Editing Columbanus (section)

==== Conflict with Frankish Bishops ====
Tensions arose in 603 CE when St. Columbanus and his followers argued with Frankish bishops over the exact date of Easter. (St. Columbanus celebrated Easter according to Celtic rites and the Celtic Christian calendar.)<ref name=":1" />

The Frankish bishops may have feared his growing influence. During the first half of the sixth century, the councils of Gaul had given to bishops absolute authority over religious communities. Celtic Christians, Columbanus and his monks used the Irish Easter calculation, a version of [[Bishop Augustalis]]'s 84-year {{lang|la|[[computus]]}} for determining the date of Easter ([[quartodecimanism]]), whereas the [[Franks]] had adopted the [[Victorius of Aquitaine|Victorian]] cycle of 532 years. The bishops objected to the newcomers' continued observance of their own dating, which – among other issues – caused the end of [[Lent]] to differ. They also complained about the distinct [[Celtic Christianity#Monastic tonsure|Irish tonsure]].

In 602,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Saint Columbanus – Irish Biography |url=https://www.libraryireland.com/biography/SaintColumbanus.php#ftn119 |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=Library Ireland}}</ref> the bishops assembled to judge Columbanus, but he did not appear before them as requested. Instead, he sent a letter to the prelates – a strange mixture of freedom, reverence, and charity – admonishing them to hold synods more frequently, and advising them to pay more attention to matters of equal importance to that of the date of Easter. In defence of his following his traditional paschal cycle, he wrote:

{{blockquote|I am not the author of this divergence. I came as a poor stranger into these parts for the cause of Christ, Our Saviour. One thing alone I ask of you, holy Fathers, permit me to live in silence in these forests, near the bones of seventeen of my brethren now dead.<ref name="smith"/>}}

When the bishops refused to abandon the matter, Columbanus appealed directly to [[Pope Gregory I]]. In the third and only surviving letter, he asks "the holy Pope, his Father" to provide "the strong support of his authority" and to render a "verdict of his favour", apologising for "presuming to argue as it were, with him who sits in the chair of Peter, Apostle and Bearer of the Keys". None of the letters were answered, most likely due to the pope's death in 604.<ref name="edmonds"/>

Columbanus then sent a letter to Gregory's successor, [[Pope Boniface IV]], asking him to confirm the tradition of his elders – if it was not contrary to the Faith – so that he and his monks could follow the rites of their ancestors. Before Boniface responded, Columbanus moved outside the jurisdiction of the Frankish bishops. As the Easter issue appears to end around that time, Columbanus may have stopped celebrating the Irish date of Easter after moving to Italy.<ref name="edmonds"/>