“Away, O youth, away! Flee from corruption, into which, as you know, many have fallen.” —an abbess’s well-heeded advice to Columbanus The handsome and hot-headed Columbanus was one of Western Europe’s most successful evangelists ever. According to Columbanus’s first biographer, writing a mere 28 years after his subject’s death, “Columbanus’s fine figure, his splendid color, and his noble manliness made him beloved by all.” And therein lay