St. Columbkille Catholic Church
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Wilmington, Ohio
About Our Patron
Saint Columbkille
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 (Columbkille)
"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).
The Abby Community Today.
Rule of St. Columba . . . (6th Century)
Even if it did not quite "save civilization", Ireland was one of the monastic centers of Europe in the early middle
ages. In fact the Church in Ireland was dominated by monasteries and by monastic leaders. Other Irish monks
became missionaries and converted much of Northern Europe St. Columba (521 -597) and his followers converted
Scotland and much of northern England. Columba did not leave a written rule. But the following rule, attributed to
him, was set down much later. I does reflects the spirit of early Irish Monasticism.
From A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland II,
i (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1873), pp. 119-121.This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book.The
Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.
Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for
electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the
document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use.
Paul Halsall Jan 1996 halsall@murray.fordham.edu
Saint Columbkille
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 (Columbkille)
"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).
The Abby Community Today.
Rule of St. Columba . . . (6th Century)
Even if it did not quite "save civilization", Ireland was one of the monastic centers of Europe in the early middle
ages. In fact the Church in Ireland was dominated by monasteries and by monastic leaders. Other Irish monks
became missionaries and converted much of Northern Europe St. Columba (521 -597) and his followers converted
Scotland and much of northern England. Columba did not leave a written rule. But the following rule, attributed to
him, was set down much later. I does reflects the spirit of early Irish Monasticism.
- Be alone in a separate place near a chief city, if thy conscience is not prepared to be in common with the
crowd.
- Be always naked in imitation of Christ and the Evangelists.
- Whatsoever little or much thou possess of anything, whether clothing, or food, or drink, let it be at the
command of the senior and at his disposal, for it is not befitting a religious to have any distinction of property
with his own free brother.
- Let a fast place, with one door, enclose thee.
- A few religious men to converse with thee of God and his Testament; to visit thee on days of solemnity; to
strengthen thee in the Testaments of God, and the narratives of the Scriptures.
- A person too who would talk with thee in idle words, or of the world; or who murmurs at what he cannot
remedy or prevent, but who would distress thee more should he be a tattler between friends and foes, thou
shalt not admit him to thee, but at once give him thy benediction should he deserve it.
- Let thy servant be a discreet, religious, not tale-telling man, who is to attend continually on thee, with
moderate labour of course, but always ready.
- Yield submission to every rule that is of devotion.
- A mind prepared for red martyrdom [that is death for the faith].
- A mind fortified and steadfast for white martyrdom. [that is ascetic practices] Forgiveness from the heart of
every one.
- Constant prayers for those who trouble thee.
- Fervour in singing the office for the dead, as if every faithful dead was a particular friend of thine.
- Hymns for souls to be sung standing.
- Let thy vigils be constant from eve to eve, under the direction of another person.
- Three labours in the day, viz., prayers, work, and reading.
- The work to be divided into three parts, viz., thine own work, and the work of thy place, as regards its real
wants; secondly, thy share of the brethen's [work]; lastly, to help the neighbours, viz., by instruction or writing,
or sewing garments, or whatever labour they may be in want of, ut Dominus ait, "Non apparebis ante Me
vacuus [as the Lord says, "You shall not appear before me empty."].
- Everything in its proper order; Nemo enim coronabitur nisi qui legitime certaverit. [For no one is crowned
except he who has striven lawfully.]
- Follow alms-giving before all things.
- Take not of food till thou art hungry.
- Sleep not till thou feelest desire.
- Speak not except on business.
- Every increase which comes to thee in lawful meals, or in wearing apparel, give it for pity to the brethren that
want it, or to the poor in like manner.
- The love of God with all thy heart and all thy strength;
- The love of thy neighbour as thyself
- Abide in the Testament of God throughout all times.
- Thy measure of prayer shall be until thy tears come;
- Or thy measure of work of labour till thy tears come;
- Or thy measure of thy work of labour, or of thy genuflexions, until thy perspiration often comes, if thy tears are
not free.
From A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland II,
i (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1873), pp. 119-121.This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book.The
Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.
Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for
electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the
document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use.
Paul Halsall Jan 1996 halsall@murray.fordham.edu
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"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few." Matthew 9:37
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