About us

So Why St Columban ?

As you will read in our history below, when we set out to establish a new Lodge it had no name, we didn’t even know if it would come to fruition, it was simply a concept and was designated and referred to as Lodge X for the first couple of years. When things started gaining momentum and we officially reached out to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Aberdeenshire East to discuss the possibility opening a new lodge, we started exploring different names. The reigning Provincial Grand Master put forward a suggestion – St. Columban, As the initial group of founder members we’re all keen motorcyclists & members of Widows Sons Scotland and this had been one of the main drivers for opening a new Lodge – The RWPGM felt the name had merit.

So who was St. Columban ?

St. Columban is the Patron Saint of Motorcyclists, a brief history can be read below

St Columban (St. Columbanus – Latinised form meaning White Dove) was was born in Leinster, Ireland in 543. After his conception, his mother was said to have had a vision of her child’s “remarkable genius”. Columban had journeyed to  Ireland’s north-eastern coast, where he entered Bangor Abbey,  there he remained for many years, He was well-educated in the areas of grammar, rhetoric, geometry, and the Holy Scriptures. Abbot Comgall taught him Greek and Latin. He stayed at Bangor until c. 590, when Comgall reluctantly gave him permission to travel to the continent.

Columban was not always drawn to the religious life. He came from a powerful, well-to-do family; he was well-educated and very good looking, which attracted the attention of the young women of Ireland. It was the kind of life most young men dream of, but when a holy woman told him that his freewheeling ways put the salvation of his soul at risk, Columban, perhaps for the first time in his life, examined his actions. Ultimately, he decided to give up all the pleasures he loved and become a monk. His decision caused an uproar in his family. They considered it wasteful that such a promising young man should withdraw from the world, but Columban would not be dissuaded. The day of his departure, Columban’s mother made one final attempt to stop him by physically blocking the door. Somehow, he got around his mother and headed for Bangor Abbey in County Down. According to legend, about a century earlier St. Patrick and his companions had a vision of angels on the future site of the monastery. By the time Columban became a monk, Bangor was renowned for its music and scholarship.
Typically, a monk spent his entire life in the monastery where he had taken his vows, but Irish monks often overlooked that tradition. The barbarian invasions destroyed what was left of Greco-Roman civilization in Western Europe, so Irish monks set out for what is now Britain, France, Germany and the Low Countries, bringing both the Catholic faith and classical civilization to the barbarian tribes. At age 42, Columban asked his abbot to send him as a missionary to the pagan tribes in Gaul. The abbot selected 12 monks and sent them along with Columban.
The monks had great success in what is now the French province of Burgundy, where they converted thousands, including the king. They founded several monasteries, all of which wanted Columban to serve as abbot, but Columban realized he was not born for a sedentary life. Over the next 30 years he made missionary journeys through Germany and Switzerland, then crossed the Alps into northern Italy where he finally settled down at Bobbio. There he rebuilt a dilapidated church dedicated to St. Peter, and built a new monastery beside it. Even then he found it hard to stay put, so he retired to a cave near the abbey where he spent his old age living as a hermit. At his death, St. Columban was buried in his abbey church. His relics are there still, beneath the altar in the crypt.

Because of his love for the open road, Columban was suggested as a patron for bikers by John Oliver, an Anglican bishop and avid motorcyclist. The Vatican declared Columban a patron in 2002.