Hymn to St Columban
Chorus:
Man with a mission, pilgrim for Christ,
Fanning to flame Europe’s embers of faith,
May our call to mission be ever renewed,
Let Christ paint his portrait, Christ paint his portrait,
deep with-i-n our hearts.
To Cleenish and Bangor he followed the Lord,
In silence and study, in work and in prayer.
Soul-friend to many who searched for The Way,
And the depth of his prayer brought him clo-ser to God.
Called deep within to be pilgrim for Christ,
He sailed with twelve brothers, with God as their guide.
To Brittany and to the East he would go,
To fair Annegray, to Luxeuil, and Fontaine.
He loved solitude but crowds called his name,
the rich and the poor, the sick and the lame.
Inspired by the truth, he was fearless of power,
And exile and loss, were the price that he paid.
Led on by zeal where he’d rather not go,
In old age he scaled the high Alpine snows
From Bregenz to Milan and then Bobbio,
Where at last he commended his spir-it to God.