to capture the scent of his prey.49 The landscape elements at Annegray
bear a resemblance to the great cult site of the goddess at Aricia, near Rome, where
the temple of Diana was situated. The sacred grove at Aricia was located eleven
miles outside Rome (about the same distance of Annegray from Luxeuil), just off
the Roman road at the base of a hill beside a lake and spring.
Recent geophysical surveys on the Montagne St Martin have been investigating
whether a circular structure beneath the apse of the medieval church of St Martin
on top of the hill may be the remains of a Gallo-Roman temple. Some two kilometres to the east of the church site is the place name Bois de Jupiter, ‘the wood
of Jupiter’. The later mid-eighth century Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum
refers to ‘little buildings, that is, shrines’, to sacred woods which are called nimidas,
to sacrifices at springs, to the cult of Mercury and Jupiter.50 It was even suggested
in the nineteenth century that the place-name element Ana in Anagrates could be
an abbreviation of Diana, and that Anagrates could mean (Di)ana Garth (‘sanctuary of Diana’).51 This does not work philologically, however. The place-name is
a Celtic compound consisting of *Anego-rati where the ‘o’ is syncopated to give
*anegrati (Latin: *anagrates). *aneg-o- (Old Irish: aingid) means ‘protect’ and *( f )
47
Gilles Cugnier, Le monastère Saint-Jean-Baptiste d’Annegray (Langres 1997) 15–20, with illustrations and further references.
48
Cugnier, Le monastère Saint-Jean-Baptiste d’Annegray, 16.
49
C. M. C. Green, Roman religion and the cult of Diana at Aricia (Cambridge 2007) 118.
50
Alfred Boretius (ed), Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum, MGH Capitularia 1 (Hannover
1883) 222–23, cited in R. A. Markus, ‘From Caesarius to Boniface: Christianity and paganism in
Gaul’, in Jacques Fontaine & J. N. Hillgarth (eds), The seventh century: change and continuity (London 1992) 164–65.
51
Proposed by Jules Gravier in 1844, cited by Cugnier, Le monastère Saint-Jean-Baptiste, 20.
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rati- (Old Irish: ráith) means ‘fort / rampart’. The name Anagrates literally means
‘fort’, the castrum mentioned by Jonas.52 When the site is viewed from the Montagne St Martin, the circular enclosure, which can be seen in the left fore-ground,
is the fort of Anagrates (Fig. 1, below), possibly an Iron Age rath, rather than a
Roman route-way fort. The Celtic place-name gives an accurate description of the
topography of the site.53
The medieval church site at Annegray.
Most likely an extramural parish church.
The site of the current excavations.
The site of the 2012 excavations.
Clos de la Place. The likeliest location of the site
of Anagrates and Columbanus’s monastery
Fig. 1: Possible location of Annegray
The Location of the Monastery at Annegray
Excavations at Annegray in 2012 failed to identity the site of the monastery. Geophysical prospection to localize the monastic site and the castrum did not reveal an
enclosure around the church site at Annegray, although not all of the surrounding
fields were prospected. A rectangular structure of some 60 × 40 metres at the
foot of the hill was, however, found, which was interpreted as possibly the site
My sincere thanks to Professor Dr Albrecht Greule for this reading.
Cf. Keith H. Basso, Wisdom sits in places: landscape and language among the western Apache
(Albuquerque 1996); Christopher Tilley, A phenomenology of landscape: places, paths, and monuments (Oxford 1994).
52
53
154
ALEXANDER O’HARA
of the castrum. On excavation it was revealed to be a moated site dating from the
high middle ages.54 In 2013 a number of trenches were opened on the top of the
hill, where Gilles Cugnier, a local historian and amateur archaeologist, undertook
the first excavation of the site in 1958. The plan of the later Romanesque chapel
was identified, while a sculpted block of stone from the Carolingian period was
found. The presence of Merovingian and Carolingian sarcophagi, discovered in
and around the church, suggests that it may have served as a funerary and parish
church for the local community and, as such, may have lain outside the monastic
confines. From the excavations of the seventh-century monastery at Hamage in
Picardy we know that two churches served the needs of the monastic and lay communities, one of which lay outside the enclosure ditch.55 This may also have been
the case at Annegray. Although neither the castrum nor the site of the early monastery have so far been identified, a large circular enclosure adjacent to the area under
excavation, called Clos de la Place (‘enclosure of the place’), resembles a fortified
site. I propose this as the likeliest site for the monastery (Fig. 1 above). According
to Vegetius, Roman camps could be circular or semi-circular in layout, and need
not be rectangular. In form and size the enclosure also bears a close resemblance
to Iron Age raths and early medieval monastic sites in Ireland.56 Permission to
undertake geophysical prospection on this land, however, was not granted. It is
hoped that future permission will be given so that the site can be fully surveyed.
The Montagne St Martin overlooking Annegray may well have been a preChristian cult site, which Columbanus sought to appropriate. The cult to Diana
appears to have been long-standing in this region. The stone relief from the Brigach
spring near St Georgen, in the Black Forest, dated to the second half of the first
century or the early second century, depicts Diana Abnoba, the Celtic goddess of
the Black Forest, who became associated with Diana, flanked by a stag on one side
and a hare and dove on the other. The animals on the relief have been attributed
to Gallo-Roman deities. The stag has been interpreted as representing Cernunnos,
the stag god, the dove on the right as a fertility goddess, and the hare as Diana
Marron & Bully, ‘Recent archaeological work’ (forthcoming).
Étienne Louis, ‘Sorores ac fratres in Hamatico degentes: naissance, évolution et disparition d’une
abbaye au haut moyen âge: Hamage (France, Nord)’, De la Meuse à l’Ardenne 29 (1999) 17–47. This
is also the case on Inishmurray, on which see Jerry O’Sullivan & Tomás Ó Carragáin, Inishmurray:
monks and pilgrims in an Atlantic landscape, 1: survey and excavations 1997–2000 (Cork 2008).
56
On the topography of early medieval Irish monasteries, see David Jenkins, ‘Holy, holier, holiest’. The sacred topography of the early medieval Irish Church, STT 4 (Turnhout 2010); Jean-Michel
Picard, ‘In platea monasterii: the layout of ecclesiastical settlements in early medieval Ireland (7th–9th
c.)’, in Flavia De Rubeis & Federico Marazzi (eds), Monasteri in Europa occidentale (secoli viii–ix):
topografia e strutture (Rome 2008) 67–82; Michael Herrity, ‘The layout of Irish early Christian
monasteries’, in Próinséas Ní Chatháin & Michael Richter (eds), Ireland and Europe: the early
Church (Stuttgart 1984) 105–16.
54
55
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Abnoba.57 The three animals could also simply refer to Diana Trivia, to which
they look in her guise as the goddess of the hunt. She is depicted in the centre of
the relief as a frontal bust (like the one found at Annegray) on a pedestal.58 The
Diana Abnoba monuments located in south-west Germany have been found to
be closely associated with Roman road networks.59 The monument at the Brigach
spring is located at the source of the Brigach river, a tributary of the Danube, and
thus appears to have been linked to a healing cult at the source. The finds on the
Montagne St Martin above Annegray may also have been linked to a healing cult,
as the location is situated at the beginning of the Plateau des Mille Étangs, a unique
geological landscape of bogs and marshes formed at the end of the last Ice Age and
now dotted with hundreds of tarns.60
The dedication of the church above Annegray to Martin is also significant. Benedict famously turned the temple of Apollo on the summit of Monte Cassino into
a chapel dedicated to Martin, and built another chapel dedicated to John the Baptist where Apollo’s altar stood.61 It may well have been that, following the example
of Benedict, Columbanus converted a pre-Christian cult site and dedicated the
chapel to Martin. He later visited the saint’s shrine in person at Tours.62 He may
have dedicated a chapel on his monastic site to John the Baptist, which remained
the dedication for the medieval priory.63
The rural location of Annegray in a forested area also raises the question of
whether pagan survivals continued in this region, in other words ‘any beliefs or
practices condemned in pastoral literature which explicitly or implicitly entailed
57
Ferdinand Maier, ‘Der Bildstein von der Brigachquelle bei St. Georgen (Schwarzwald-BaarKreis)’, Germania 84 (2006) 415–29: 426.
58
Maier, ‘Der Bildstein von der Brigachquelle’, 417, with photograph.
59
Maier, ‘Der Bildstein von der Brigachquelle’, 427, citing Manfred Kotterba, ‘Diana Abnoba
— Göttin des Schwarzwaldes und seiner Straßen’, Archäologische Nachrichten Baden 55 (1996) 6–14.
60
The hundreds of tarns in the region are mostly man-made from the medieval period and later.
See Marron & Bully, ‘Recent archaeological work’ (forthcoming).
61
Gregory the Great, Dialogues ii 8.11, in Adalbert de Vogüé & Pierre Antin (eds & trans),
Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, 3 vols, SC 251, 260, 265 (Paris 1978, 1979, 1980) ii, 168.
62
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 22 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 200–01).
63
Gilles Cugnier, Histoire du monastère de Luxeuil à travers ses abbés 590–1790, 3 vols (Langres
2003–5) i, 280. On the cult of Martin as a model for Christian missionaries, Bruno Judic, ‘Les
modèles martiniens dans le christianisme des ve–viie siècles’, in Michèle Gaillard (ed), L’empreinte
chrétienne en Gaule du ive au ixe siècle (Turnhout 2014) 91–109; Allan Scott McKinley, ‘The first
two centuries of Saint Martin of Tours’, Early Medieval Europe 14 (2006) 173–200. Caesarius of
Arles dedicated a monastic burial church for a female community to the Virgin Mary, but with one
aisle dedicated to Martin and the other aisle dedicated to John the Baptist (noted by McKinley,
191). I am grateful to Dr Clare Stancliffe for these references.
156
ALEXANDER O’HARA
a reliance on powers not coming from God and not mediated by the Church’.64
This does not imply an opposing belief system to Christianity but, rather, must be
understood within a broader cultural context as ‘the ethnic traditions and folklore
of newly Christianised peoples.’65 As R. A. Markus remarked: ‘Clearly the principal
setting of Columbanus’ activities were areas already Christian, and what Columbanus (or his biographer) deplored in them was not so much residual paganism as
the lack of the Irish penitential discipline and the ascetic and monastic tradition
with its exacting standards of morality set up for Christian lay people.’66 Although
Jonas does not mention pagan survivals in relation to Columbanus’ stay at Annegray, in his Paenitentiale, which was written in the region, Columbanus specifically mentions fana, or pagan shrines.67 He stipulated penances for people who
ate or drank beside the shrines, giving penances of varying degrees of seriousness.68
Columbanus is clearly concerned with baptised Christians, who are continuing
practices which the Church authorities deemed pagan. The fana that Columbanus
mentions were sites of sacrificial feasting.69 Columbanus’ injunction against people
frequenting fana suggests that there were sites in the Vosges that continued to have
cultic significance for the local people. Columbanus also condemned those who
practised magic, proscribing heavy penances.70 Again, Columbanus is concerned
with baptised Christians, including the clergy, who practised magic, especially
for sexual purposes. These proscriptions should not be dismissed offhand. They
are important indications that Columbanus was trying to oppose certain cultural
practices, active in the communities where he had established his monasteries.
They take on added significance in the light of the evidence discussed from Annegray, and when compared with other contemporary sources. The fourth Council
of Orléans in 541, for example, condemned Christians who swore on the heads of
wild beasts while invoking pagan names,71 while Columbanus’ contemporary and
correspondent, Pope Gregory the Great, in a letter of 597 wrote to Queen Brunhild (Columbanus’ patron and later nemesis) to ask her to stop people from making offerings to idols, worshipping trees, and making ‘sacrilegious offerings over
the heads of animals’. The people engaging in these activities were not pagans, but
Bernadette Filotas, Pagan survivals, superstitions and popular cultures in early medieval pastoral
literature (Toronto 2005) 13, 18–20.
65
Filotas, Pagan survivals, 15.
66
Markus, ‘From Caesarius to Boniface’, 164.
67
T. M. Charles-Edwards, ‘The penitential of Columbanus’, in Michael Lapidge (ed), Columbanus: studies on the Latin writings (Woodbridge 1997) 217–39.
68
Paenitentiale 24 (Walker, Columbani opera, 79).
69
Filotas, Pagan survivals, 200.
70
Paenitentiale 6 (Walker, Columbani opera, 173).
71
Council of Orléans 16, in C. de Clercq (ed), Concilia Galliae: A.511–A.695, CCSL 148A
(Turnhout 1963) 136.
64
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Christians.72 Furthermore, Columbanus’ reference to those who practise magic for
amorous purposes may refer to the strigae. The contemporary Frankish and Lombard law codes, the Lex Salica and the Edictum of Rothari, both attest to current
popular beliefs in man-eating witches (strigae), who were often associated with
Diana as the moon goddess.73 The belief in Diana appears to have been common
to both men and women who, some believed, could fly with Diana.74 Crossroads
or forks in the road were of numinous importance as places for working magic: it
was there that Hecate / Diana could be met.75 The location of Annegray at a fork
in the Roman road, along with the bas relief to lunar Diana that was discovered on
top of the Montagne St Martin, and Columbanus’ reference to magic practitioners,
are clues that suggest still active practices associated with a Diana cult.
There is strong evidence for the continuance of a cult to Diana into the early
middle ages, especially in Merovingian Gaul.76 The best-known case is that of the
Lombard monk, Vulfilaic, who appropriated a Diana cult site near Trier during the
sixth century. Gregory of Tours records how Vulfilaic told him how, inspired by
the example of Martin and Simeon the Stylite, he settled on a column near Trier,
where there was a temple with a statue of Diana worshipped by the local people.
Vulfilaic preached to them against worshipping Diana and their pagan practices,
until he convinced them to destroy the statue of Diana. He was finally persuaded to
come down from his column after the local bishop intervened.77 While this story
illustrates how monks should be obedient to their bishops, and how independent
holy men could be viewed with suspicion, it also reveals that there was an active
cult to Diana in the Moselle region around the same time that Columbanus settled
in the neighbouring region of the Vosges. Gregory of Tours notes numerous other
cases relating to Diana.78 Thus it appears that Columbanus’ settlement at Annegray
72
Gregory the Great, Ep. viii 4, in Dag Norberg (ed), S. Gregorii Magni registrum epistularum
libri i–vii & viii–xiv, CCSL 140 & 140A (Turnhout 1982) ii, 521. See John R. C. Martyn (ed
& trans), The letters of Gregory the Great, 3 vols (Toronto 2004) ii, 504. See also, R. A. Markus,
‘Gregory the Great’s pagans’, in Richard Gameson & Henrietta Leyser (eds), Belief and culture in
the middle ages: studies presented to Henry Mayr-Harting (Oxford 2001) 23–34.
73
Filotas, Pagan survivals, 130–31. On the persistence of such beliefs over time, see Emma Wilby,
‘Burchard’s strigae, the witches’ sabbath, and shamanistic cannibalism in early modern Europe’,
Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 8 (2013) 18–49.
74
Filotas, Pagan surivals, 76.
75
Filotas, Pagan surivals, 201.
76
Valerie Flint, The rise of magic in early medieval Europe (Princeton 1991) 122; see also Alexander Murray, ‘Missionaries and magic in Dark-Age Europe’, in Lester K. Little & Barbara H. Rosenwein (eds), Debating the middle ages: issues and readings (Oxford 1998) 92–104; Yitzhak Hen, ‘The
early medieval West’, in David J. Collins (ed), The Cambridge history of magic and witchcraft: from
antiquity to the present (Cambridge 2015) 183–206.
77
Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum viii 15 (Krusch & Levison, Gregorii opera, 382).
78
Filotas, Pagan survivals, 75 n. 47.
158
ALEXANDER O’HARA
appropriated an ancient Gallo-Roman cult site. It was part of a strategy of Christianizing the landscape and of defining himself within the tradition of the Desert
Fathers, whom he admired.79 The pagans lurking in the woods near Annegray may
all have been baptised Christians, but Columbanus needed an adversary against
which to model his heroic monasticism, just like the monks in the desert needed
their demons.
Springtime in Luxeuil: Columbanus and the Springs
In contrast to the rural location of Annegray, Luxeuil was a sizeable regional town,
next in size to Besançon (Vesontio).80 Jonas describes Columbanus’ foundation of
his second monastery in these terms:
He found a fortress that had once been strongly ornamented with fortification, distant more or less eight miles from the already mentioned place
[Annegray], which ancient times called Luxovium. There were hot baths
there built with great skill, there were a multitude of stone images crowded
together in the nearby wood, which in former days were honoured by the
wretched worship and profane rites of the pagans, who make offerings to
them in detestable ceremonies. A multitude of wild animals and beasts, such
as bears, wild ox, and wolves haunted that place. Staying there the distinguished man began to build a monastery.81
This is an evocative description of how an ancient pagan place, the haunt of savage beasts, was civilized and changed by the arrival of a holy man. Jonas chooses
to emphasize Luxeuil’s liminality and pagan past in order to enhance the heroic
stature of his subject. This was a well-established literary trope for hagiographers
to portray their subjects as pioneers, taming the dark wilderness.82 Even the image
of the desert in the work of the earliest hagiographers of the Egyptian monks
Regula monachorum 7 (Walker, Columbani opera, 132).
On Luxeuil, see now Bully et al, ‘Les origines du monastère de Luxeuil’.
81
Invenitque castrum firmissimo olim fuisse munimine cultum, a supradicto loco distantem plus
minus octo milibus, quem Luxovium prisca tempora nuncupabant. Ibi aquae calidae cultu eximio constructae habebantur; ibi imaginum lapidearum densitas vicina saltus densabant, quas cultu miserabili
ritoque profano vetusta paganorum tempora honorabant, quibusque execrabiles ceremonias litabant;
solae ibi ferae ac bestiae, ursorum, bubalorum, luporum multitudo frequentabant. Ibi residens vir
egregius, monasterium construere coepit, in Jonas, Vita Columbani i 10 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 169);
see also the description of Annegray at i 6 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 163).
82
This was also the case for Boniface’s foundation at Fulda, on which see James Palmer, Anglo-Saxons in a Frankish world, 690–900 (Turnhout 2009) 149, and chapter 4 generally, on foundation-legends.
79
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was largely a created landscape.83 The image that Jonas sought to convey was of a
spiritual wilderness that served as a suitable ascetic arena, detached from the urban
environment. In this he was constructing a literary metaphor that stretched back
to Athanasius’ Vita Antonii.
Luxeuil, like many other important sites in Gaul, was an important healing cult
site in antiquity, centred on the thermal springs.84 A Gallo-Roman bath-house
has been discovered, as well as hundreds of Gallic votive statuettes made of oak,
which were deposited in the springs. Inscriptions to the gods Luxovius, Brixta,
Apollo, and Sirona have also been found on the numerous stone monuments from
the site, now in the museum at Luxeuil. These may include the stone monuments
that Jonas alludes to in his description.85 Luxovius, from which the town derives
its name, is thought to have been a god of healing and light, cognate with the
Celtic god Lug, as iconography at Luxeuil depicts a sky-horseman bearing a solar
wheel. He is associated with a goddess Brixta or Bricta, perhaps a cognate of Brig,
a goddess of healing, protection, and fertility. Sirona is usually associated with
Apollo Grannus, and her attributes are snakes and eggs — emblems of healing and
fertility respectively. A snake can be seen at the base of an inscription at Luxeuil
which reads: Apollini / et Sironae / idem / Taurus.86 Apollini refers to the Celtic
god Grannus, who was associated with the Roman god Apollo and was also linked
with healing springs and the sun. Since Apollo and Diana were held to be siblings,
this kinship was transferred to Grannus and Sirona, who often appear together in
inscriptions.87 The town of Luxeuil appears to have been in continuous use up to
Columbanus’ arrival in the last decade of the sixth century: it had not been abandoned, nor was it devoid of a Christian community. While the local population
had been Christianized for some time, popular cultural practices in relation to the
83
James E. Goehring, ‘The encroaching desert: literary production and ascetic space in early
Christian Egypt’, Journal of Early Christian Studies 1 (1993) 281–96; James E. Goehring ‘The dark
side of landscape: ideology and power in the Christian myth of the desert’, Journal of Medieval and
Early Modern Studies 33 (2003) 437–51.
84
J. N. Hillgarth, ‘Modes of evangelization of Western Europe in the seventh century’, in
Próinséas Ní Chatháin & Michael Richter (eds), Ireland and Christendom: the bible and the missions (Stuttgart 1987) 311–31: 327, states: ‘It has been estimated that there were over 6000 springs
in France which were venerated in pre-Christian times; most of these were only Christianized
relatively late, some not at all …’.
85
Jean Roussel, Luxovium ou Luxeuil gallo-romain (Paris 1924); Lucien Lerat, ‘Le nom de la
parèdre du dieu Luxovius’, Revue Archéologique de l’Est 1 (1950) 207–13; s.v. Luxovium in Richard
Stillwell, William L. MacDonald & Marian Holland McAllister (eds), The Princeton encyclopedia
of classical sites (Princeton 1976).
86
CIL xiii 05424, in Theodor Mommsen (ed), Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum, 15 vols and
Supplementa and Auctuaria (Berlin 1863– ).
87
Miranda Green, The gods of the Celts (Stroud 1986) 161. On this subject see also Jean-Louis
Brunaux, The Celtic Gauls: gods, rites, and sanctuaries (London 1987).
160
ALEXANDER O’HARA
thermal springs may have continued. It was this aspect that Jonas chose to emphasize in his description of the town: the memory of Luxeuil as a pagan place was
still remembered and was a notable characteristic of the site. Given Columbanus’
cultural background, from a country where spring sites had cultic significance,88 it
is not surprising that he chose to establish his second monastery at Luxeuil.
According to Jonas, Columbanus next established another monastery at
a ‘place with a bountiful supply of water’ called Fontanas (‘The Springs’), now
Fontaine-lès-Luxeuil (six kilometres to the north-west of Luxeuil), because of
an influx of eager new recruits that made conditions overcrowded in Luxeuil.89
This was also Jonas’ explanation for why Columbanus established his second
foundation at Luxeuil, a common hagiographical motif.90 This reason alone is
not convincing. Why did Columbanus establish three monasteries within such
proximity of each another? This question has never seriously been broached in
the scholarship, and yet it is a distinctive feature of Columbanus’ foundations in
the region, giving rise to the ‘Vosges cluster’.91 The association with springs found
in the place-name Fontanas gives us some clue as to why this site may have been
chosen. Rather than being the result of overcrowding, the choice may have been
part of a conscious strategy of appropriating spring cult sites in relation to route
networks in the Luxeuil area. The unusual dedication of Fontaine to Pancras, the
Roman martyr saint whose relics were brought to England by the Gregorian mission, points to Roman influence — Columbanus may have received relics of this
martyr for his new foundation from Pope Gregory the Great, who promoted the
cult, or from the delegation of his Roman missionaries on their way to AngloSaxon England.92 The dedication of Annegray to Saint John the Baptist, and of
88
On the cultural context in Ireland, see Edel Bhreathnach, Ireland in the medieval world,
ad 400–1000: landscape, kingship, and religion (Dublin 2014); John Waddell, Archaeology and Celtic
myth (Dublin 2014).
89
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 10 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 170).
90
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 10 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 169).
91
It should be noted that the three Jura foundations of Condat, Saint-Lupicin, and the female
community of La Balme, established during the fifth century in the Jura region not far to the south,
were also situated close to each other. However, they were established by more than one founder.
For a comparative study of the two, see Sébastien Bully, ‘Archéologie des monasteries du premier
millénaire dans le Centre-Est de la France. Conditions d’implantation et de diffusion, topographie
historique et organisation’, Bulletin du Centre d’Études Médiévales d’Auxerre 13 (2009) 257–90.
92
Cugnier, Histoire du monastère de Luxeuil, 280. On Columbanus’ contact with the Gregorian
mission, see Roy Flechner, ‘Dagán, Columbanus, and the Gregorian mission’, Peritia 19 (2005) 65–90.
On Gregory’s promotion of the cult of Pancras, see Lelia Cracco Ruggini, ‘Roma alla confluenza di
due tradizioni agiografiche: Pancrazio martire “urbano” e Pancrazio vescovo-martire di Taormina’,
Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa 28 (1992) 35–52: 49; Alan T. Thacker, ‘Rome of the martyrs:
saints, cults and relics, fourth to seventh centuries’, in Éamonn Ó Carragáin & Carol Neuman de
Vegvar (eds), Roma felix — formation and reflection of medieval Rome (Aldershot 2008) 13–50.
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Luxeuil to Saint Peter, also raises the possibility that Columbanus was consciously
modelling the Christian topography of Rome, a phenomenon that is known from
other contexts. The dedication of Fontaine to Pancras is interesting in this regard,
as the basilica of Pancras in Rome is an extramural church, situated on the via
Aurelia, the road leading north-west out of Rome. Similarly Fontaine was situated
some kilometres outside the city walls of Luxeuil, on the road leading north-west.
Given Columbanus’ contacts with Rome, and the information readily available
to him about the city from the liturgy, travelling clerics, and pilgrim guide-books,
he may have tried, failing the opportunity of going to Rome in person, to bring
Rome to the Vosges.93 In his surviving letters Columbanus wrote about his high
regard for Rome, not as the capital of the once great Roman Empire, but as the
apostolic city of Peter and Paul. He expressed a desire to travel to Rome to pray at
the shrines of the martyrs,94 a desire that was never fulfilled, despite a later Bobbio
tradition that had him travelling to Rome on the back of a bear to meet Gregory
the Great.95
Beer-spilling in Bregenz: Columbanus in Alamannia
After Columbanus’ expulsion from Luxeuil in 610, and his finding refuge at the
court of Theudebert ii in Austrasia, he was, according to Jonas, given the option
of settling wherever he wished within Theudebert’s kingdom. After navigating the
Rhine as far as Lake Constance, he settled on the ancient Roman town of Brigantia, modern Bregenz in western Austria, to establish another foundation. Bregenz
was in Alamannia, a Frankish duchy ruled by local dukes loyal to Theudebert, and
on the eastern limits of the Frankish king’s sphere of influence. When Columbanus
arrived here in 610 Bregenz was a border town on the fringe of the ‘Wild East.’
On the topography of Christian Rome as a model, see Éamonn Ó Carragáin, ‘The city of
Rome and the world of Bede’, Jarrow Lecture ( Jarrow 1995); Éamonn Ó Carragáin, ‘The periphery
rethinks the centre: inculturation, “Roman” liturgy and the Ruthwell Cross’, in Claudia Bolgia,
Rosamond McKitterick, & John Osborne (eds), Rome across time and space: cultural transmission
and the exchange of ideas, c. 500–1400 (Cambridge 2011) 63–83; Julia M. H. Smith, Europe after
Rome: a new cultural history 500–1000 (Oxford 2005) 285–88.
94
Columbanus Ep. i 8; Ep. iii 2; Ep. v 11; Ep. v 17 (Walker, Columbani opera, 10–11, 22–23,
48–49, 56–57). On Columbanus’ attitude towards Rome and the papacy, see Damian Bracken, ‘Authority and duty: Columbanus and the primacy of Rome’, Peritia 16 (2002) 168–213; Damian Bracken, ‘Juniors teaching elders: Columbanus, Rome, and spiritual authority’, in Roma felix, 253–76.
95
Flavio G. Nuvolone, ‘Il Sermo de charitate Dei ac proximi, il viaggio di Colombano a Rome e
l’aggiogamento dell’orso: Edizioni e spunti analitici’, Archivum Bobiense 4 (1982) 91–165; Flavio G.
Nuvolone, ‘Il Sermo de charitate Dei ac proximi e il contesto ospedaliero Bobbiese: edizioni e spunti
analitici’, Archivum Bobiense 5 (1983) 99–174.
93
162
ALEXANDER O’HARA
According to Jonas, Columbanus agreed with Theudebert to stay in Bregenz for
a while in order to preach to the neighbouring peoples.96
Bregenz was originally a Celtic settlement situated on a plateau at the foot
of the Pfänder mountain, on the eastern shores of Lake Constance. The Celtic
place-name Brigantia means a ‘high fort or high place’. The Romans conquered
Bregenz in 15 bc and it grew into a municipality and the Roman naval base for
Lake Constance, with an important naval harbour.97 Like Luxeuil, it was situated
along an important road axis linking Pannonia with Gaul and Augsburg with Milan, and is depicted on the Tabula Peutingeriana.98 In the third century the town
was destroyed by the Alamanni, who settled in the area from the middle of the
fifth century. Little is known about the town from this period until Columbanus’
arrival.99 While the exact location of Columbanus’ monastery in Bregenz is not
known for certain, it is thought to have been on the site of the present church of
St Gallus, where late antique masonry has been discovered beneath the chancel,
possibly the Aurelia church mentioned in the hagiography of Columbanus’ disciple Gallus (discussed below).100 If this were the case, Columbanus’ foundation
was not located within the main Roman town on the Ölrain, but on raised ground
next to the Thalbach stream, overlooking the Roman road that passed below and
facing the Oberstadt, which commands a strategic position over the town, and
which was a fortified site in late antiquity.
The medieval old town (Oberstadt) limits the extent to which this site can be
excavated, although traces of a fortified wall from the fourth century and baths
have been discovered here.101 A relief of the Celtic horse goddess Epona was discovered in this area, as well as a statuette of Mercury, the relevance of which will
be discussed below.102 It is possible that Columbanus’ monastery was situated in
the Oberstadt area, within the walls of the late antique castrum, as was the case at
Luxeuil, and that the church of St Gallus was an extramural parish church for the
laity, because the grave of an Alamannian warrior from the second half of the sixth
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 27 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 211).
Christine Ertel, Das römische Hafenviertel von Brigantium/Bregenz (Bregenz 1999).
98
Ekkehard Weber, ‘Brigantium im Straßennetz der Tabula Peutingeriana’, in Das römische Brigantium, Ausstellungskatalog des Vorarlberger Landesmuseums 124 (Bregenz 1985) 87–99.
99
On Roman Bregenz, see the collected essays in Das römische Brigantium and Wilhelm
Sydow, ‘Ausgrabungen in der Oberstadt von Bregenz’, Jahrbuch Vorarlberger Landesmuseumsverein
132 (1988) 73–113; Michaela Konrad, Das römische Gräberfeld von Bregenz-Brigantium 1. Die Körpergräber des 3. bis 5. Jahrhunderts (Munich 1997).
100
Max Schär, Gallus: Der Heilige in seiner Zeit (Basel 2012) 174.
101
See Sydow, ‘Ausgrabungen in der Oberstadt von Bregenz’.
102
Elisabeth Walde, ‘Römische Bronzen aus Brigantium’, in Das römische Brigantium, 69.
96
97
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or the seventh century was discovered here.103 In this case, the situation might be
similar to that of Annegray, where there may have been two churches, one inside
the monastic compound and one outside the vallum, for the laity.
Columbanus arrived in Bregenz when Christianization was already underway.104
Little is known about the pagan religion of the Alamanni, although from the second half of the sixth century Christian symbols begin to appear in grave goods.
Their Christianization accelerated from the late sixth and during the course of
the seventh century. The Byzantine historian, Agathias, writing in the mid-sixth
century, records that the Alamanni ‘worship certain trees, the waters of rivers, hills
and mountain valleys, in whose honour they sacrifice horses, cattle and countless
other animals by beheading them, and imagine that they are performing an act
of piety thereby.’105 The most famous story of paganism in the region, however,
concerns Columbanus’ disruption of a feasting ritual, which Jonas relates in detail:
While he [Columbanus] was staying there and was going among the inhabitants of this place, he discovered that they wished to perform a profane
sacrifice. They had a large cask that they called a cupa and which held about
20 measures. It was full of beer and had been placed in their midst. When
the man of God approached it he asked what they wanted to do with it.
They told him that they wanted to make an offering to their God, Woden,
which others call Mercury. When Columbanus heard about this pestilential
work, he blew into the cask. Astonishingly, it broke with a crash and pieces
shattered everywhere, and the great force of the explosion caused the beer
to spill out. Then it was clear that the Devil had been concealed in the cask
and that he ensnared the souls of the participants with the profane drink.106
103
Adolf Hild, ‘Ein Alemannengrab in der Stadtpfarrkirche in Bregenz’, Jahrbuch des Vorarlberger Landesmuseumsvereins (1940) 23–26; Andreas Lippert, ‘Zur Frühgeschichte Vorarlbergs’,
in Archäologie in Gebirgen. Elmar Vonbank zum 70. Geburtstag (Bregenz 1992) 235–43: 237, 241.
104
For the Christianization of this region, and Columbanus’ role in this process, see Kurt-Ulrich Jäschke, ‘Kolumban von Luxeuil und sein Wirken im alemanischen Raum’, in Arno Borst
(ed), Mönchtum, Episkopat und Adel zur Gründungszeit des Klosters Reichenau (Sigmaringen 1974)
77–130; Johannes Duft, ‘Frühes Christentum in Brigantium’, in Das römische Brigantium, 101–26;
Römer, Alamanen, Christen: Frühmittelalter am Bodensee (Frauenfeld 2013). Alamannia was under
Frankish over-lordship during this period, on which see I. N. Wood (ed), Franks and Alamanni in
the Merovingian period: an ethnographic perspective (Woodbridge 2003); Bruno Behr, Das alemannische Herzogtum bis 750 (Bern 1975).
105
Averil Cameron, ‘Agathias on the early Merovingians’, Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore
di Pisa 37 (1968) 95–140: 109.
106
Quo cum moraretur et inter habitatores loci illius progrederetur, repperit eos sacrificium profanum litare velle, vasque magnum, quem vulgo cupam vocant, qui xx modia amplius minusve capiebat,
cervisa plenum in medio positum. Ad quem vir Dei accessit sciscitaturque, quid de illo fieri vellint.
Illi aiunt se Deo suo Vodano nomine, quem Mercurium, ut alii aiunt, autumant, velle litare. Ille pestiferum opus audiens, vas insufflat, miroque modo vas cum fragore dissolvitur et per frustra dividitur,
164
ALEXANDER O’HARA
From the perspective of the beer-drinking pagans, it is clear who committed the
sacrilege here.107 Jonas clarifies that the group involved in this ritual comprised
both pagans and baptized Christians, and that the miracle worked to convert the
pagans and to bring the lapsed Christians back to the faith.108 Jonas’ story actually
compliments Columbanus’ own injunction against baptized Christians who were
in the habit of eating and drinking iuxta fana.109 It has also rightly been noted that
this miracle account needs to be read alongside the other beer miracles in the Vita
Columbani, and with Jonas’ Vita Vedastis, with which it shares parallels.110 The
reference to Woden / Mercury is, however, highly significant. This is the earliest
reference to the Germanic God Woden in the historical record. The A3 and Metz
manuscripts of the Vita Columbani omit the reference to the Roman god Mercury,
which could be a later addition from Paul the Deacon’s eighth-century Historia
Langobardorum (i 9),111 although the majority of the manuscripts (including the
earliest, ninth-century, St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 553) have this phrase, which
led Krusch to include it in his MGH editions. Jonas was familiar with Virgil, Ovid,
and the classical heritage, and so the interpretatio Romana made between Woden
and Mercury is not surprising. Moreover, runic inscriptions on fibulae, belt buckles, and weapons survive from this period in Alamannia. The famous Nordendorf
fibula, from the early seventh century, records the name of the pagan gods Wodan
and Donar, but it is not clear whether it was intended as a pagan invocation or as a
Christian charm against them.112 We thus have an indigenous contemporary source
visque rapida cum ligore cervisae prorumpit; manifesteque datur intellegi diabolum in eo vase fuisse
occultatum, qui per profanum ligorem caperet animas sacrificantum, in Jonas, Vita Columbani i 27
(Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 213–14).
107
Fittingly, to mark the 14th centenary in 2012 of Gallus’ settlement in the area, the St Gallen
brewery Schützengarten brewed a Gallus ‘old style ale’ with an image of a Roman-tonsured, smiling
Gallus on the label. Jonas’ account of this incident is often mentioned in beer histories: see Max Nelson, The barbarian’s beverage: a history of beer in ancient Europe (London & New York 2005) 95–96.
108
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 27 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 214).
109
Columbanus, Paenitentiale 24 (Walker, Columbani opera, 178–79).
110
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 16; i 17 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 178–79 and 183); Vita Vedastis 7
(Krusch, Vita Vedastis, 315); Bernhard Maier, ‘Between the Devil and the deep Lake Constance:
Jonas of Bobbio, interpretatio Christiana and the pagan religion of the Alamanni’, paper presented at
the conference Meeting the gentes — crossing boundaries: Columbanus and the peoples of post-Roman
Europe, Vienna, 22 November 2013.
111
Ludwig Bethmann & Georg Waitz (eds), Pauli Diaconi Historia Langobardorum, SRLI (Hannover 1878) 53.
112
See Klaus Düwel, ‘Runen und interpretatio christiana: Zur religionsgeschichtlichen Stellung
der Bügelfibel von Nordendorf I’, in Manfred Balzer et al (eds), Tradition als historische Kraft. Interdisziplinäre Forschungen zur Geschichte des früheren Mittelalters [Festschrift Karl Hauck] (Berlin 1982)
78–86; Roland Gschlößl, ‘Wotan und Donar – Runen aus Schwaben: die berühmte Runeninschrift
von Nordendorf ’, Bayerische Archäologie 2 (2012) 30.
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that also mentions Woden. The context of the ritual feasting and the association
that Jonas makes with the Roman god Mercury are important.113 A votive altar to
Mercury existed in Bregenz until the late sixteenth century and, as already noted,
a statuette of Mercury was discovered on the Oberstadt in Bregenz, where Columbanus’ monastery may have been situated.114 A figurine of Mercury was also discovered on the Montagne St Martin above Annegray. Mercury was often associated
with a healing and fertility function, and was twinned with a goddess with similar
attributes. In the iconography he is often depicted with the triple mother-goddess
cult and he appears as a three-headed god on a fragment of sculpture from Trier.115
As at Luxeuil, there were Roman baths at Bregenz, which have been discovered
both in the Ölrain and in the Oberstadt areas.116
The Carolingian re-writings from the mid ninth century of the Vita Galli by
Wetti and Walahfrid Strabo, which were based on an earlier Vita written around
680, and which now survives as a fragment, both attest to the conflict which ensued when Columbanus and his disciple Gallus tried to combat pagan practices in
the area.117 According to these sources, not mentioned by Jonas, Columbanus only
settled in Bregenz after unsuccessfully preaching around Lake Zurich in Tuggen,
where he was driven from the area after the firebrand Gallus burnt down some
temples.118 It was a priest at Arbon, named Willimar, who suggested to Columbanus that he should settle in Bregenz.119 The Reichenau monk Wetti notes that
when Columbanus arrived in Bregenz, he found that the people venerated three
gilded bronze images (Tres … imagines aereas et deauratas) which were kept in an
abandoned church dedicated to Aurelia, a fourth-century saint whose cult was
venerated in Strasbourg.120 After Gallus preached to the people he took down the
113
Rolf H. Bremmer, ‘Hermes-Mercury and Woden-Odin as inventors of alphabets: a neglected
parallel’, in Alfred Bammesberger (ed), Old English runes and their continental background (Heidelberg 1991) 409–19 and, most famously, Tacitus, Germania ix 1, on the veneration of Mercury
amongst the Germani, in J. G. C. Anderson (ed), Cornelii Taciti De origine et situ Germanorum
(Oxford 1938) 10.
114
Brigitte Truschnegg, Vorarlberg und die Römer: Geschichtsbewußtsein und Landesgeschichte
im Wechselspiel (1800–1945) (Graz 2001) 193, 194.
115
Green, The gods of the Celts, 78–85, on the cult of the Deae Matres or Triple Mothers.
116
Gerhard Grabher, ‘Bregenz/ Brigantium’, Archäologie Österreichs 1 (1994) 59–66: 65.
117
The vitae are edited as Vita Galli confessoris triplex, Bruno Krusch (ed), MGH SRM 4 (Hannover & Leipzig 1902) 251–337. On the vita vetustissima, see Iso Müller, ‘Die älteste Gallus-Vita’,
Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Kirchengeschichte 66 (1972) 212–21; Berschin, ‘Gallus abbas vindicatus’.
118
Wetti, Vita Galli 4–8 (Krusch, MGH SRM 4, 256–80: 259–61). On this episode, see Gerold
Hilty, ‘Gallus in Tuggen’, Vox Romanica 44 (1985) 125–55; Schär, Gallus: der Heilige in seiner Zeit,
143–54.
119
Walahfrid Strabo, Vita Galli i 5 (Krusch, MGH SRM 4, 288).
120
Columbanus could have been given a gift of the relics by Theudebert on his departure, as
Aurelia was a saint venerated in Austrasia.
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ALEXANDER O’HARA
images, broke them with rocks and threw them into the lake. Columbanus then
re-consecrated the church.121 The outlines of the story are the same in Walahfrid,
who has the locals voice their reasons for venerating the old gods: ‘These are the
old gods, the former guardians of this place, and it is by their aid that we and ours
have been kept alive to this day’.122 There may have been no conflict in the minds
of these people in venerating this sacred object of their ancestors and worshipping
in a Christian church, and some were deeply offended when Gallus broke the images. The reference to the three images is significant, as is the location of the cult
site near the lake, where Gallus threw the broken pieces. To the east of the Roman
forum, not far from the lake shoreline at the time, stood a temple with a tripartite
cella. A dedication found at the site commemorates ‘all gods and goddesses’.123
Moreover, in 1963 the hand from a gilded bronze female statue, which once stood
over three metres high, was discovered in Bregenz. The hand is clutching a lotus
cup. The iconography suggests that the statue was possibly of the goddess Isis,
who was often assimilated with Diana during the imperial period.124 The three
images mentioned in the Gallus hagiography may have been a representation of the
mother goddesses, who were frequently venerated in therapeutic spring-sanctuaries, which were associated with Mercury as a fertility god.125 The image could also
have been a representation of Diana Trivia, as Bregenz was situated at a crossroads
where three roads met.126
When the Vita Columbani and the later vitae of Gallus are read alongside each
other they present complementary, but not identical, readings that indicate similar
factors were at play in Columbanus’ choice of Bregenz as a site for his monastic
foundation. As at Luxeuil, there seems to have been a thermal healing spring in
Bregenz and the written sources all indicate that social practices, which Columbanus and his monks may have deemed pagan, were still being performed. The
vitae of Gallus note that Columbanus remained in Bregenz for three years (610‒13),
but that he decided to leave after two of his monks were murdered by locals, who
complained to the Alamannian duke Gunzo to have him expelled, because the
public hunting in the area had been disrupted by the monks.127 With the defeat and
Wetti, Vita Galli 6 (Krusch, MGH SRM 4, 260).
Isti sunt dii veteres et antiqui huius loci tutores, quorum solatio et nos et nostra perdurant usque
in praesens; Walahfrid Strabo, Vita Galli 6 (Krusch, MGH SRM 4, 289).
123
CIL iii 11880. See Norbert Heger, ‘Römische Steindenkmäler aus Brigantium’, Das römische
Brigantium, 13–19: 13
124
Walde, ‘Römische Bronzen aus Brigantium’, 73; on the association with Diana, see Green,
Roman religion and the cult of Diana, 62–63.
125
Green, The gods of the Celts, 84–85, 98.
126
On Diana triformis, see Green, Roman religion and the cult of Diana, 134–35.
127
Wetti, Vita Galli 8 (Krusch, MGH SRM 4, 261); Walahfrid, Vita Galli 8 (Krusch, MGM
SRM 4, 290). The reference to a hunting reserve at Bregenz is significant, because of the associations
121
122
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death of Columbanus’ patron King Theudebert ii, following the battle of Zülpich
in 612, the political situation in Alamannia became unstable, as Columbanus’ enemy Theuderic ii briefly assumed power in Austrasia. Columbanus’ presence may
no longer have been tolerated by the local duke, and so he made his way south
across the Alps into Italy, leaving Gallus behind.128
It has been suggested that the unusual bone buckles dating from the end of the
sixth and the beginning of the seventh century which have been found in male
graves in or near early churches in this region, and which also contain large iron
knives (associated with writing) and iron mountings of hooked wooden staffs,
belonged to clerics from Burgundy.129 A belt-plate discovered in one of these burials from Pfullendorf contained a relic cubicle. These finds may well be related to
the Luxeuil mission to Bavaria, which was initiated by Columbanus’ successor at
Luxeuil, Abbot Eustasius, who was among the Frankish monks who were with
Columbanus in Alamannia. Similar finds have been discovered on the island of
Herrenchiemsee in Bavaria by the archaeologist Hermann Dannheimer, who proposed that it may have been a foundation of Luxeuil.130
The attraction of Rome as a place of pilgrimage looms large in Columbanus’
letters, and it may have been his intention to continue to Rome after establishing a mission station in Bregenz. Jonas implies this in his account of the meeting
between King Theudebert and Columbanus, which led to the settlement in Bregenz.131 Columbanus considered going east to preach to the pagan Wendish Slavs
but seems to have ruled out the idea, following political instability in the region.
Jonas resolved any lingering doubts over Columbanus’ commitment to mission
by the appearance of an angel, who told the holy man to continue to Italy, instead
of preaching to the Slavs.132
with the Diana cult, already discussed in relation to Annegray, and the Vosges hunting reserve of
the Frankish kings.
128
Wetti, Vita Galli 8 (Krusch, MGH, SRM 4, 261); Walahfrid, Vita Galli 8 (Krusch, MGM
SRM 4, 291).
129
Joachim Werner, Die Ausgrabungen in St. Ulrich und Afra in Augsburg 1961–1968, 2 vols (Munich 1977).
130
See the contributions by Hermann Dannheimer in Walter Brugger (ed), Herrenchiemsee:
Kloster – Chorherrstift – Königsschloss (Regensburg 2011). The monastery of Weltenburg, situated
on the Danube, and which may have been established during Eustasius’ mission in Bavaria, is also
located beside a late antique castrum. I am grateful to Professor Dr Stefan Esders for this last piece
of information.
131
Jonas, Vita Columbanii 27 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 211).
132
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 27 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 216–17). On the significance of this passage
for medieval cartography, see Thomas O’Loughlin, ‘Map awareness in the mid-seventh century:
Jonas’ Vita Columbani’, Imago Mundi 62 (2010) 83–86.
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ALEXANDER O’HARA
Rebuilding in Bobbio: Columbanus and the Ruined Basilica
Whereas Jonas emphasized Luxeuil’s barbaric pagan past and Bregenz’s pagan
present, his account of Bobbio is quite different. Jonas gives an idyllic account of
Bobbio, a place that Columbanus had been led to by the guidance of an angel, one
of the rare appearances of angelic intervention in the Vita Columbani.133 Jonas tells
us that King Agilulf gave Columbanus the choice of settling wherever he wished
within Italy.134 This recalls the same scenario of King Sigibert with Annegray and
Theudebert’s offer to Columbanus, which led to the settlement at Bregenz. The
royal foundation-charter for Bobbio makes it clear that Columbanus had to share
the adjacent territory with a Lombard warlord named Sundrarit.135 Columbanus
comes to choose Bobbio through Jocundus, probably a royal agent,136 who tells
him about a ruined basilica:
… in the rural solitude of the Apennines. He knew by experience that miracles
took place there. It was a bountiful fertile place, with refreshing waters, and
an abundance of fish. Ancient tradition called it Bobbio on account of the
stream with this name that flows in this place and which joins another river
called the Trebbia, on the banks of which Hannibal once, while passing the
winter there, suffered the severe loss of men, horses, and elephants.137
Again, Jonas connects the site to the ancient past, but in contrast to Luxeuil this
was a place of abundance, where miracles took place. The reconstruction of the
ruined basilica at Bobbio was accompanied by miracles.138 All of this is in contrast
to Jonas’ other accounts of Columbanus’ monasteries, where no miracles take place
in relation to their foundation, and which shows the pre-eminence, in Jonas’ mind
at least, of Bobbio.139
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 27 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 217).
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 30 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 220).
135
Gian Giacomo Fissore & Antonio Olivieri (eds), Chartae Latinae antiquiores lvii (Zurich
2001) 10a: 61.
136
Alessandro Zironi, Il monastero Longobardo di Bobbio: crocevia di uomini, manoscritti e culture
(Spoleto 2004) 10–11.
137
vir quidam nomine Iocundus ad regem venit, qui regi indicat se in solitudine ruribus Appenninis
basilicam beati Petri apostolorum principis scire, in quam virtutes expertus sit fieri, loca ubertate fecunda, aquis inrigua, piscium copia. Quem locum veterum tradition Bobium nuncupabant ob rivum in eo
loco hoc nomine fluentem amnemque alium profluentem nomine Triveam; super quem olim Hannibal
hiemans, hominum, aequorum, elefantorum atrocissime damna sensit, in Jonas, Vita Columbani i 30
(Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 221).
138
Jonas, Vita Columbani i 30 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 222).
139
Wood, ‘Jonas, the Merovingians, and Pope Honorius’, 105.
133
134
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As with Columbanus’ other sites, Bobbio was situated at a junction on a route
network connecting Pavia with Rome, overlooking a bridge-point over the river
Trebbia.140 Jonas’ mention of a semi-ruined basilica tells us that this had been a
church site of some importance, which had fallen into disrepair.141 The fact that the
basilica had fallen into disuse may indicate that the local population were pagan.142
Alessandro Zironi has highlighted the pastoral element in Bobbio’s establishment.
It lay close to the border with the Byzantine-controlled coastal areas of Liguria,
and there may have been a Lombard military presence in the area.143 Recent excavations at Travo, some twenty kilometres up the valley from Bobbio, have revealed
a Lombard settlement, while Travo was also an ancient thermal healing cult site
dedicated to the goddess Minerva Medica.144 An altar to Diana, now in the Museo
di San Colombano in Bobbio, was also discovered close to Bobbio — unsurprising,
given the forested terrain of the area, the proximity to a thermal healing site, and a
road junction.145 The same characteristics that we have identified in Columbanus’
foundations in the Vosges and at Bregenz are thus also present at Bobbio.
Conclusion
The sites Columbanus chose for his monastic foundations in Merovingian Gaul,
Alamannia, and Lombard Italy were ancient healing cult sites that had associations
with pagan cult practice, which stretched back to antiquity and which were loEleonora Destefanis, ‘Il monastero di Bobbio’, in Gisella Wataghin, Eleonora Destefanis &
Sofia Uggé (eds), Monasteri e territorio: l’Italia settentrionale nell’alto medioevo (Florence 2000)
313–15; Eleonora Destefanis, ‘Bobbio come monastero “di valle” nell’Appennino nord-occidentale
(vii–xii secolo)’, in Letizia Ermini Pani (ed), Le valli dei monaci (Spoleto 2012) 703–32; Flavio G.
Nuvolone (ed), La fondazione di Bobbio nello sviluppo delle comunicazioni tra Langobardia e Toscana
nel Medioevo (Bobbio 2000).
141
basilicam inibi semirutam repperiens: Jonas, Vita Columbani i 30 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae, 221).
Michael Richter, Bobbio in the early middle ages: the abiding legacy of Columbanus (Dublin 2008)
17–18.
142
Zironi, Il monastero Longobardo di Bobbio, 9, 17.
143
Zironi, Il monastero Longobardo di Bobbio, 15–21.
144
On the excavations at Travo, see Roberta Conversi & Eleonora Destefanis, ‘Bobbio e il territorio piacentino tra vi e vii secolo: questioni aperte e nuove riflessioni alla luce dei dati archeologici’,
Archeologia Medievale. Cultura materiale, insediamenti, territorio 41 (2014) 289–312. On the cult
site to Minerva Medica at Travo: Minerva Medica in Valtrebbia. Scienze storiche e scienze naturali
alleate per la scoperta del luogo di culto (Florence 2008).
145
There is also a Saint Martin place-name just south of Bobbio. This merits further investigation, given the dedication at Annegray and the funerary church dedicated to Saint Martin at
Luxeuil, which has been excavated by Sébastien Bully: ‘Luxeuil-les-Bains (Haute-Saône), ancienne
église Saint-Martin’, Bulletin du Centre d’Études Médiévales d’Auxerre 10 (2006) (online at http://
cem.revues.org/352), accessed 2. 6. 2015.
140
170
ALEXANDER O’HARA
cated at junctions or crossroads along Roman road networks, traditionally places
where people could work magic, seek healing, and commune with the spirit world.
Columbanus did not choose these places at random but, no doubt in dialogue with
the rulers who granted him these sites, consciously pursued a strategy that sought
to re-appropriate these sacred places within a Christian pastoral framework.146 In
this, of course, he was not alone, as we know from the strategies employed by his
monastic contemporaries, such as Gregory the Great, and the Roman missionaries
sent to Anglo-Saxon England around this time. Columbanus appears to have been
thinking along very similar lines.147 He was familiar with Gregory’s thought on
pastoral care — he had read the pope’s Regula pastoralis while still in Burgundy.148
Columbanus’ monastic sites, when studied comparatively, have the potential to
reveal fundamental information about the Irish abbot’s ascetic exile on the continent. While Columbanus saw himself foremost as a peregrinus and an outsider
in the communities through which he travelled, this did not preclude preaching
the gospel and carrying out pastoral work wherever he could. Columbanus actually embodied the model of the good pastor, as set out in Gregory the Great’s
Regula pastoralis — the contemplative who engages with the world, but without
sacrificing his own spiritual well-being by doing so.149 The Irish exile pursued both
an active engagement with the leading figures of his age and with the grassroots
communities he encountered. The monasteries he and his royal patrons established
were dynamic centres that sought to provide new meanings to ancient places of
healing and ritual for the local communities of their own time.
Similar dynamics have been proposed by Martin Carver for the early medieval monastic site
of Tarbat at Portmahomack in Scotland: ‘Early Scottish monasteries and prehistory: a preliminary
dialogue’, Scottish Historical Review 88 (2009) 332–51. I am grateful to Dr Alex Woolf for sending
me an offprint.
147
On Gregory’s missionary strategy, see R. A. Markus, ‘Gregory the Great and a papal missionary strategy’, in Derek Baker (ed), The mission of the Church and the propagation of the faith,
Studies in Church History 6 (Oxford 1970) 29–38; R. A. Markus, Gregory the Great and his world
(Cambridge 1997) 177–87.
148
Ep. i 9 (Walker, Columbani opera, 10–11).
149
Gregory the Great, Regula pastoralis iv, in F. Rommel, C. Morel & B. Judic (eds & trans),
Grégoire le Grand, Regula pastoralis, 2 vols, SC 381 & 382 (Paris 1992) ii, 534–40. On Columbanus’
habit of frequently retreating to a hermitage, see Jonas Vita Columbani i 9 (Krusch, Ionae Vitae,
167, 216).
146
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