But why? What is it about this holy man from early medieval times \u2013 whose historical feats are shrouded in a fog of fantasy and conjecture \u2013 that resonates with so many people from so many backgrounds, and so long after his death?<\/p>\n

The answer lies, in part, in the figure of a chronicler who never met Columba, but who followed in his footsteps. In AD 697, Adomna\u0301n, the ninth abbot of Iona, was asked by his monks to write a Life of Columba to mark the centenary of his death. It was a challenge that he clearly enjoyed. In Adomna\u0301n\u2019s hands, the austere saint was transformed into a miracle-worker who conversed with angels regularly, spread Christianity among the pagan Picts, and engaged in spiritual battle with their druids.<\/p>\n

Adomna\u0301n drew on three sources when compiling his Life of Columba: on his own experience of the saint\u2019s miracles, on personal testimony from reliable witnesses, and on written accounts compiled by his predecessors, the abbots Se\u0301ge\u0301ne (died AD 652) and Cumme\u0301ne (died 669). The result was an unashamedly flattering account of Columba\u2019s life, one that would ensure that his reputation would take flight and eclipse all other holy men of his age.<\/p>\n

The \u201cdove of the church\u201d<\/h3>\n
The life that Adomna\u0301n describes is traditionally believed to have begun on 7 December AD 521. (However December 520 has also been advanced as a possible birth date and it is for this reason that celebrations in Ireland have run across the year, from December 2020 to December 2021.) Adomna\u0301n tells us that Eithne, the young noblewoman who received the aforementioned vision from an angel of God, did, as predicted, give birth to a son \u2013 in a location traditionally identified as Gartan in County Donegal. Eithne and her husband, Fedelmid, son of Fergus (who was also of noble stock), named their child Colum Cille, meaning \u201cthe dove of the church\u201d. In Latin, his name was Columba.<\/p>\n
Columba\u2019s parents were probably Christian and may have raised their son for a life in the church, giving him up to be educated by a foster father, a priest called Cruithnecha\u0301n. According to Adomna\u0301n, the young Columba kept \u201chis body chaste and mind pure and showed himself, though placed on Earth, fit for the life of heaven\u201d.<\/p>\n
Our sources are mostly silent about his activities after his ordination to the priesthood, but he seems to have founded several monasteries in his native Ireland, including one at Derry, on the banks of the river Foyle, and perhaps the great religious house in Kells in north-eastern Ireland.<\/p>\n
The defining moment of Columba\u2019s career came in AD 563, when he was 41. He had left Ireland in the aftermath of the battle of Cu\u0301l Drebene, which, according to one version of events, came about when a disagreement over Columba copying a manuscript escalated into a clan war. Columba sailed to Britain, having chosen \u201cto be a pilgrim for Christ\u201d, and he spent the rest of his life there working as an \u201cisland soldier\u201d, always engaged in praying, reading, writing, or some other task.<\/p>\n
Exactly why Columba chose to leave Ireland is uncertain. Adomna\u0301n\u2019s account of the battle of Cu\u0301l Drebene, and his description of Columba being (wrongly) excommunicated at an Irish synod, has led to speculation that this exile might not have been entirely voluntary. Others have posited that the move may have had a political motive, such as formalising an alliance between two rulers: Columba\u2019s cousin, overking of the powerful Irish dynasty the Ui\u0301 Ne\u0301ill; and his new patron, the ruler of Da\u0301l Riata (the kingdom that straddled western Scotland and the north-east corner of Ireland).<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Whatever his motives for crossing the Irish Sea, Columba went first to the stronghold of the Scots king, Conall mac Comgaill, at Dunadd. And it was from Conall \u2013 Adomna\u0301n and the early Irish annals report \u2013 that Columba was bequeathed Iona. The Venerable Bede (writing in AD 731) offers a different interpretation of how the saint came to inherit Iona, declaring that he had \u201ccome from Ireland to Britain to preach the word of God in the provinces of the northern Picts\u201d, and that the Pictish king had given Iona to the saint after his conversion. It would, no doubt, have been in Pictish interests to promulgate this latter version, but the former appears more plausible.<\/p>\n
The inhabitants of the community that Columba established in Iona built a church and the dwellings they needed for the monastic life within an enclosure on the empty island. But this was never a monastery cut off from the outside world. Adomna\u0301n describes a steady stream of monks, pilgrims, penitents and other visitors at the abbey, all seeking Columba\u2019s spiritual teaching. Once, so Adomna\u0301n tells us, an exhausted heron, blown off course, landed on Iona and was treated as a pilgrim until it recovered its strength sufficiently to return to Ireland. So busy was the monastery that Columba often had to withdraw to a wilder part of the island to find a place to pray alone.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Source of inspiration<\/h3>\n
Such was the lure of this ecclesiastical outpost that it soon inspired others on the surrounding islands and the mainland of Da\u0301l Riata, each modelled on the Ionan way of life. Some were governed by Columba\u2019s relatives \u2013 for example his uncle Erna\u0301n became prior of the monastery on Hinba (a Scottish island of uncertain location). But Iona retained primacy over all its dependent churches in Scotland and Ireland, and, later, among the English.<\/p>\n
As Iona\u2019s influence expanded, so did the range of Columba\u2019s travels. He sailed from island to island, visited communities the length and breadth of mainland Da\u0301l Riata and even crossed the Druim Alban (the central Scottish mountain chain) to be among the Picts.<\/p>\n
Wherever Columba went, he shared his mystical insights and spiritual visions, introduced the good news of the gospel to pagans and offered pastoral counselling. According to Adomna\u0301n, he performed miracles too: healing the sick; killing a boar of amazing size merely by commanding it to \u201cdie where you are\u201d; drawing water from a stone to baptise an infant; and tussling successfully with pagan wizards. Once, the saint was accompanied by a bright column of fiery light \u2013 like the pillar of fire that preceded the Israelites in the Book of Exodus \u2013 and, if that wasn\u2019t protection enough, he could call upon the support of holy angels.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Yet this miracle-worker was a man of contradictions, writes Adomna\u0301n. A tall figure of powerful build and considerable presence, Columba was quick to anger, leading to his reputation in Irish legend as the bad-tempered saint. But he showed compassion to penitents, cared for his monks, and would relax his strict fast to entertain visitors to Iona. These contradictions in his character are conveyed by the contrast between his Latin name (\u201cthe dove\u201d) and his Gaelic nickname, Crimthann (\u201cthe fox\u201d).<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Whether fox or dove, by the second half of the sixth century, Columba\u2019s status as a pre-eminent holy man, scholar and monastic leader had made him a political and religious heavyweight \u2013 someone who could shape the destinies of rulers across Scotland and Ireland. In his relationship with kings, Columba appeared in Adomna\u0301n\u2019s account like the biblical prophet Samuel in the way that he interceded with the Almighty: \u201cSome kings were conquered in the terrifying crash of battle and others emerged victorious according to what Columba asked of God by the power of prayer. He remained a triumphant champion of kings in death as in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Columba gave support to rulers of Ireland\u2019s powerful Ui\u0301 Ne\u0301ill dynasty and other lesser rulers in Ireland, and to the Da\u0301l Riata and neighbouring Strathclyde in Scotland. He made at least one visit to Bridei, the king of the Picts, and preached among that people with the aid of an interpreter. Although Bede exaggerated his role as missionary to the Picts, the saint undoubtedly paved the way for later missions.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Converting the pagans<\/h3>\n
Adomna\u0301n claimed that Columba ordained A\u0301eda\u0301n mac Gabra\u0301n as king of Da\u0301l Riata in c574 AD. This may be a little fanciful, but it\u2019s plausible that the new king sought the blessing of this holy man at the start of his reign. In fact, such was Columba\u2019s status, he was able to influence events beyond the grave and across the border into England. After his death, we\u2019re told, the saint appeared in a vision to the powerful Anglo-Saxon king Oswald of Northumbria, promising him victory in battle and successful rule over his people. Once Oswald had achieved these objectives, he turned to Iona for monks to convert his pagan people, and gave the island of Lindisfarne to the Irish monk Aidan so that he could establish a monastery there in AD 635.<\/p>\n
$\""The\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>