ABSTRACT
The writings of S. Columbanus present the compelling ideas of one such monastic founder. In the violence and insecurity of Merovingian society Columbanus summoned each of his disciples to found his personality on the rock of Christ. The way was by the abandonment of self, for the asceticism which is Columbanus’ dominating theme is of the mind and will, as well as of the body. The rules and penitential of Columbanus apply the philosophy expressed in the sermons. The abbot’s discretion was absolute, but Iona Columcille’s practice of austerity seems to have been less extreme than Columbanus’. Both Columbanus and Columcille were heads of a paruchia of monasteries founded either by themselves or their disciples. Whereas the paruchia of the early Irish bishop of the Canons was a small territory, coterminous with the plebs, the monastic paruchia consisted of scattered houses.
