Columba
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{{Infobox Saint
|name=Saint Columba
|birth_date={{birth date|521|12|7|mf=y}}
|death_date={{death date and age|597|6|9|521|12|7|mf=y}}
|feast_day=[[June 9]]
|venerated_in=[[Roman Catholic Church]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], [[Lutheranism|Lutheran Church]], [[Anglican Communion|Anglican Church]]
|image=Columba at Bridei's fort.jpg
|imagesize=250px
|caption=Saint Columba, Apostle of the [[Picts]]
|birth_place=[[County Donegal]], [[Ireland]]
|death_place=[[Iona]], [[Scotland]]
|titles=Apostle of the [[Picts]]
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes=
|patronage=[[floods]], [[bookbinders]], [[poets]], [[Ireland]], [[Scotland]]
|major_shrine=[[Iona]], [[Scotland]]
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
}}
<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
:''See [[Columba (disambiguation)]] and [[St Columb]] for other uses.''
:''Not to be confused with St [[Columbanus]], also Irish and partly his contemporary.''
'''Saint Columba''' ([[7 December]] [[521]] – [[9 June]] [[597]]), sometimes referred to as '''Columba of Iona''', or, in [[Old Irish]], as '''Colm Cille''', '''Columbkill''', '''Columbkille''' or '''Columcille''' (meaning "[[Dove]] of the church") was an outstanding figure among the [[Gaels|Gaelic]] [[missionary]] [[monk]]s who, some of his advocates claim, introduced [[Christianity]] to the [[Kingdom of the Picts]] during the [[Early Middle Ages|Early Medieval Period]]. He was one of the [[Twelve Apostles of Ireland]].<ref name="Flood"/>
==Early life in Ireland==
Columba was born to Fedlimid and Eithne of the [[Uí Néill]] house in [[Gartan]], near [[Lough Gartan]], [[County Donegal]], in [[Ireland]]. On his father's side he was great-great-grandson of [[Niall of the Nine Hostages]], an [[High King of Ireland|Irish high king]] of the [[5th century]].
In [[Early Christian Ireland| early Christian Ireland]] the [[druid]]ic tradition collapsed, with the spread of the new Christian faith. The study of [[Latin]] learning and Christian theology in [[Monastery|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.<ref name ="Flood">{{CathEncy|first=W.H. |last=Gratton-Flood|title=The Twelve Apostles of Erin|id=01632a|accessdate=2008-02-09}}</ref> Twelve students who studied under [[Finnian of Clonard| 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. Columba's copy of the psalter has been traditionally associated with the [[Cathach of St. Columba]]. 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 [[exile]]d himself from Ireland, to return only once again, several years later.
==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, Kintyre|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 [[evangelism|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.<ref name=Fletcher_23>{{cite book |last= Fletcher|first= Richard|title= Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England|pages=23-24|year= 1989|publisher= Shepheard-Walwyn|isbn=0-85683-089-5}}</ref> Aside from the services he provided guiding the only centre of [[literacy]] in the region{{Fact|date=February 2007}}, his reputation as a holy man led to his role as a [[diplomat]] among the tribes; there are also many stories of miracles which he performed during his work to [[convert]] the Picts. He visited the [[pagan]] king [[Bridei I of the Picts|Bridei]], king of [[Fortriu]], at his base in [[Inverness]], winning the king's respect. 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 [[Calligraphy|transcribe]]d 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 [[Durrow Abbey|monastery]] at [[Durrow, County Offaly|Durrow]]. He died on Iona and was buried in the abbey he created.
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 "[h]is 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, the blood line now resides with Ethan and Gregory Robertson. <ref name="Eerdman's">{{cite book |editor=Dowley, Tim, et al.| title=Eerdman's Handbook to the History of Christianity |year=1977|publisher= Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. |location= Grand Rapids, Michigan|language= |id= ISBN 0-8028-3450-7}}</ref>
==''Vita Columbae''==
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 Ui Neill 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 [[stanza]]s of four verses of seven syllables each.
The earliest recorded example of the name ''[[Arthur]]'' in a British document occurs, as ''Arturius'', in Adomnan's ''[[vita]]''. There it occurs as the name of a prince among the Scots, the son of [[Áedán mac Gabráin]], king of [[Dál Riata]] from AD 574, far from the legendary [[King Arthur]]'s familiar haunts in the southwest.
The vita of Columba is also the source of the first known reference to a [[Loch Ness Monster]]. According to Adomnan, Columba came across a group of Picts who were burying a "poor little man"<ref>[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/L201040/text063.html ''Vita Columbae'']</ref> 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 cross]]es 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 to 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==
*[[History of Ireland#Early Christian Ireland 400–800|Early Christian Ireland]]
*[[List of people on stamps of Ireland]]
*[[Old High St Stephen's, Inverness]]
*[[Sainte-Colombe]]
*[[Scotland in the Early Middle Ages]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
* Nigel Tranter, ''[[Historical novels by Nigel Tranter set before 1286#Columba|Columba]]'', Hodder & Stoughton (1987).
*Adomnan of Iona, ''Life of St Columba'' (tr. & ed. Richard Sharpe) (Penguin, 1995) ISBN 0-14-044462-9 [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T201040/index.html]
*Dauvid Broun & Thomas Owen Clancy (eds.) ''Spes Scotorum: Hope of Scots. Saint Columba, Iona and Scotland'' (T & T Clark, 1999) ISBN 0-567-08682-8
*''Cambridge Biographical Dictionary.'' Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
*''Paths of Exile: Narratives of St. Columba and the Praxis of Iona'' by James Lewis (2007) ISBN 978-1-929569-24-3
==External links==
{{commons|Category:Saint Columba|Columba}}
*[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T201011/index.html CELT: ''On the Life of Saint Columba (Betha Choluim Chille)'' (tr. W. Stokes)]
*[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T201040/index.html CELT: ''The Life of Columba, written by Adamnan'' (tr. W. Reeves)]
*{{CathEncy|id=04136a|title=St. Columba|short=yes}}
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/earlychurch/features_earlychurch_iona.shtml BBC: St Columba]
*[http://jahtruth.net/lecture.htm Columba of Kells and Iona]
*[http://www.angelforce.co.uk/stmichael/columba.html The Church of St Michael and All Angels website: St Columba of Iona, Apostle to the Picts]
*[http://www.stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/id176.htm St Columba on SaintsAlive]
*[http://www.a-wee-bit-of-ireland.com/eire_2007/gartan_05.html Photo of the birthplace of Columcille at Gartan]
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{{succession box | before=-| title=[[Abbot of Iona]] | years= d. [[597]]| after=[[Baithéne of Iona|Baithéne]]}}
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{{Twelve Apostles of Ireland}}
{{Persondata
|NAME=Columba
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Saint Columba, Columba of Iona, Colm Cille, Columcille
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=A Saint and gaelic missionary monk.
|DATE OF BIRTH=[[7 December]] [[521]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Glengiven]],[[County Londonderry]], [[Northern Ireland]]
|DATE OF DEATH=[[9 June]] [[597]]
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Aghaboe]], [[Ireland]]
}}
[[Category:Irish saints]]
[[Category:Scottish saints]]
[[Category:Medieval Gaels]]
[[Category:Medieval Ireland]]
[[Category:Medieval Scotland]]
[[Category:People from County Donegal]]
[[Category:Pictish studies]]
[[Category:Renewers of the church]]
[[Category:Abbots of Iona]]
[[Category:521 births]]
[[Category:597 deaths]]
[[br:Koulm (sant)]]
[[cs:Svatý Kolumba]]
[[cy:Colum Cille]]
[[de:Columban von Iona]]
[[eo:Sankta Kolumba]]
[[es:Columba de Iona]]
[[fr:Colomba d'Iona]]
[[ga:Colm Cille]]
[[gd:Calum Cille]]
[[he:קולומבה]]
[[hr:Sveti Kolumban]]
[[is:Kólumkilli]]
[[it:San Columba di Iona]]
[[ja:コルンバ]]
[[la:Sanctus Columba]]
[[nl:Columba (heilige)]]
[[no:Columba av Iona]]
[[pl:Kolumban Starszy]]
[[pt:São Columba]]
[[ru:Колумба]]
[[sv:Columba (missionär)]]