The Presbyters Project

I.15

Et in supradicto caenubio Luxovio tale quiddam vice alia simile gessit. Nam quidam presbiter ex parrochianis, pater Boboleni, qui nunc Ebobiensi cenubio praeest, Winiocus nomine ad beatum Columbanum venit; eratque ille in saltum cum fratribus ob lignorum oportunitatis parandas. Cumque supradictus Winiocus venisset miransque aspiceret, quanta vi truncum querqui cuneis arieteque partirent, elapsus e trunco cuneus medium frontem secavit hac venarum profluas sanguinis undas produxit. Vidensque [vir Dei] Columbanus detectum os, sanguinem fluentem, statim in terram orans ruit, surgensque salibo inlitum sanum reddidit, ut vix cicatricis vestigium remaneret.

(Krusch 1902, 81)

I.15

On another occasion the saint accomplished something similar at the monastery of Luxeuil. A priest from the diocese called Winioc, the father of Bobolenus, who is now abbot of Bobbio, came to see blessed Columbanus. The saint was in the forest with the brothers in order to exploit the timber. When the aforesaid Winioc arrived and was marvelling at the force with which they split the trunk of an oak with their mallet and wedges, one of the wedges came flying from the trunk and cut him in the middle of his forehead, and drew gushing waves of blood from his veins. Columbanus, seeing the bone exposed and the blood streaming, at once fell on the ground in prayer. Then rising he healed the wound with his saliva so that hardly a trace of a scar remained.

(trans. Wood and O'Hara 2017: 125-126)

Discussion:

According to Wood and O'Hara 2017: 126n185, parrochianus means here more probably a diocesan not parish priest (the parish organization was not yet well developed at the time).

Place of event:

Region

Gaul

City

Luxeuil

About the source:

Author: Jonas of Bobbio
Title: Life of Columbanus, Vita Columbani
Origin: Bobbio (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Jonas was born in Susa (west of Turin) and entered the monastery at Bobbio in 618, a foundation of the famous Irish monk Columbanus. He traveled to Rome in 628 to obtain a papal exemption for the monastery, and he also traveled to the Columbanian monastery at Luxeuil in Gaul. He joined Bishop Amandus in Maastricht in his missionary work in the northern parts of Belgium. Jonas was probably involved in the monastic reform projects that became popular in the circle of King Clovis II and Queen Balthild. Jonas wrote the Life of Columbanus and His Disciples in 642 (Jonas says that he wrote three years after the abbot Bertulf's death that can be dated to 639 and he also alludes to an event from 642).

Edition:

B. Krusch (ed.), Vita Columbani, MGH SRM 4.2 (Hannover, 1902), 1-156

Translation:

I. Wood and A. O'Hara (trans.), Life of Columbanus. Life of John of Reome, and Life of Vedast, Liverpool 2017

Bibliography:

A. O’Hara, Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus, Oxford 2018.

I. Wood, "Jonas of Bobbio, the Abbots of Bobbio from the Life of st. Columbanus", in: Medieval Hagiography: an Anthology, ed. T. Head, New York 2001.

Categories:

Family life - Offspring

PR1087.

Functions within the Church - Parish presbyter

PR1087.

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

PR1087.

Relation with - Monk/Nun

PR1087.

Devotion - Supernatural experience

PR1087.

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2427, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2427