Pope supports European unity

Pope: unity of Europe requires openness to God

Message to 1,400th anniversary celebration of the Irish monk and missionary to Vorarlberg, Columban

Brotherhood and unity in Europe presupposes, in the words of Pope Francis, a culture and society that are "open to God". Today, such a civilization should revive the European continent, he stressed in a message to the anniversary celebration of the Irish monk and missionary to Vorarlberg, Columban (540-615) in the northern Italian Bobbio.

Saint Columba had an image of the church impressed by European ideals and campaigned for a cultural unity of Europe, emphasized the Pope in a message conveyed by the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin . He therefore applies rightly regarded as one of the "fathers of Europe".

Columban, who evangelized in France as well as in the region around Lake Constance in Bregenz, died as abbot in Bobbio in the present province of Piacenza. To contrast him with St Columba (512-97), the missionary in Scotland, he is also known as Columba the Younger.

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