But Columbanus was deeply loyal to the idea of church led by the pope from Rome. He was a decentrer, not a revolutionary. He looked beyond the monastery walls, imagining a Europe united in faith and culture.

Is the narration spoken in the language of English? Listened again, again and again, I only grasped two words but not quite sure of, Italia and Normandy. If what the seemingly kind and learned clergy spoke is English, then it is really a sort of blow for me.

In the letters and words of Columbanus, you would have heard an Irish voice that was learned, sometimes uncompromising and always thoughtful. At Bobbio he established one of the greatest libraries of the medieval world. Columbanus described himself as a decentrer whenever necessary. I can't help to thinking of James Joyce, writing about setting out to forward the uncreated conscience of his race. Columbanus, it seems to me, was doing it centuries before.

By the time he died here in Bobbio, Columbanus had established a thriving monastic centre. And he would look back too, at Ireland with some satisfaction.