Saint Columbanus of Ireland

Such are the general traits under which history represents to us the government of Saint Columbanus. His death was precious in the eyes of God, and, like that of Sai nt Desle, h saint Desle Godfather of Columbanus and founder of Lure Abbey. is tomb was glorious. One of the most striking wonders by which it pleased heaven to reveal the credit of the holy abbot occurred around the year 936. Hildegard Hildegarde Queen of the Franks and wife of Charlemagne. , wife of Count Hagues, who then possessed the land of Lure, had the reckless thought of appropriating a portion of the relics with which the monastery was enriched. As she could not detach the slightest particle from the body of Saint Desle, she opened the tomb of Saint Columbanus and took a tooth from it; but the little resistance she encountered inspired doubts in her regarding the virtue of this body, and either out of disdain, or to subject the relic to a sort of test, she threw the tooth into the fire. At that very instant she was seized with a violent pain, and neither the fervor of her prayers, nor her eagerness to make amends for the sacrilege, could provide a remedy for it.

Nearly four hundred years later, the account of this miracle still stirred the piety and fait h of Rudolf, Duke of Aus Rodolphe, duc d'Autriche Duke of Austria who acquired relics in 1361. tria, who had come to Lure to suppress the audacity of the Burgundians and ensure the independence of the monastery. He himself tells us what happened on this occasion, how he had the good fortune to obtain a relic of Saint Colomban, and what use he made of it: "We, Rudolf IV, by the grace of God, Duke of Austria, came in person to Lure, on the 15th of the Kalends of April 1361. We entered devoutly into the oratory and chapel of Saint Desle; then, having humbly knelt before the tomb of Saint Colomban, we asked him for some particles of his relics: which he deigned to grant us. Without encountering the slightest resistance, and with the permission of the abbot, we detached several parts of his bones, with the intention of carrying them to the collegiate church that we wish to have built in Vienna, and to enclose and preserve them there w ith th Vienne Episcopal see and principal city of the saint's activity. e respect that is due to them."

Some relics of the holy abbot have even reached us, as a pledge of his protection and a claim to our homage. Religiously collected during the dark days of our Revolution, they were deposited, after the storm, in the church of Lure, where Mgr Gousset, then pro fessor of t Mgr Gousset Professor of theology who authenticated the relics in 1825. heology at the seminary of Besançon, came to perform their recognition in 1825. On January 25, 1838, M. Bergier, vicar-general of Besançon, renewed it in a ceremony where the piety of the people vied with the zeal of the pastor to adorn and bless the remains of the holy founders of Lure. These precious remains were placed in an elegant reliquary which was offered by the generosity of the faithful and which will remain as a testimony of their gratitude.

Excerpt from the Life of the Saints of Franche-Comté, by the professors of the Saint-François-Xavier college of Besançon.