Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T23:34:28.542Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Columbanus, the Britons, and the Merovingian Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Lynette Olson
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Get access

Summary

The history of British saints on the Continent is notoriously difficult to research – and I deliberately use the word ‘British’ and ‘Briton’ even where others might prefer ‘Breton’, because for the sixth century it is usually impossible to make a definite distinction between those who originated in Great Britain and those who came from Brittany. The majority of our sources are late: the most substantial body of material is hagiographic, but the Vita Winwaloei was written by Wrdestin and Clement in the first years of the ninth century, that of Machutus (Malo) by Bili around 860, and that of Paul Aurelian by Wrmonoc in 884. Of the two Lives of Gildas, the earliest appears to belong to the eleventh century, and the second, by Caradoc of Llancarfan, to the twelfth. The first Life of Samson (VIS) would seem to have been composed initially during the seventh century, which is when the author himself claims to have been active, and there are certain linguistic and terminological features in the Life that support such a date. There may, of course, have been a subsequent moment of what French scholars are now describing as réécriture, but even so the fact that the text makes no mention of a diocese of Dol surely indicates that the work as we have it antedates the foundation of the see, whose existence is not clearly attested before the mid-ninth century.

For Samson, unlike Gildas, Paul Aurelian, Winwaloe (Gwennolé), and Malo, we at least have the evidence of the subscription list of the Council of Paris, which can be dated by means of the other signatories to the period 556 to 573. The Council provides us with a useful point of departure for considering the activities of British ascetics in the Merovingian world. Having considered the early evidence for Samson, I will turn to that relating to the Irish saint Columbanus, which arguably gives us our most extensive block of dateable evidence for the influence of Britons on the Continent, before returning to what the Vita Samsonis has to say about the saint's Continental career, and the ways in which it complements and differs from the Columbanian material.

Type
Chapter

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×