Also known as
Apostle of the Picts
Apostle to Scotland
Coim
Colmcille
Colum
Columbkill
Columbkille
Columbus
Columcille
Columkill
Combs
6 January as
one of the Twelve
Apostles of Ireland
17 June (translation
of relics)
Profile
Born to the Irish royalty,
the son of Fedhlimidh and Eithne of the Ui Neill clan. Bard. Miracle worker. Monk at
Moville. Spiritual student of Saint Finnian. Priest.
Itinerant preacher and teacher throughout Ireland and Scotland.
Spiritual teacher of Saint Corbmac, Saint Phelim, Saint Drostan, Saint Colman
McRhoi and Saint Fergna
the White; uncle of Saint Ernan. Travelled to Scotland in 563. Exiled to Iona on
Whitsun Eve, he founded a monastic community
there and served as its abbot for
twelve years. He and the monks of Iona,
including Saint Baithen
of Iona and Saint Eochod,
then evangelized the Picts, converting many,
including King Brude.
Attended the Council of Drumceat, 575.
Legend says he wrote 300
books.
Born
7 December 521 at
Garton, County Donegal, Ireland
9 June 597 at Iona, Scotland,
and buried there
relics translated
to Dunkeld, Scotland in 849
—
—
Youngstown, Ohio, diocese of
—
Pemboke,
Ontario, Canada,
city of
Additional Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Book
of Saints and Heroes, by Leonora Blanche Lang
Book
of Saints and Wonders, by Lady Gregory
Catholic
World: An Irish Saint
Folk-Lore
and Legends of Scotland
Legends
of Saints and Birds, by Agnes Aubrey Hilton
Little
Lives of the Great Saints
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Our
Island Saints, by Amy Steedman
Roman
Martyrology, 1914 edition
Saint
Columba, Apostle of Scotland, by A C Storer
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
Life of Saint Columba, by Mother Frances Alice Monica
Forbes
Life of Saint Columba, by Saint Adamnan
of Iona
download in EPub format
Summary of Principal Events in the Life of Saint
Columba, by Wentworth Huyshe
books
Battersby’s Registry for the Whole World
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
Patron Saints and Their Feast Days, by the Australian Catholic
Truth Society
other sites in english
British Broadcasting Corporation
Christian Today: Saint Columba’s cell discovered by
scientists on Scottish island of Iona
Saint
Columba of Iona Orthodox Christian Monastery
images
audio
The Life of Saint Columba, Apostle of Scotland – audio
book
video
ebooks
Life
of Saint Columba, Apostle of the Highlands, by John Smith, DD
Saint Columba, Apostle of Caledonia, by Charles Forbes,
comte de Montalembert
sitios en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti in italiano
Readings
My Druid is Christ, the son of God, Christ, Son of
Mary, the Great Abbot, The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. – Saint Columba
O Lord, grant us that love which can never die, which
will enkindle our lamps but not extinguish them, so that they may shine in us
and bring light to others. Most dear Savior, enkindle our lamps that they may
shine forever in your temple. May we receive unquenchable light from yo so that
our darkness will be illuminated and the darkness of the world will be made
less. Amen. – Saint Columba
The holy Columba was born of noble parents, having as
his father Fedelmith,
Fergus’ son, and his mother, Ethne by name, whose father may
be called in Latin “son of a ship,” and in the Irish tongue Mac-naue.
In the second year after the battle of Cul-drebene, the forty-second year of
his age, Columba sailed away from Ireland to Britain, wishing to be a pilgrim
for Christ. Devoted even from boyhood to the Christian novitiate and
the study of philosophy,
preserving by God‘s favour
integrity of body and purity of soul, he showed himself, though placed on
earth, ready for the life of heaven; for he was angelic in aspect, refined in
speech, holy in work, excellent in ability, great in counsel. Living as an
island soldier for thirty-four years, he could not pass even the space of a
single hour without applying himself to prayer, or to reading, or to writing or
some kind of work. Also by day and by night, without any intermission, he was
so occupied with unwearying labours of fasts and vigils that the burden of each
several work seemed beyond the strength of man. And with all this he was loving
to everyone, his holy face ever showed gladness, and he was happy in his inmost
heart with the joy of the Holy
Spirit. – Adomnan, from his biography of Columba
MLA Citation
“Saint Columba of Iona“. CatholicSaints.Info. 6
April 2021. Web. 9 June 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-columba-of-iona/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-columba-of-iona/
St. Columba
Abbot of Iona,
b. at Garten, County Donegal, Ireland,
7 December, 521; d. 9 June, 597. He belonged to the ClanO'Donnell, and was of
royal descent. His father's name was Fedhlimdh and that of his mother Eithne.
On his father's side
he was great-great-grandson of Niall of the
Nine Hostages, an Irish king
of the fourth century. His baptismal
name was Colum, which signifies a dove, hence the
latinized form Columba. It assumes another formin Colum-cille, the
suffix meaning "of the Churches". He was baptized at
Tulach-Dubhglaise, now Temple-Douglas, by a priest named
Cruithnechan, who afterwards became his tutor or foster-father. When
sufficiently advanced in letters he entered the monastic school of
Movilla under St.
Finnian who had studied at St.
Ninian's"Magnum Monasterium" on the shores of Galloway. Columba at
Movilla monastic life and received the diaconate.
In the same place his sanctity first
manifested itself by miracles.
By his prayers, tradition says,
he convertedwater into wine for the Holy
Sacrifice (Adam., II, i). Having completed his training at Movilla, he
travelled southwards into Leinster, where he became a pupil of an aged bard
named Gemman. On leaving him, Columbaentered the monastery of Clonard,
governed at that time by Finnian, a remarkable, like his namesake of
Movilla, for sanctity and
learning. Here he imbibed the traditions of the Welsh
Church, for Finnian had been trained in theschools of St.
David. Here also he became one those
twelve Clonard disciples known in
subsequent history as theTwelve
Apostles of Ireland.
About this same time he was promoted to the priesthood by
Bishop Etchen of Clonfad. The story that St.
Finnian wished Columba to be consecrated bishop,
but through a mistake only priest'sorders were
conferred, is regarded by competent authorities as the invention of a
later age (Reeves, Adam., 226).
Another preceptor of Columba was St.
Mobhi, whose monastery at
Glasnevin was frequented by such famous men as St.
Canice, St.
Comgall, and St. Ciaran. A pestilence which devastated Ireland in
544 caused the dispersion of Mobhi's disciples,
and Columba returned to Ulster, the land of his kindred. The
following years were marked by the foundation of several
important monasteries, Derry, Durrow,
and Kells. Derry and Durrow were always specially dear
to Columba. While at Derry it is said that he planned a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem,
but did not proceed farther than Tours. Thence he brought a copy of
those gospels that had lain on the bosom ofSt.
Martin for the space of 100 years. This relic was
deposited in Derry (Skene, Celtic Scotland,
II, 483). Columbaleft Ireland and
passed over into Scotland in
563. The motives for this migration have been frequently discussed.Bede simply
says: "Venit de Hibernia . . . praedicaturus verbum Dei" (H. E., III,
iv); Adarnnan: "pro Christo perigrinari volens enavigavit" (Praef.,
II). Later writers state that his departure was due to the fact that he
had induced the clan Neill to rise and engage in battle
against King Diarmait at Cooldrevny in 561. The reasons
alleged for this action of Columba are: (1) The king's
violation of the right of sanctuary belonging to Columba'sperson as
a monk on
the occasion of the murder of
Prince Curnan, the saint's kinsman;
(2) Diarmait's adversejudgment concerning the
copy Columba had secretly made of St.
Finnian's psalter. Columba is said to have supported by
his prayers the men of
the North who were fighting while Finnian did the same
for Diarmait's men. The latter were defeated with a loss of three
thousand. Columba's conscience smote
him, and he had recourse to his confessor, St. Molaise, who imposed this
severe penance:
to leave Ireland and
preach the Gospel so as to gain as many souls to Christ as
lives lost at Cooldrevny, and never more to look upon his native land.
Some writers hold that these are legends invented by the bards and
romancers of a later age, because there is no mention of them by the
earliest authorities (O'Hanlon,
Lives of the Ir. Saints, VI, 353). Cardinal
Moran accepts no other motive than that assigned by Adamnan,
"a desire to carry the Gospel to a pagan nation
and to win souls toGod".
(Lives of Irish Saints in Great Britain, 67). Archbishop Healy, on
the contrary, considers that the saint did
incite to battle, and exclaims: "O felix culpa . . . which produced
so much good both for Erin and Alba (Schools and
Scholars, 311).
Iona
Columba was in his forty-fourth year when he departed
from Ireland.
He and his twelve companions crossed the sea in a currach of wickerwork covered
with hides. They landed at Iona on
the eve of Pentecost, 12 May, 563. The island, according
to Irish authorities,
was granted to the monastic colonists by
King Conall of Dalriada,Columba's kinsman. Bede attributes the gift to
the Picts (Fowler, p. lxv). It was a convenient situation, being midway between
his countrymen along the western coast and the Picts of Caledonia. He and
his brethren proceeded at once to erect their humble dwellings,
consisting of a church, refectory, and cells, constructed of wattles and
rough planks. After spending some years among
the Scots of Dalriada, Columba began the great work of
his life, the conversion of the Northern Picts. Together with St.
Comgall and St.
Canice (Kenneth) he visited King Brude in his royal
residence near Inverness. Admittance was refused to the missionaries,
and the gates were closed and bolted, but before the sign
of the cross the bolts flew back, the doors stood open, and themonks entered
the castle. Awe-struck by so evident a miracle,
the king listened to Columba with reverence; and was baptized.
The people soon followed the example set them, and thus was inaugurated a
movement that extended itself to the whole of Caledonia. Opposition was
not wanting, and it came chiefly from the Druids, who officially
represented the paganism of
the nation.
The thirty-two remaining years
of Columba's life were mainly spent in preaching the Christian
Faith to the inhabitants of the glens and wooded straths of
Northern Scotland.
His steps can be followed not only through the Great Glen, but eastwards also,
into Aberdeenshire. The "Book of Deer" (p. 91) tells us how he
and Drostancame, as God had
shown them to Aberdour in Buchan, and how Bede,
a Pict, who was high steward of Buchan, gave them the town in freedom
forever. The preaching of the saint was confirmed by
many miracles,
and he provided for the instruction of his converts by the erection
of numerous churches and monasteries.
One of his journeys brought him to Glasgow,
where he met St.
Mungo, the apostle of Strathclyde. He frequently visited Ireland;
in 570 he attended the synod of Drumceatt, in company with
the Scottish King Aidan, whom shortly before he had
inaugurated successor of Conall of Dalriada. When not
engaged in missionary journeys, he always resided at Iona.
Numerous strangers sought him there, and they received help for soul and
body. From Iona he
governed those numerous communities in Ireland and Caledonia,
which regarded him as their father and founder. This accounts for the unique
position occupied by the successors of Columba, who governed the
entireprovince of the Northern Picts although they had received priest's orders only.
It was considered unbecoming that any successor in the office
of Abbot of Iona should
possess a dignity higher than of the founder. The bishopswere
regarded as being of a superior order, but subject nevertheless to the jurisdiction of
the abbot.
At Lindisfarne the monks reverted
to the ordinary law and were subject to a bishop (Bede,
H.E., xxvii).
Columba is said never to have spent an hour without
study, prayer,
or similar occupations. When at home he was frequently engaged in transcribing.
On the eve of his death he was engaged in the work of transcription.
It is stated that he wrote 300 books with his own hand, two of which, "The
Book of Durrow" and the psalter called "The Cathach",
have been preserved to the present time. The psalter enclosed in a
shrine, was originally carried into battle by the O'Donnells as a pledge of
victory. Several of his compositions in Latin and Irish have
come down to us, the best known being the poem "Altus Prosator",
published in the "Liber Hymnorum", and also in another form by
the late Marquess
of Bute. There is not sufficient evidence to prove that the rule
attributed to him was really his work.
In the spring of 597 he knew that
his end was approaching. On Saturday, 8 June, he ascended the hill
overlooking his monastery and blessed for
the last time the home so dear to him. That afternoon he was present at Vespers,
and later, when the bell summoned the community to the midnight
service, he forestalled the others and entered the church without
assistance. But he sank before the altar, and in that place breathed forth
his soulto God,
surrounded by his disciples. This happened a little after midnight between
the 8th and 9th of June, 597. He was in the seventy-seventh year of his age.
The monks buried him
within the monastic
enclosure. After the lapse of a century or more his bones were disinterred
and placed within a suitable shrine. But as Northmen andDanes more
than once invaded the island, the relics of
St. Columba were carried for purposes of safety intoIreland and
deposited in the church of Downpatrick. Since the twelfth
century history is silent regarding them. His books and
garments were held in veneration at Iona,
they were exposed and carried in procession,
and were the means of working miracles (Adam.,
II, xlv). His feast is
kept in Scotland and Ireland on
the 9th of June. In the Scottish Province of st Andrews
and Edinburgh there is a Mass and Office proper
to the festival, which ranks as a double of the second class with
an octave. He is patron of two Scottish dioceses Argyle and
the Isles andDunkeld.
According to tradition St. Columba was tall and of dignified
mien. Adamnan says:
"He was angelic in appearance, graceful in
speech, holy in work" (Praef., II). His voice was strong, sweet,
and sonorous capable at times of being heard at a great distance. He inherited
the ardent temperament and strong passions of his race. It has been
sometimes said that he was of an angry and vindictive spirit not
only because of his supposed part in the battle of Cooldrevny but
also because of irritant related by Adamnan (II,
xxiii sq.) But the deeds that roused his indignation were wrongs done
to others, and the retribution that overtook the perpetrators was rather
predicted than actually invoked. Whatever faults were inherent in
his nature he overcame and he stands before the world conspicuous
for humility and charity not
only towards has brethren, but towards strangers also. He was generous and
warm-hearted, tender and kind even to dumb creatures. He was ever
ready to sympathize with thejoys and sorrows of others. His fasts and vigils were
carried to a great extent. The stone pillow on which he slept is said
to be still preserved in Iona.
His chastity of body and purity of mind are extolled by all
his biographers. Notwithstanding his wonderful austerities, Adamnan assures
us he was beloved by all, "for a holy joyousness that
ever beamed from his countenance revealed the gladness with
which the Holy Spirit filled his soul". (Praef.,
II.)
Influence, and attitude towards Rome
He was not only a great missionary saint who won a whole kingdom to Christ, but he was a statesman, a scholar, a poet, and the founder of numerous churches and monasteries. His name is dear to Scotsmen and Irishmenalike. And because of his great and noble work even non-Catholics hold his memory in veneration. For the purposes of controversy it has been maintained some that St. Columba ignored papal supremacy, because he entered upon his mission without the pope's authorization. Adamnan is silent on the subject; but his work is neither exhaustive as to Columba's life, nor does it pretend to catalogue the implicit and explicit belief of hispatron. Indeed, in those days a mandate from the pope was not deemed essential for the work which St. Columba undertook. This may be gathered from the words of St. Gregory the Great, relative to the neglect of theBritish clergy towards the pagan Saxons (Haddan and Stubbs, III, 10). Columba was a son of the Irish Church, which taught from the days of St. Patrick that matters of greater moment should be referred to the Holy See for settlement. St. Columbanus, Columba's fellow-countryman and fellow-churchman, asked for papal judgment(judicium) on the Easter question; so did the bishops and abbots of Ireland. There is not the slightest evidence toprove that St. Columba differed on this point from his fellow-countrymen. Moreover, the Stowe Missal, which, according to the best authority, represents the Mass of the Celtic Church during the early part of the seventh century, contains in its Canon prayers for the pope more emphatic than even those of the Roman Liturgy. To the further objection as to the supposed absence of the cultus of Our Lady, it may be pointed out that the same Stowe Missal contains before its Canon the invocation "Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis", which epitomizes all Catholicdevotion to the Blessed Virgin. As to the Easter difficulty Bede thus sums up the reasons for the discrepancy: "He [Columba] left successors distinguished for great charity, Divine love, and strict attention to the rules ofdiscipline following indeed uncertain cycles in the computation of the great festival of Easter, because, far away as they were out of the world, no one had supplied them with the synodal decrees relating to the Paschalobservance" (H.E., III, iv). As far as can be ascertained no proper symbolical representation of St. Columba exists. The few attempts that have been made are for the most part mistaken. A suitable pictorial representation would exhibit him, clothed in the habit and cowl usually worn by the Basilian or Benedictine monks, with Celtictonsure and crosier. His identity could be best determined by showing him standing near the shell-strewn shore, with currach hard by, and the Celtic cross and ruins of Iona in the background.
Edmonds, Columba. "St. Columba." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 15 Mar.
2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04136a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. Remy
Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
(also known as Colum, Columbus, Combs, Columkill, Columcille, Colmcille)
Born in Garton, County Donegal, Ireland, c. 521; died June 9, 597.
"Alone with none but Thee, my God,
I journey on my way;
What need I fear when Thou art near,
Oh King of night and day?
More safe am I within Thy hand
Than if a host did round me stand."
--Attributed to Saint Columba.
"We know for certain that Columba left successors distinguished for their purity of life, their love of God, and their loyalty to the rules of the monastic life." --The Venerable Bede.
Ireland has many saints and three great ones: Patrick, Brigid, and Columba. Columba outshines the others for his pure Irishness. He loved Ireland with all his might and hated to leave it for Scotland. But he did leave it and laid the groundwork for the conversion of Britain. He had a quick temper but was very kind, especially to animals and children. He was a poet and an artist who did illumination, perhaps some of those in the Book of Kells itself. His skill as a scribe can be seen in the Cathach of Columba at the Irish Academy, which is the oldest surviving example of Irish majuscule writing. It was latter enshrined in silver and bronze and venerated in churches.
About the time that Patrick was taken to Ireland as a slave, Columba was born. He came from a race of kings who had ruled in Ireland for six centuries, directly descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, and was himself in close succession to the throne. From an early age he was destined for the priesthood; he was given in fosterage to a priest. After studying at Moville under Saint Finnian and then at Clonard with another Saint Finnian, he surrendered his princely claims, he became a monk at Glasnevin under Mobhi and was ordained.
He spent the next 15 years preaching and teaching in Ireland. As was the custom in those days, he combined study and prayer with manual labor. By his own natural gifts as well as by the good fortune of his birth, he soon gained ascendancy as a monk of unusual distinction. By the time he was 25, he had founded no less than 27 Irish monasteries, including those at Derry (546), Durrow (c. 556), and probably Kells, as well as some 40 churches.
Columba was a poet, who had learned Irish history and poetry from a bard named Gemman. He is believed to have penned the Latin poem Altus Prosator and two other extant poems. He also loved fine books and manuscripts. One of the famous books associated with Columbia is the Psaltair, which was traditionally the Battle Book of the O'Donnells, his kinsmen, who carried it into battle. The Psaltair is the basis for one of the most famous legends of Saint Columba.
It is said that on one occasion, so anxious was Columba to have a copy of the Psalter that he shut himself up for a whole night in the church that contained it, transcribing it laboriously by hand. He was discovered by a monk who watched him through the keyhole and reported it to his superior, Finnian of Moville. The Scriptures were so scarce in those days that the abbot claimed the copy, refusing to allow it to leave the monastery. Columba refused to surrender it, until he was obliged to do so, under protest, on the abbot's appeal to the High King Diarmaid, who said: "Le gach buin a laogh" or "To every cow her own calf," meaning to every book its copy.
An unfortunate period followed, during which, owing to Columba's protection of a refugee and his impassioned denunciation of an injustice by King Diarmaid, war broke out between the clans of Ireland, and Columba became an exile of his own accord. Filled with remorse on account of those who had been slain in the battle of Cooldrevne, and condemned by many of his own friends, he experienced a profound conversion and an irresistible call to preach to the heathen. Although there are questions regarding Columba's real motivation, in 563, at the age of 42, he crossed the Irish Sea with 12 companions in a coracle and landed on a desert island now known as Iona (Holy Island) on Whitsun Eve. Here on this desolate rock, only three miles long and two miles wide, in the grey northern sea off the southwest corner of Mull, he began his work; and, like Lindisfarne, Iona became a center of Christian enterprise. It was the heart of Celtic Christianity and the most potent factor in the conversion of the Picts, Scots, and Northern English.
Columba built a monastery consisting of huts with roofs of branches set upon wooden props. It was a rough and primitive settlement. For over 30 years he slept on the hard ground with no pillow but a stone. But the work spread and soon the island was too small to contain it. From Iona numerous other settlements were founded, and Columba himself penetrated the wildest glens of Scotland and the farthest Hebrides, and established the Caledonian Church. It is reputed that he anointed King Aidan of Argyll upon the famous stone of Scone, which is now in Westminster Abbey. The Pictish King Brude and his people were also converted by Columba's many miracles, including driving away a water "monster" from the River Ness with the Sign of the Cross. Columba is said to have built two churches at Inverness.
Just one year before Columba's migration to Iona, Saint Moluag established his mission at Lismore on the west coast of Scotland. There are constant references to a rivalry between the two saints over spheres of influence, which are probably without foundation. Columba was primarily interested in Gaelic life in Scotland, while Moluag was drawn to the conversion of the Picts.
While leading the Irish in Scotland, Columba appears to have retained some sort of overlordship over his monasteries in Ireland. About 580, he participated in the assembly of Druim-Cetta in Ulster, where he mediated about the obligations of the Irish in Scotland to those in Ireland. It was decided that they should furnish a fleet, but not an army, for the Irish high-king. During the same assembly, Columba, who was a bard himself, intervened to effectively swing the nation away from its declared intention of suppressing the Bardic Order. Columba persuaded them that the whole future of Gaelic culture demanded that the scholarship of the bards be preserved. His prestige was such that his views prevailed and assured the presence of educated laity in Irish Christian society.
He is personally described as "A man well-formed, with powerful frame; his skin was white, his face broad and fair and radiant, lit up with large, gray, luminous eyes. . . ." (Curtayne). Saint Adamnan, his biographer wrote of him: "He had the face of an angel; he was of an excellent nature, polished in speech, holy in deed, great in counsel . . . loving unto all." It is clear that Columba's temperament changed dramatically during his life. In his early years he was intemperate and probably inclined to violence. He was extremely stern and harsh with his monks, but towards the end he seems to have softened. Columba had great qualities and was gay and lovable, but his chief virtue lay in the conquest of his own passionate nature and in the love and sympathy that flowed from his eager and radiant spirit.
On June 8, 597, Columba was copying out the psalms once again. At the verse, "They that love the Lord shall lack no good thing," he stopped, and said that his cousin, Saint Baithin must do the rest. Columba died the next day at the foot of the altar. He was first buried at Iona, but 200 years later the Danes destroyed the monastery. His relics were translated to Dunkeld in 849, where they were visited by pilgrims, including Anglo-Saxons of the 11th century.
The year Columba died was the same year in which Saint Gregory the Great sent Saint Augustine of Canterbury to convert England. Perhaps because the Roman party gained ascendancy at the Synod of Whitby, much of the credit that belongs to Saint Columba and his followers for the conversion of Britain has been attributed to Augustine. It should not be forgotten that both saints played important roles.
Saint Columba is also important as patron of the Knights of Saint Columba, known in the United States as the Knights of Columbus and by other names in various parts of the world. Like Saint Malachy, whose apocryphal prophecies concerning the succession of popes are universally known, Saint Columba left a series of predictions about the future of Ireland. These were published in 1969 by Peter Blander under the title, The Prophecies of Saint Malachy and Saint Columbkille (4th ed. 1979, Colin Smythe, Gerrards Cross Buckshire).
Unsurprisingly, devotion to Columba is especially strong in Derry. On April 13, the king signed the Catholic Emancipation Act in London. On that same day in Derry, the statue of a Protestant leader of the siege of Derry, which stood on the city walls was smashed apart of its own accord. The destruction of this symbol of dominion was attributed to the intercession of Saint Columba (Anderson, Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill, Menzies, Montague, Simpson).
The following legends about Saint Columba are the gentlest things recorded about the heroic and tempestuous abbot who founded Iona. The countryside where he was fathered is Gartan in Donegal, at the ingoing of the mountains and the great lake; a gentle countryside, and more apt a birthplace for the bird than the saint. The life written about 690 by Saint Adamnan, himself an Irishman and an abbot of Iona, is a rugged piece of work: but the deathdays of Saint Columba, and the crowding torches that discovered him dying in the dark before the high altar at midnight on June 9, are one of the tidemarks in medieval prose. The work itself owes much to Adamnan's imagination and more to unreliable sources, but it is a primarily a narrative of the miracles worked through Columba.
In the first story Columba bids his brother monk to go in three days to a far hilltop and wait, "'For when the third hour before sunset is past, there shall come flying from the northern coasts of Ireland a stranger guest, a crane, wind tossed and driven far from her course in the high air; tired out and weary she will fall upon the beach at thy feet and lie there, her strength nigh gone. Tenderly lift her and carry her to the steading near by; make her welcome there and cherish her with all care for three days and nights; and when the three days are ended, refreshed and loath to tarry longer with us in our exile, she shall take flight again towards that old sweet land of Ireland whence she came, in pride of strength once more. And if I commend her so earnestly to thy charge, it is that in the countryside where thou and I were reared, she too was nested.'"
The brother obeyed and all happened as Columba had foretold. "And on his return that evening to the monastery the Saint spoke to him, not as one questioning but as one speaks of a thing past. 'May God bless thee, my son,' said he, 'for thy kind tending of this pilgrim guest; that shall make no long stay in her exile, but when three suns have set shall turn back to her own land.'" And so it happened (Adamnan; also in Curtayne).
The second story recalls how Columba's heart would be touched when he saw a sad child. From time to time he would leave Iona to preach to the Picts of Scotland. "Once he visited a Pictish ruler who was also a druid, or pagan priest. When he was there he noticed a thin little girl with a face like a ghost. He asked who she was and was told that she was just a slave from Ireland. The way it was said seemed to mean: 'Why do you ask such silly questions? Who cares who she is, as long as she brushes and scrubs and does what she is told?'
"Columcille was troubled; he could see plainly that the little girl was miserable. So he asked the druid to give her freedom and he would get her home to Ireland. The druid refused. Columcille went away with a picture of an unhappy little girl in his mind.
"Shortly afterward, the important druid became ill; there was nobody near to tell him what to do to get well so he sent for the Abbot of Iona, who had a great reputation for curing people. Columcille did not leave Iona but sent a message back that he would cure the druid if he let the little girl free.
"The druid was angry and again refused. 'What on earth is he troubling himself for about that little bit of a good-for-nothing?' grumbled the druid as he tossed about in bed. But the messenger had hardly left for Iona with the refusal when the druid got worse; he had much pain and he thought he would die. So he sent off another message to Columcille: 'Yes, you can have the slave-girl, only come and do something for me. I am very bad and will die if you don't come soon.'" Columcille, however, did not trust the priest, so he sent two of his monks to bring the girl back. When the girl was safe, Columcille set out for the druid's house and cured him of his sickness (Curtayne).
Anther story occurs in May, when Columba set out in a cart to visit the brethren at their work. He found them busy in the western fields and said, 'I had a great longing on me this April just now past, in the high days of the Easter feast, to go to the Lord Christ; and it was granted me by Him, if I so willed. But I would not have the joy of your feast turned into mourning, and so I willed to put off the day of my going from the world a little longer.' The monks were saddened to hear this and Columba tried to cheer them. He blessed the island and islanders and returned in his cart to the monastery.
On that Saturday, the venerable old saint and his faithful Diarmid went to bless a barn and two heaps of grain stored therein. Then with a gesture of thanksgiving, he spoke, 'Truly, I give my brethren at home joy that this year, if so be I might have to go somewhere away from you, you will have what provision will last you the year.'
Diarmid was grieved to hear this again and the saint promised to share his secret. "'In the Holy Book this day is called the Sabbath, which is, being interpreted, rest. And truly is this day my Sabbath, for it is the last day for me of this present toilsome life, when from all weariness of travail I shall take my rest, and at midnight of this Lord's Day that draws n, I shall, as the Scripture saith, go the way of my fathers. For now my Lord Jesus Christ hath deigned to invite me; and to Him, I say, at this very midnight and at His own desiring, I shall go. For so it was revealed to me by the Lord Himself.' At this sad hearing his man began bitterly to weep, and the Saint tried to comfort him as best he might.
"And so the Saint left the barn, and took the road back to the monastery; and halfway there sat down to rest. Afterwards on that spot they set a cross, planted upon a millstone, and it is to be seen by the roadside to this day. And as the Saint sat there, a tired old man taking his rest awhile, up runs the white horse, his faithful servitor that used to carry the milk pails, and coming up to the Saint he leaned his head against his breast and began to mourn, knowing as I believe from God Himself--for to God every animal is wise in the instinct his Maker hath given him--that his master was soon to go from him, and that he would see his face no more. And his tears ran down as a man's might into the lap of the Saint, and he foamed as he wept.
"Seeing it, Diarmid would have driven the sorrowing creature away, but the Saint prevented him, saying, 'Let be, let be, suffer this lover of mine to shed on my breast the tears of his most bitter weeping. Behold, you that are a man and have a reasonable soul could in no way have known of my departing if I had not but now told you; yet to this dumb and irrational beast, his Creator in such fashion as pleased Him has revealed that his master is to go from him.' And so saying, he blessed the sad horse that had served him, and it turned again to its way" (Adamnan; also in Curtayne).
In art, Saint Columba is depicted with a basket of bread and an orb of the world in a ray of light. He might also be pictured with an old, white horse (Roeder). He is venerated in Dunkeld and as the Apostle of Scotland (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0609.shtml#feli
.jpg)
St. Columba, or Columkille, Abbot in Ireland
A.D. 597.
From Bede, Hist. l. 3, c. 4, and his life, written by
Cummeneus, surnamed Albus, abbot of Hy, (who, according to the Four Masters,
died in 668, extant in Mabillon, sæc. Ben. 1, p. 361, and the same enlarged
into three books by Adamnon, abbot of Hy in 700, 1 published
by Canisius, Lect. Antiq. t. 5, and by Surius. Both these lives abound with
relations of wonderful miracles. William, bishop of Derry, in his Irish Historical
Library, p. 85, mentions a poem of good authority, called the Amrha, or Vision
of St. Columkille, which was written soon after his death, and which records
his principal actions conformable to these authors. See also Bishop Tanner de
Scriptor. Brit. p. 192. Sir James Ware, l. 1, Scriptor. Hibern. p. 14. Item in
Monasteriologiâ, Hibernicâ, p. 186. Colgan in MSS. ad 9 Jun. The works ascribed
to him in an Irish MS. in the Bodleian library, Oxford; and Leabhar
Lecan, i. e. Book of Lecane, a very old and precious Irish MS. of
Antiquities of that island in the Irish college at Paris, p. 58.
ST. COLUMBA, commonly pronounced COLME, was one of the
greatest patriarchs of the monastic Order in Ireland, and the apostle of the
Picts. To distinguish him from other saints of the same name, he was surnamed
Columkille, from the great number of monastic cells, called by the Irish
Killes, of which he was the founder. He was of most noble extraction from Neil,
and was born at Gartan, in the county of Tyrconnel, in 521. He learned from his
childhood that there is nothing great, nothing worth our esteem or pursuit,
which does not advance the divine love in our souls, to which he totally
devoted himself with an entire disengagement of his heart from the world, and
in perfect purity of mind and body. He learned the divine scriptures and the
lessons of an ascetic life under the holy bishop St. Finian, in his great
school of Cluain-iraird. Being advanced to the Order of priesthood in 546, he
began to give admirable lessons of piety and sacred learning, and in a short
time formed many disciples. He founded, about the year 550, the great monastery
of Dair-Magh, now called Durrogh, 2 which
original name signifies Field of Oaks, and besides many smaller, those of Doire
or Derry in Ulster, and of Sord or Swords, about six miles from Dublin. 3 St.
Columba composed a rule which, as Usher, Tanner, and Sir James Ware inform us,
is still extant in the old Irish. This rule he settled in the hundred
monasteries which he founded in Ireland and Scotland. It was chiefly borrowed
from the ancient oriental monastic institutes, as the inquisitive Sir Roger
Twisden observes, 4 of
all the old British and Irish monastic Orders.
King Dermot or Dermitius, being offended at the zeal
of St. Columba in reproving public vices, the holy abbot left his native
country, and passed into North-Britain, now called Scotland. 5 He
took along with him twelve disciples, and arrived there, according to Bede, in
the year of Christ 565, the ninth of the reign of Bridius, the son of
Meilochon, the most powerful king of the Picts; which nation the saint
converted from idolatry to the faith of Christ by his preaching, virtues, and
miracles. But this we are to understand only of the northern Picts and the
Highlanders, separated from the others by Mount Grampus, the highest part of
which is called Drum-Albin; for Bede tells us, in the same place that the
southern Picts had received the faith long before by the preaching of St.
Ninyas, the first bishop of Whitherne in Galloway; whose life see September
16th.
The Picts having embraced the faith, gave St. Columba
the little island of Hy or Iona, called from him Y-colm-kille, twelve miles
from the land, in which he built the great monastery which was for several ages
the chief seminary of North-Britain, and continued long the burying place of
the kings of Scotland, with the bodies of innumerable saints, which rested in
that place. 6 Out
of this nursery St. Columba founded several other monasteries in Scotland. In
the same school were educated the holy bishops Aidan, Finian, and Colman, who
converted to the faith the English Northumbers. This great monastery several
ages afterwards embraced the rule of St. Bennet. 7
St. Columba’s manner of living was always most
austere. He lay on the bare floor with a stone for his pillow, and never
interrupted his fast. Yet his devotion was neither morose nor severe. His
countenance always appeared wonderfully cheerful, and bespoke to all that
beheld him the constant interior serenity of his holy soul, and the unspeakable
joy with which it overflowed from the presence of the Holy Ghost. Such was his
fervour, that in whatever he did, he seemed to exceed the strength of man; and
as much as in him lay he strove to suffer no moment of his precious time to
pass without employing it for the honour of God, principally either in praying,
reading, writing, or preaching. His incomparable mildness and charity towards
all men, and on all occasions, won the hearts of all who conversed with him;
and his virtues, miracles, and extraordinary gift of prophecy, commanded the
veneration of all ranks of men. He was of such authority, that neither king nor
people did anything without his consent. When King Aedhan or Aidanus succeeded
to his cousin Conall in the throne of British Scotland in 574, he received the
royal insignia from St. Columba. Four years before he died, St. Columba was
favoured with a vision of angels which left him in many tears, because he
learned from those heavenly messengers that God, moved by the prayers of the
British and Scottish churches, would prolong his exile on earth yet four years.
Having continued his labours in Scotland thirty-four years, he clearly and
openly foretold his death, and on Saturday the 9th of June said to his disciple
Diermit: “This day is called the Sabbath, that is, the day of rest, and such
will it truly be to me; for it will put an end to my labours.” He was the first
in the church at Matins at midnight; but knelt before the altar, received the
viaticum, and having given his blessing to his spiritual children, sweetly
slept in the Lord in the year 597, the seventy-seventh of his age. His body was
buried in this island, but some ages after removed to Down in Ulster, and laid
in one vault with the remains of St. Patrick and St. Brigit. The great
monastery of Durrogh, in King’s County, afterwards embraced the rule of the
Canons Regular, as did also the houses founded by St. Brendan, St. Comgal,
&c. He was honoured both in Ireland and Scotland, among the principal patrons
of those countries, and is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the 9th of
June, but in some calendars on the 7th, which seems to have been the day of his
death. 8
How many saints hid themselves in solitudes, that they
might devote themselves wholly to the service of God! But many, even after a
Christian education, pass their whole lives in dissipation and vanity, without
being able to find leisure for a daily serious meditation or the reading of a
good book, as if they made it their study to unlearn the only thing which it
concerns them to know, and to lose the only thing for which they
exist—religion, or the worship of God.
Note 1. See the life of this St. Adamnon on the
23d of September. [back]
Note 2. This Monastery of Durrogh, situated in
King’s County, had afterwards embraced the Order of Regular Canons, according
to the rule of St. Austin. See Sir James Ware, Antiquit. Hiber. c. 17, p. 186.
This diligent antiquary mentions a MS. copy of the four gospels, of St. Jerom’s
translation, adorned with silver plates, which was formerly preserved in this
abbey, and is still extant; in the beginning of which is an inscription, which
testifies that it was written by St. Columba in the space of twelve
days. [back]
Note 3. Sord, though now in Leinster, was at that
time in the kingdom of Meath: for Meath was a distinct province for many ages,
and was annexed to Leinster only since the arrival of the English. [back]
Note 4. In his Rise of the Monastic State, p.
36. [back]
Note 5. The Scots settled first in Ireland, which
from them obtained the name of Scotia. They were a colony from Spain, who
invaded that island in an early age, and probably were of Scythian origin; for
their name seems to be of the same original with that of the Scythians, derived
perhaps from the Teutonic or Saxon word Scytan, to shoot; in which martial
exercise all the northern nations excelled. Bede tells us the Picts were
Scythians; but probably applied to them what belonged to the Scots; for the
Picts seem to have been Britons, and were perhaps the original inhabitants of
that country. At least they were established there long before the Scots, who,
according to their annals, invaded them from Ireland; but were at first
repulsed. Some time after, the Picts or Northern Britons, seeing themselves
threatened by the English-Saxons who had conquered the southern part of the
island, seem to have invited over the Scots from Ireland to their assistance.
At least these under King Fergus, about the year 503, erected their kingdom in
part of Scotland, called Dalriada, from Dal, a word in their language,
signifying a part, and Reuda, their leader, as Bede informs us. Bishop Usher
gives to the kingdom of the Dalriadens, or Scots in Dalriada, the provinces of
Kintire, Knapdale, Lorn, Argyll, Braid-Albin, and some of the isles. The Scots
and Picts lived good neighbours till about the year 840, when Kenneth II. king
of these Scots, in a great battle, slew Drusken, king of the Picts, with a good
part of his nobility, and conquered the whole country north of Graham’s Dyke.
About the year 900, the Scots became masters of the rest of the country, which
from that time took the name of Scotland, the distinction of Picts being
extinct with their kingdom. Some modern critics reject as fabulous the list of
thirty-nine Scottish kings from Fergus I. who was said to have reigned
contemporary to Alexander the Great, three hundred and thirty years before
Christ. Consequently they reckon Fergus, son of Erch, commonly called Fergus
II. the first king of the Scots in that country; and whereas he was placed by
some in 403, they fix the beginning of his reign in 503, which the chronology
of his immediate successors seems to point out. Among the Picts in Cæsar’s time
it was the fashion to paint their bodies.
When the southern Britons had imitated the
Roman manners, the unconquered inhabitants of the north retained still the
custom of having their bodies painted; whence they were called Picti; which
name does not seem older than the third century, for it is first found in the
orator Eumenius. Among these the Ladeni inhabited the southern part of what is
now called Scotland, and the rough Caledonians occupied the highlands, and the
great Caledonian forest extended northward from the Frith. These woods and
mountains were their shelter, and their snows affrighted the Romans, who left
them in the enjoyment of their barbarism and liberty. To check their inroads,
and to fix the boundaries of the Roman dominions, the Emperor Adrian, in the
year 123, caused a wall of turf to be made, sixty-eight English miles long,
from Tinmouth to Solway Frith. Antoninus Pius extended these limits further,
and shutting out only the Caledonians, he directed a second wall of turf to be
raised thirty-six English miles long, from Abercurning, now Abercorn, on the
Frith of the river Forth to the river Clyde, near old Kirk-Patrick. Grime or
Graham, the valiant regent of the kingdom of the Scots during the minority of
King Eugenius, commonly called the Second, razed this wall in his wars against
the Picts, or, according to others, against those Britons that were subject to
the Romans, who were soon after compelled to call in the Saxons to succour them
against the Picts. The ruins of this wall are at this day called Graham’s-Dyke,
which name some derive from this Graham, others from Mount Grampus, now
Grantzbaine. This wall of Antoninus did not long remain the boundary of the
Roman province, which in 210, the Emperor Severus, after making a progress with
his army to the north of Scotland, brought back to Adrian’s wall, in the
country now called Northumberland. From the same extremities, but upon new
foundations yet to be traced, he built a new wall of stone, fenced with towers
and a vallum: a work so stately, that it is called by Spartian, The Glory of
Severus’s reign. See Mr. Alexander Gordon, Itinerarium Septentrionale, or
Journey through Part of Scotland, &c. And Mr. Thomas Innes, in his Critical
Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland, Chamberlaine, &c. The most
complete description and history of the Picts’ Wall is that published in 1753,
in 4to. by John Warburton, Somerset Herald, under the title Vallum Romanum,
&c. [back]
Note 6. The isle of St. Colm is near three miles
long, and above a mile broad. Among the ruins of the old cloister of St. Colm,
there remains a church-yard, in the west part of which are the tombs of
forty-eight kings of Scotland in the middle; on the right side, those of four
kings of Ireland, and on the left those of eight kings of Norway. All the noble
families of the Western Islands have their particular burying places in the
rest of the church-yard. See Lewis’s Ancient History of Great Britain, p. 236,
and Martin’s Description of the Western Islands. [back]
Note 7. Bede writes, (l. 3, c. 4,) that from St.
Columba, who never was bishop, it continued a custom that the whole island,
even the bishops, by an unusual law were subject to the abbot. Of this passage,
the Calvinists avail themselves, as if it made against the superiority of
bishops in the church. But Bishop Usher (De Britan. Eccl. Antiqu. c. 16,)
justly observes, that this superiority was only of civil jurisdiction, not of
Order; for the Ulster Annals mention that this little island had always a
bishop who resided in it, either in or near the monastery. Also Adamnan, in his
life of St. Columba, (l. 3,) says, that St. Columba refused to officiate at the
altar in the presence of a bishop, who out of humility had concealed himself,
nor would he receive the communion with him, but out of respect to his dignity
obliged him to celebrate himself. And Bishop Lloyd, in his historical account
of church government, demonstrates (ch. 5, 6, 7,) that no other church
government but episcopal was ever settled among the Picts, Scots, or Saxons. A
veneration for St. Columba introduced a superiority of civil jurisdiction over
the bishops who were taken from among his monks and disciples, and retained
their former respect for their old superior the abbot. In the MS. life of St.
Columba, by O’Donall, it is asserted that the saint in the year 544, being a
prince of the royal family, was offered the crown of Ireland, and that Dermod
Mac Cerball his competitor succeeded only because our holy abbot preferred the
cowl to a diadem. This circumstance of his princely extraction may afford one
good reason why the northern bishops were subject to his (civil)
jurisdiction. [back]
Note 8. Sir James Ware, (lib. l. Descrip. Hib. p.
15,) gives the catalogue of his works, which are still extant, as follows: A monastic
rule, commonly entitled Columkille: a hymn on St. Kiaran, and three other
hymns. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
VI: June. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/6/092.html
Le sue origini furono di stirpe regale; Columba (in Irlanda Colum Cill) nacque nel 521 a Gartan nel Donegal, ampia baia dell’Irlanda sull’Atlantico.
Nella sua scelta di diventare monaco, ebbe come guida spirituale e contatti formativi con i santi Enda di Aran, Finnian di Moville e Finnian di Clonard, tutti abati di comunità monastiche irlandesi del VII secolo.
Columba divenne anch’egli abate di monasteri, agendo con grande saggezza e spiritualità, ma anche fondatore di alcune chiese, fra le quali quelle di Durrow e Derry. Poi come raccontano le fonti su citate, obbedendo al desiderio comune a tutti gli irlandesi di “divenire pellegrini di Cristo”, Columba lasciò l’Irlanda nel 563 e insieme a dodici compagni approdò sulla piccola isola di Iona, posta davanti alla costa occidentale della Scozia, erigendo un monastero che divenne in breve un celebre centro monastico.
Dalle sue mura partirono tanti missionari, diretti verso le colonie irlandesi in Scozia e verso le tribù pagane dei Pitti del Nord, popolazioni celtiche scozzesi, così chiamate dai Romani, perché si tingevano il corpo ed i capelli.
Columba fu a partire dalla gioventù un uomo austero, a volte persino duro con se stesso e con gli altri; ma con gli anni il suo carattere si addolcì e il prima citato Adamnano lo presenta nell’ultima fase della sua vita, come uomo profondamente sereno.
Fu sempre molto legato alla sua patria d’origine, l’Irlanda; divenne il capo riconosciuto della “familia Columbae”, una importante confederazione monastica diffusa in Scozia ed in Irlanda.
Morì ad Iona nel 597 e l’autorità di cui aveva goduto sia per il rango familiare, sia per le sue doti di capo e di guida spirituale, passò ai suoi successori, anch’essi in buona parte di sangue reale e come lui non soggetti alla dipendenza dal vescovo.
Gli abati di Iona ebbero giurisdizione sulla vasta confederazione “familia Columbae”, la quale si estese ulteriormente fino all’anglosassone Northumbria, evangelizzata da s. Aidano di Lindsfarne, entrando in contrasto con la missione romana in Inghilterra, specie per quanto riguardava la data della celebrazione della Pasqua. La confederazione cominciò a declinare nella sua influenza, dopo il sinodo di Whitby tenuto nel 664. San Columba fu importante nella leggenda irlandese, a parte la sua precisa figura storica; infatti molti poemi dell’Irlanda gli furono attribuiti, anche se ciò non è provato, sta comunque ad indicare come venisse considerato quasi un patrono dei poeti irlandesi.
Ebbe un culto largamente diffuso nel Medioevo, non solo in Irlanda e Scozia ma anche in Europa; la sua festa è celebrata il 9 giugno ancora con venerazione, non solo in questi due Paesi, ma anche in Australia e Nuova Zelanda (portatovi evidentemente dalle colonizzazioni inglesi).
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
St. Columba Bidding Farewell to the White Horse by
John Duncan (1866-1945)
