Wednesday, November 25
ST. COLUMBAN (b Ireland 540, d Italy 615)
Missionary, Abbot, Writer
Considered the greatest of the Irish missionaries, he suffered temptations of the flesh as a youth and decided
to become a hermit then a monk after seeking the advice of a nun. With 12 companions, he set forth for Gaul in 950
to spread the Gospel. He set up many monasteries, championed Catholic orthodoxy against heresies like Arianism,
professed fierce loyalty to the Pope and wrote a monastic rule. Ordered into exile back to Ireland by the Queen
Mother whom he displeased by his moral strictures, he was shipwrecked and landed back in Europe, proceeding
to Italy where he befriended the King of the Lombards. He set up the famous monastery of Bobbio where he would
eventually die. He left behind many writings, including poetry, treatises and his famous Rule.
OR today.
No papal stories on Page 1. International news: Obama's continuing 'councils of war' over Afghanistan;
Iranian president visiting Venezuela pays new lip service to concluding an agreement with IAEA over Iran's
nuclear program; a UN report says 1.5 billion people still do not have the benefits of electricity; an editorial
commentary on the continuing financial crisis. The only papal story in this issue is Archbishop Piero Marini's
acceptance speech of an honorary doctorate in Freiburg on the topic of 'Papal liturgy under Benedict XVI'.
Photo above shows the band of the Vatican Gendarmerie serenading the Pope Monday evening on the feast
of St. Cecilia.
THE POPE'S DAY
General Audience - The Holy Father resumed his catecheses on great Christian writers
of the Middle Ages, with Hugh and Richard, 12th-century theologians of the Abbey
of St. Victor in Paris.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/11/2009 17:30]