The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

Columbanus, Epistula 5 (JH 3194)

3. Doleo enim, fateor de infamia cathedrae sancti Petri; scio tamen super me esse negotium, et quod prima fronte sub prunas, ut dicitur, faciem ponam [...] Nos enim sanctorum Petri et Pauli et omnium discipulorum divinum canonem spiritu sancto scribentium discipuli sumus, toti Iberi, ultimi habitatores mundi, nihil extra evangelicam et apostolicam doctrinam recipientes; nullus hereticus, nullus Iudaeus, nullus schismaticus fuit; sed fides catholica, sicut a vobis primum, sanctorum videlicet apostolorum successoribus, tradita est, inconcussa tenetur [...]

11. [...] Nos enim, ut ante dixi, devincti sumus cathedrae sanct Petri; licet enim Roma magna est et vulgata, per istam cathedram tantum apud nos est magna et clara. Quamquam enim Ausonici decoris, acsi augustissimum quoddam ac aetheris procul siunctum climatibus promiscuis, urbis quondam conditae nomen nimio favore omnium prope gentium, totum per orbem usque in occidua transmundalis limitis loca, triundalibus saltuatim licet hyperbolice pelagi vorticibus undique consurgentibus mirum dictu non prohibentibus, longe lateque vulgatum est, ex eo tempore, quo Dei filius homo esse dignatus est, ac in duobus illis ferventissimis Dei spiritus equis, Petro videlicet et Paulo apostolis, quorum cara pignora vos felices fecerunt, per mare gentium equitans turbavit aquas multas et innumerabilium populorum millibus multiplicavit quadrigas, supremus ipse auriga currus illius, qui est Christus, Pater verus, agitator Israel, trans euriporum rheuma, trans delfinum dorsa, trans turgescentem dodrantem ad nos usque pervenit [...]


'3. Indeed I grieve, I confess, for the disgrace of St. Peter's chair; yet I know that the affair is beyond me, and that at the first blush I am, as the saying goes, thrusting my face into the fire... For all we Irish, inhabitants of the world's edge, are disciples of Saints Peter and Paul and of all the disciples who wrote the sacred canon by the Holy Ghost, and we accept nothing outside the evangelical and apostolic teaching; none has been a heretic, none a Judaizer, none a schismatic; but the Catholic Faith, as it was delivered by you first, who are the successors of the holy apostles, is maintained unbroken...'

'11. ... For we, as I have said before, are bound to St. Peter's chair; for though Rome be great and famous, among us it is only on that chair that her greatness and fame depend. For although the name of the city which is Italy's glory, like something most holy and far removed from heaven's common climes, a city once founded to the great joy of almost all nations, has been published far and wide throughout the whole world, even as far as the Western regions of the earth's farther strand, miraculously unhindered by ocean's surging floods, though they leaped and rose beyond measure upon every side, yet from that time when the Son of God deigned to be Man, and on those two most fiery steeds of God's Spirit, I mean the apostles Peter and Paul, whose dear relics have made you favoured, riding over the sea of nations troubled many waters and increased His chariots with countless thousands of peoples, the Most High Pilot of that carriage Who is Christ, the true Father, the Charioteer of Israel, over the channels' surge, over the dolphin's backs, over the swelling flood, reached even unto us...'


Text and translation: Walker 1957, 38-9, 48-9, lightly modified.

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Ecclesiastics - abbots
Ecclesiastics - Popes

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