St. Columban was expelled from France for his outspokenness 

St. Columban was born at Leinster, Ireland, about 543. He studied under St. Sinell and then entered the monastery at Bangor. After 30 years as a monk under St. Comgall, he and 12 companions were sent by Comgall to the Continent as missionaries around 591. They went to present-day France and settled in Burgundy. Columban established three monasteries, one of which was Luxeuil, of which he was abbot. 

Columban wrote a strict monastic rule and compiled two penitentials (manuals for confessors stipulating penances for specified sins). One entry in his rule reads: “No matter how wise a man is, if he talks much he will say many things that were better left unsaid.”

Though emphasizing the importance of silence in monastic life, Columban was not afraid to speak out when necessary. He was outspoken against court immorality and the laxity of the local clergy. Because of this Columban and all the monks of Irish origin were expelled from Luxeuil in 610.

Pope Benedict XVI described the episode: “They were escorted to the sea and, at the expense of the court, boarded a ship bound for Ireland. However, not far from shore the ship ran aground and the captain, who saw this as a sign from Heaven, abandoned the voyage and, for fear of being cursed by God, brought the monks back to dry land. Instead of returning to Luxeuil, they decided to begin a new work of evangelization. Thus, they embarked on a Rhine boat and travelled up the river. After a first stop in Tuggen near Lake Zurich they went to the region of Bregenz, near Lake Constance, to evangelize the Alemanni.”

Eventually Columban settled in Bobbio, Italy, and founded a monastery that became a famous centre of learning. St. Columban died at Bobbio on Nov. 23, 615.

At the end of his life, Columban wrote to the Pope: “We Irish, living at the furthest extremity of the world, are the disciples of St. Peter and St. Paul, and of the other apostles who have written under the dictation of the Holy Spirit … The native liberty of my race gives me boldness. With us it is not the person but the right which counts.” 

Author Father Alban Butler wrote, “Among the works of St. Columban, nothing was so much admired as his Rule, which St. Benedict Anian has inserted in his collection of monastic rules, and which is full of wisdom and spiritual instruction. The author lays down for the foundation of his rule, the love of God and of our neighbor, as a general precept, upon which the superstructure of all the rest is to be raised. He inculcates obedience, poverty, disinterestedness, humility, chastity, mortification both external (or of the senses) and internal, or of the will, in doing nothing according to self-will; silence and prudence to discern between good and evil: each of these he enforces and grounds upon some text of scripture of principle of morality.”

Pope Benedict XVI said, “St. Columban’s message is concentrated in a firm appeal to conversion and detachment from earthly goods, with a view to the eternal inheritance. With his ascetic life and conduct free from compromises when he faced the corruption of the powerful, he is reminiscent of the severe figure of St John the Baptist. His austerity, however, was never an end in itself but merely the means with which to open himself freely to God’s love and to correspond with his whole being to the gifts received from him, thereby restoring in himself the image of God, while at the same time cultivating the earth and renewing human society.”

高隆邦出言指責罪人

聖高隆邦在公元543年生於愛爾蘭的利揚省。他隨聖西內爾學習，其後進入班戈隱修院。跟隨聖康格耳作隱修士，30年後，約在公元591年，聖康格耳派遣他和十二位同伴前往大陸作傳教士。他們去了現在的法國，定居於布根地。高隆邦創立了三個隱修院，其中一個在呂克瑟，他是那裡的院長。

高隆邦寫下很嚴謹的修院規章和編製兩項懺悔的法則（聽告解司鐸的手冊，明確說明特定的罪過應作的補贖）。在他的規章中其中一個項目是：「無論一個人是怎樣聰明，如果他說話太多，他會談及很多還是不說的更好的事情。」

雖然隱修院生活中重視小說話，高隆邦在需要的時候是不怕表白的。他厲聲譴責宮廷道德的違紀，神職人員的鬆散。因此在公元610年高隆邦和他所有的愛爾蘭族裔的隱修士都被逐出呂克瑟。

教宗本篤十六世描述說：「宮廷付款，把他們押送到海邊，登上一往愛爾蘭島的船上。可是這艘船擱淺在離岸不遠之處，船長看見這是上天的徵兆，為怕引來天主的詛咒，放棄了這航程把隱修士們送返岸上。他們決定去開始一個新的傳教工作，去取代重返呂克瑟。他們登上萊茵河的一艘般上流而去。第一站是近蘇黎世湖的圖根，其後他們抵達近康斯坦茨湖的布雷根茨地區，為阿拉曼人作福傳。」

最後，高隆邦落腳於意大利的，博比奧創立了一個隱修院，日後成了著名的學習中心。聖高隆邦在公元615年11月23日死於博比奧。

高隆邦在晩年給教宗寫信：「我們，愛爾蘭人，居於地球盡頭，都是聖伯多祿和聖保祿的門徒，也是其他經聖神啟示寫作的宗徒們的門徒。…..我們民族天生的自由給我們無懼的勇氣。為我們，算數的不是一個人，而是權利。」

羅伯·白敏神父寫道：「在高隆邦的著作中，他的規章是最值欽佩的。聖本篤安年把它引入於他收藏的修會規章，這是充滿智慧和靈修指引。作者在他規章的基礎中融合了愛天主，愛近人的一般準則，其他一切都建基於此。他諄諄教誨著服從，清貧，漠視世事，謙遜，貞潔，內外的克己，不隨己意做事；靜默和謹慎去分辨好歹：每一樣他都以聖經道德上的話語為依歸來執行。」

教宗本篤十六世說：「聖高隆邦的訊息是集中於一們穩固的呼籲，環顧要能繼承永恆，要悔改和跟現世事物分離。他以苦行的生命，面對權貴不作妥協的行為，使人想起若翰洗者簡樸的形象。他的苦行不是終向，卻成了一個工具去開放自己於天主的愛，並以整個人來配合從天主接受的恩典，由此讓自己回復到天主的形象，而同時陶冶了這世界和重新了人類社會。」