Columba

Saint Columba or Colmcille

"Iustus unus magis res rei"
Apostle of the Picts
Born December 7, 521(521-12-07)
Gartan, County Donegal, Ireland
Died June 9, 597(597-06-09) (aged 75)
Iona, Scotland
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodoxy
Lutheran Church
Anglican Communion
Major shrine Iona, Scotland
Feast June 9
Patronage Derry, floods, bookbinders, poets, Ireland, Scotland

Saint Columba (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) – also known as Colum Cille (Old Irish, meaning "dove of the church"), Colm Cille (Irish), Calum Cille (Scottish Gaelic) and Kolban or Kolbjørn (Old Norse, meaning "black bear")[1][2] – was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period. He was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.[3]

Contents

Early life in Ireland

Columba was born to Fedlimid and Eithne of the Cenel Conaill in Gartan, near Lough Gartan, in modern County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in the north of Ireland. On his father's side he was great-great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish high king of the 5th century. He was baptised in Temple-Douglas, in the County Donegal parish of Conwal (mid-way between Gartan and Letterkenny), by his teacher and foster-uncle Saint Crunathan.[4][5][6]

In early Christian Ireland the druidic tradition collapsed due to the spread of the new Christian faith. The study of Latin learning and Christian theology in monasteries flourished. Columba became a pupil at the monastic school at Clonard Abbey, situated on the River Boyne in modern County Meath. During the sixth century, some of the most significant names in the history of Irish Christianity studied at the Clonard monastery. It is said that the average number of scholars under instruction at Clonard was 3,000.[3] Twelve students who studied under St. Finian became known as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. Columba was one of these. He became a monk and was ordained as a priest.

Tradition asserts that, sometime around 560, he became involved in a quarrel with Saint Finnian of Moville over a psalter. Columba copied the manuscript at the scriptorium under Saint Finnian, intending to keep the copy. Saint Finnian disputed his right to keep the copy. The dispute eventually led to the pitched Battle of Cúl Dreimhne in 561, during which many men were killed. A synod of clerics and scholars threatened to excommunicate him for these deaths, but St. Brendan of Birr spoke on his behalf with the result that he was allowed to go into exile instead. Columba suggested that he would work as a missionary in Scotland to help convert as many people as had been killed in the battle. He exiled himself from Ireland, to return only once again, several years later.

Columba's copy of the psalter has been traditionally associated with the Cathach of St. Columba.

Scotland

In 563 he travelled to Scotland with twelve companions, where according to his legend 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 on the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland which became the centre of his evangelising mission to the Picts. However, there is a sense in which he was not leaving his native people, as the Irish Gaels had been colonizing the west coast of Scotland for the previous couple of centuries.[7] Aside from the services he provided guiding the only centre of literacy in the region, his reputation as a holy man led to his role as a diplomat among the tribes;[8] there are also many stories of miracles which he performed during his work to convert the Picts. He visited the pagan king Bridei, king of Fortriu, at his base in Inverness, winning the king's respect, although not his conversion. He subsequently played a major role in the politics of the country. He was also very energetic in his evangelical work, and, in addition to founding several churches in the Hebrides, he worked to turn his monastery at Iona into a school for missionaries. He was a renowned man of letters, having written several hymns and being credited with having transcribed 300 books. One of the few, if not the only, times he left Scotland after his arrival was toward the end of his life, when he returned to Ireland to found the monastery at Durrow.

Columba died on Iona and was buried by his monks in the abbey he created. He was later disinterred and is reputed to be buried in Downpatrick, County Down, with St. Patrick and St. Brigid or at Saul Church neighbouring Downpatrick.

Several islands are named after Columba in Scotland, including Ì Chaluim Chille (one of the Scottish Gaelic names of Iona), Inchcolm and Eilean Chaluim Chille.

Lasting legacy

Columba is credited as being a leading figure in the revitalization of monasticism, and "His achievements illustrated the importance of the Celtic church in bringing a revival of Christianity to Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire." It is said Clan Robertson are heirs of Columba. Clan MacKinnon may also have some claim to being descendant of St Columcille as after he founded his Church on Isle Iona, The MacKinnons were the abbotts to the Church for centuries. This would also account for the fact that Clan MacKinnon is among the ancient clans of Scotland.[9]

The Parish of Saint Columbkille serves the neighborhood of Brighton, MA with a church and grammar school. The current church was built to be the Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston since it is in the same neighborhood as the former Cardinal's residence, but does not serve in this function. Papillion, Nebraska also has a church and grammar school named after Saint Columbkille. Iona College, a small Catholic liberal arts college in New Rochelle, NY is named after the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland on which, St. Columba founded his church.

Today, Aer Lingus, Ireland's national flag carrier has named one of its Airbus A330 aircraft in commemoration of the saint (reg: EI-DUO).

Saint Columba is the patron saint of the city of Derry in Ireland. The saint founded a monastic settlement there in c. AD 540. The name of the city in Irish is Doire Colmcille and is derived from the native oak trees in the area and the city's association with the great saint. Today, the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Columba's Long Tower stands at the spot of this original settlement.

Vita Columbae

Saint Columba in stained glass

The main source of information about Columba's life is the Vita Columbae by Adomnán (also known as Eunan), the ninth Abbot of Iona, who died in 704. Both the Vita Columbae and Bede record Columba's visit to Bridei. Whereas Adomnán just tells us that Columba visited Bridei, Bede relates a later, perhaps Pictish tradition, whereby the saint actually converts the Pictish king. Another early source is a poem in praise of Columba, most probably commissioned by Columba's kinsman, the king of the Uí Néill clan. It was almost certainly written within three or four years of Columba's death and is the earliest vernacular poem in European history. It consists of 25 stanzas of four verses of seven syllables each.

The vita of Columba contains a story that has been interpreted as the first reference to the Loch Ness Monster. According to Adomnán, Columba came across a group of Picts who were burying a "wretched fellow"[10] who had been 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. Whether or not this incident is true, Adomnan's text specifically states that the monster was swimming in the River Ness - the river flowing from the loch - rather than in Loch Ness itself.

Through the reputation of its venerable founder and its position as a major European centre 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 is historically revered as a warrior saint, and was often invoked for victory in battle. His 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 Brecbennoch. Legend has it that the Brecbennoch, was carried to Bannockburn by the vastly outnumbered Scots army and the intercession of the Saint helped them to victory. It is widely thought that the Monymusk Reliquary is this object.

O Columba spes Scotorum... "O Columba, hope of the Scots" begins a 13th century prayer in the Antiphoner of Inchcolm, the "Iona of the East."

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kenyon, Sherrilyn. [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=y6mYHORNa5IC&pg=PA358&dq=columba+Kolbj%C3%B8rn&hl=en&ei=rgUQTI2CF9qa_QbqwuTWDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false The Writer's Digest character naming sourcebook. Writer's Digest Books, 2005. p 358.
  2. ↑ keltiskfromhet.no (Norwegian)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gratton-Flood, W.H. (1913). "The Twelve Apostles of Erin". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01632a.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-09. 
  4. ↑ Acts of Archbishop Colton in his metropolitan visitation in the diocese of Derry, A.D. MCCCXCVII
  5. ↑ Notes on the Place Names of the Parishes and Townlands of the County of Londonderry, 1925, Alfred Moore Munn, Clerk of the Crown and Peace of the City and County of Londonderry
  6. ↑ Ordnance Survey Memoirs for the Parishes of Desertmartin and Kilcronaghan, Ballinascreen Historical Society. Published 1986
  7. ↑ Fletcher, Richard (1989), Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England, Shepheard-Walwyn, pp. 23–24, ISBN 0-85683-089-5 
  8. ↑ "Who is St. Columba?" St. Columba Retreat House. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  9. ↑ Dowley, Tim, et al., ed. (1977), Eerdman's Handbook to the History of Christianity, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Publishing, ISBN 0-8028-3450-7 
  10. ↑ Vita Columbae; homunculus, see K. Sidwell, Reading medieval Latin (1995), pp. 89-90.

Further reading

External links

Preceded by
New creation		 Abbot of Iona
d. 597		 Succeeded by
Baithéne
Twelve Apostles of Ireland
Finnian of Clonard
Ciarán of Saighir · Ciarán of Clonmacnoise · Brendan of Birr · Brendan of Clonfert · Columba of Terryglass · Columba of Iona
Mobhí of Glasnevin · Ruadán of Lorrha · Senan of Iniscathay · Ninnidh the Saintly of Loch Erne · Laisrén mac Nad Froích · Cainnech of Aghaboe