ABSTRACT
The conversion of the Irish and Anglo-Saxons inevitably involved contact with the Christian Continent. Direct contacts with Gaul and Italy became frequent after Augustine’s mission to Kent (597). A few years earlier there began the Irish Christian custom of undertaking voluntary, penitential exile, which led to the establishment of monasteries abroad. Thus, following Columba’s foundation of Iona, Columbanus founded Annegray and Luxeuil in Gaul and Bobbio in Italy. Other important foundations followed at St Gall and Péronne.
