Everyone has some acquaintance with the Irish missionaries and scholars who from the sixth until the ninth century abandoned their homeland to go on a peregrinata pro Christi nomine and left a lasting imprint on the history of many countries in Western Europe. They included St Columba of Iona, Apostle of Scotland († 597), St Aidan of Lindisfarne, Aposde of Northern England († 651), St Columbanus of Luxeuil and Bobbio († 615), St Gall, after whom Sankt Gallen in Switzerland is named († c. 630), St Fursey († 650) and St Fiachra († 670) of northeast France, St Feuillen († 652) of Belgium, St Kilian and his companions of Würzburg († 689), St Fergal or Virgilius of Salzburg († 784), whose twelfth centenary was celebrated four years ago, and several others.