Columba

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Categories: Saints | Post-Roman Scotland | Irish monks

A separate article is titled Columba (constellation).
See Columba (genus) for the genus of doves and pigeons.

Saint Columba (7 December 521 - 9 June 597), the Latinized version of the Irish name Colmcille (Old Irish Columb Cille) meaning "Dove of the church", was the most outstanding among the group of Dark Ages Irish missionary monks who reintroduced Christianity to Scotland and the north of England.

He was born to Fedhlimidh and Eithne of the Uí Néill clan in Gartan, near Lough Gartan, Donegal. On his father's side he was great-great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish king of the fourth century. He became a monk and soon rose in the church hierarchy to the rank of priest. Tradition asserts that, sometime around 560, he became involved in a dispute with Saint Finian over a psalter. Columba copied the manuscript at the scriptorium under Saint Finian, intending to keep the copy. Saint Finnian disputed his right to keep the copy. The dispute eventually led to the pitched Battle of Cul Dremhe in 561, during which many men were killed. (Columba's copy of the psalter has been traditionally associated with the Cathach of St. Columba.) As penance for these deaths, Columba suggested that he work as a missionary in Scotland to help convert as many people as had been killed in the battle. He exiled himself from Ireland and never again saw his native island.

In 563 he travelled to Scotland, where it is reputed he first landed at the southern tip of the Kintyre peninsula, near Southend. However, being still in sight of his native land he moved further north up the west coast of Scotland. In 563 he was granted land to found a monastery on the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland, which became the centre of his evangelising mission to Scotland. Aside from the services he provided as guiding the only outpost of literacy and his reputation as a holy man led to his role as a diplomat among the tribes, there are many stories of miracles which he performed during his work to convert the Picts.

The main source of information about Columba's life is the Vita Colum Cille by Adomnán, the ninth Abbot of Iona, who died in 704. Another early source is a poem in praise of Columba, most probably also composed in the course of the 7th century. It consists of 25 stanzas of four verses of seven syllables each. Without these, Columba would be merely a shadowy name, like St Mael Rhuba, established at Applecross or St Donnan, who was martyred on the Isle of Eigg.

The earliest recorded example of the name Arthur in a British document occurs, as Arturius, in Adomnan's vita. There it is the name of a prince among the Scots, the son of Aidan, king from AD 574.

The vita of Columba is also the source of the first known reference to the Loch Ness Monster. According to Adomnan he came across a group of Picts who were burying a man killed by the monster, and saved a swimmer with the sign of the Cross and the imprecation "You will go no further", at which the beast fled terrified, to the amazement of the assembled Picts who glorified Columba's God.

Through the reputation of its venerable founder and its position as a major European center of learning, Columba's Iona became a place of pilgrimage. A network of Celtic high crosses marking processional routes developed around his shrine at Iona.

Columba’s relics were finally removed in 849 and divided between Alba and Ireland. Relics of Columba were carried before Scottish armies in the reliquary made at Iona in the mid-8th century, called the Brechbennoch. O Columba spes Scotorum... "O Columba, hope of the Scots" begins a 13th century prayer in the Antiphoner of Inchcolm, "Iona of the East".

St Columba's feast day is June 9 and with Saint Patrick, March 17, and St. Brigid, February 1, is one of the three patron saints of Ireland.

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External links

fr:Saint Colomba it:San Columba di Iona he:קולומבה nl:Columba (heilige) ja:コルンバ no:Columba av Iona pl:Kolumba z Iony ru:Колумба