Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Columba
COLUMBA, Saint (521–597), is known in Ireland and the western isles as Columcille. Columbanus (Bædæ; Historia Ecclesiastica, bk. iii. c. 4, p. 94, ed. Cologne, 1601) is another form of the name. He was born on the day on which St. Buite [q. v.] of Monasterboice died, 7 Dec. 521. Feidilmid, his father, was chief of a mountainous district in the north-west of Ireland, well described in an old verse ' cuigeadh Ulaidh seo sios as mile cnuic in a lar,' the province of Ulster down here and a thousand hills in its midst. Feidilmid is a name still in use in that region, where the warlike deeds of Feidilmid Ruadh are often related by the fire, while till a few years ago the music of Feidilmid Coll was a frequent delight to the country-side. Columba's father was grandson of Conall Gulban, from whom the north-west of Ulster takes its name of Tirconaill, and great-grandson of Niall Naighiallach, king of Ireland from 379 to 405. Feidilmid's wife, Ethne, was eleventh in descent from Cathair Mor, king of Leinster. Thus, through both father and mother, the saint was kin to many powerful families. His birthplace was at Gartan in Donegal, on the side of a small hill at the foot of which are three lakes, overshadowed by dark mountains, haunted in the sixth century by numbers of wolves (O'Donnell, Life), whose last descendants were killed by the grandfathers of the old men of a few years ago (local tradition). A large flag-stone in the townland of Lacknacor is visited S pilgrims as the actual couch on which Columba was born. The intending emigrant believes that to lie upon it will save him from home sickness, and there is a strong local belief in its merit as causing easy parturition. The saint was baptised Colum by Cruithnechan mac Ceallachain, a priest, at Dooglas, and to his baptismal name the addition of cille (of the church) was added, probably during his life. The child of an Irish king was always put out to fosterage, and Columba's foster parents were the O'Firghils, who lived but a few miles from his birthplace. His childhood was spent with them at Doire Eithne, a place so wild to this day that the eagle, the raven, the badger, and the pine marten have their homes in it. Some of the tribe that fostered him still live at Kilmacrenan, as their ancient home is now called. After the formal termination of his fosterage the saint became a Eupil of St. Finnian, on the shore of Strangford Lough, and by him was ordained deacon. He next studied under Gemman, one of the Oes dana of Leinster, and here became confirmed in the love for the old poetic tales of Ireland which he had doubtless acquired under the shadow of Lochasalt, and which, as Irish tradition asserts, he retained throughout life. He and his teacher vainly endeavoured to prevent the lawless murder of a girl, and the sudden death of the murderer after Columba's vehement expression of indignation was counted as one of the first evidences of his power as a saint. He next went to Clonard, and, with other afterwards famous men, studied under Finnian till ordained priest by Etchen, a bishop whose diocese is obsolete, and whose church is indicated by a slight irregularity in the pasture at Clonfad in the parish of Killucan in Westmeath. After his ordination, Columba, with Comgall, Ciaran mac Antsair, and Cairrech, three of his fellow-students at Clonard, lived a religious life at Glasnevin, on the banks of the Finglass. In 544 an epidemic broke up the community and Columba returned to his kindred. As he crossed the river Bior, which separated the kingdom of the Airghialla from the lands of Cinel Eoghain, he prayed that its waters might be the northern limit of the epidemic, an incident of importance as showing that at that time no feud had yet grown up between the tribe of Conall and that of his brother Eoghan. His first foundation was in their marchland. In the far north, a few miles from Ailech, the stone hill fortress of the northern N-i Neill, there was a fortified hill, the sides of which were clothed with an oak wood, and which was called, from some long-forgotten chief, Daire Calgaich. The fort was given by his admiring kinsmen to Columba, and there he built his first church, one day's journey only from the mountains of his birth, and in sight of the sea which was to carry him to the place of his death. In after times the hill acquired the name of its consecrator, and was known for nearly a thousand years as Daire Choluimcille ; it then took a prefix from the home of its conquerors and was called Londonderry, but is now universally known by its oldest name of all, Daire, phonetically spelt Derry. A great church, which gives its name of Templemore to the parish, and which was the predecessor of the present cathedral, was built in 1164 on another site, but a lane called Longtower still marks the locality of the church built by Columba in 545, and near which for many centuries there stood a tall round tower. In the fifteen years following 545 Columba founded many churches with monastic societies. The most important was Durrow, founded in 553. The most secluded was built in the westernmost glen of Ulster, called in some parts of Ireland Seangleann, and in the place itself Glen Columbcille. Here the natives, wishing their patron not to be inferior in achievements to the greatest saint of Ireland, relate how Columba, after prayer and fasting in the solitude, drove out from the glen into the ocean some demons who had fled from the wrath of Patrick in Connaught. The ruins of Columba's church, the small size of which is one sign of its antiquity, and some traces of monastic buildings, are on the north side of the glen. Just below it the sea is always covered with foam round the promontory of Garraros, while mists for six months shut out from view the opposite side of the glen and the path ascending it into the world. The saint and his followers always thought the roar of the sea and mists sweeping across desolate moorland incitements to devotion. In 563 he crossed to the west of Scotland, and received a grant of the island known in English as St. Colm's isle, or Iona, and in Irish as I-coluim-cille, and in Latin as Hy. It lay on the line which divided the nominally Christian Scots of Britain from the pagan Picts. Columba's voyage was made in the second year after a war between his kinsmen and the king of Ireland, of which the saint was the originator. A youth who had taken sanctuary with him was killed by the king. The saint went to the north and roused his tribe to avenge the wrong. They marched several miles beyond the boundary of Tirconaill by the plain which lies between the sea and the foot of Ben Bulben, and met King Diarmait at Cuildremhne, not far from Drumcliff in Sligo, where at this day a very ancient carved stone cross of graceful proportions marks a subsequent monastic foundation of the saint. The accounts of ecclesiastical censure following this conduct are indefinite in the early lives, but seem to have some foundation of truth (O'Donovan, note on the subject, Annala R. I. i. 197). It seems most likely that the banishment was voluntary, and that it was a self-inflicted mortification and not a publicly imposed penance. All late Irish writings represent the banishment as penal, and an elaborate legend, which makes the copying of another saint's gospel Columba's offence, is transferred into most English and foreign accounts of him, but it contains intrinsic evidence that it is not historical. The conversion of the Picts, if not the original object of the migration, soon became part of the saint's work. His preaching was successful, and his reputation for sanctity spread so that in 574, on the death of Conall, lord of the British Dalriada, who had given Inchcolm to Columba, Aidan, his cousin and successor, sought and received formal inauguration in the monastery. In the next year Columba visited Ireland in company with Aidan (d. 606) [q. v.] A great folkmote was held on Drumceatt, a long green ridge which rises from Myroe, the second largest plain of Ireland, a few miles from the northern coast. Here Aedh mac Anmire, king of Ireland, was persuaded formally to renounce rights of sovereignty over the tribes of British Dalriada, and the terms of release of Scanlann, a royal captive from Ossory, were arranged. Both arrangements are attributed to Columba's influence, and a very ancient authority (Preface to Amra Choluimcille; 'Lebor na Huidre facs.) also ascribes a third decision to him. The exactions of the bards and senachies had roused general indignation, and their order was threatened with destruction. He obtained terms for them ; they were to be moderate in their satires, their visits were not to be too long, and their demands for reward were to be moderate. They assented, and continued for centuries to perambulate the country, to praise or to satirise kings, lords and squires, farmers and ecclesiastics, till in the present reign their last representatives were reduced, in the general ruin of the literature of Ireland, to a chair by the kitchen fire in winter and a meal on the doorstep in summer. In 585 Columba again visited Ireland, stayed at his monastery of Burrow and afterwards at Clonmacnois.
From his distant island he ruled other churches in the western isles, and many in Ireland, of which the chief were Derry, Durrow, Kells (Meath), Tory, Drumcliff, Swords, Raphoe, Kilmore, Moone, Clonmore, Rechra (Lambay), Kilmacrenan, Gartan, Temple-douglas, Assylyn, Skreen (Meath), Skreen (Tyrone), Skreen (Derry), Drumcolumb, Mismor Loch Gowna, Emlaghfad, Glencolumbkille (Clare), Kilcolumb, Knock, Termon Ma- guirk, Cloghmore, Columbkille (Kilkenny), Ardcolum, Armagh, Mornington, Desertegny, Clonmany, Desertoghill, Ballymagroarty, Ballymagrorty, Glencolumbkille (Donegal), Eskaheen (Adamnan, Life of Columba, ed. Reeves, p. 276). Of the saint's life in his island a vivid picture is given in Adamnan's ' Vita Sancti Columbse. The author was Columba's ecclesiastical successor and his kinsman, and in his youth knew some who had been contemporaries of the saint. The earliest existing manuscript of the life is almost as old as the time of Adamnan. Carlyle had read the book often and admired it. ' You can see,' he said, ' that the man who wrote it would tell no lie ; what he meant you cannot always find out, but it is clear that he told things as they appeared to him.' The object of the life is not to give dates or descriptions, but to exhibit the saintly character of Columba. In the account, however, of his prophetic revelations, of his miracles, and of his angelic visions, the three sections of the biography, his way of life, his disposition, and his tastes, are easily learned. Most of what are described as wonders are simple events which take their miraculous colour from the observer's belief in the constant interposition of providence in daily life. He spent the day in religious exercises, in manual labour, and in writing. If his monastery was governed by a precise and definite code, it has not survived. The Irish 'Regula Choluimcille,' transcribed by Michael O'Clery (printed in Reeves's 'Primate Colton's Visitation,' p. 109), consists of general exhortations to holy poverty (rule 2), to obedience (rules 2, 8, 3), to seclusion from the world (rules 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7), to readiness for martyrdom (rules 9 and 10), to the general practice of Christian morality (rules 11, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 23, 24, and 25), to silence (rule 22), to -prayer (rules 27, 28, and 29), while two of the rules, 16 and 17, are somewhat more definite, and ordered 'three labours in the day, prayers, work, and reading,' and ' to help the neighbours, namely by instruction, or writing, or sewing garments, or by whatever labour they may be in want of.' This is perhaps the rule of which St. Wilfrith spoke in his discussion at Strenaeshalch with Colman (Bædæ Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, iii. 25, ed. Cologne, 1601, p. 134), saying, ' De parte (leg. patre) autem vestro Columba et sequacibus ejus, quorum sanctitatem vos imitari et regulam ac prsecepta coelestibus signis confirmata sequi perhibetis.'
The arrangements of the community which Columba founded and over which he ruled are traceable in his biography. He looked upon monastic life as a military service of Christ. The monastic society was modelled on the secular institutions with which the saint was familiar, and consisted of an abbot (or chief) and of a muinter, family or clan. Columba himself, the abbot, was in priest's orders, and all his successors styled themselves ' abbas et presbyter.' He permitted no episcopal jurisdiction within the monastery, but often entertained bishops, employed them to ordain, and treated them with veneration, as in superior orders. His authority was absolute. Besides the regular hours for devotion he sometimes called the brethren suddenly to the church and there exhorted them from the altar. He instituted a feast on the day of the death of Colman mac U-loigse, and dispensed the community from fastingon the advent of a guest. He gave a benediction as a formal exeat from the island, and sometimes forbade people to land on it, sometimes he crossed over to the mainland of Scotland, preaching to the Picts and baptising converts. Columba named his own successor, but evidently intended the office to be elective in a particular line, as were the chiefships of the Irish clans ; of his eleven immediate successors nine were certainly of his kin, one was probably so, and one only was not a descendant of Conall Gulban. The family, in Irish muinter, which the abbot ruled consisted of a varying number of brethren. He brought twelve with him from Ireland, but afterwards admitted both Britons and Saxons. All property was in common, and celibacy was observed, but the rules as to silence merely applied to frivolous conversation. Hospitality like that of an Irish king was practised. The abbot and brethren went out to meet strangers, and Columba often kissed a guest on his arrival. The sick were treated and the needy relieved. The canonical hours were observed, with necessary relaxation for those brethren who tilled the ground. Columba often retired for prayer at night to solitary places, or by day into the woods. His ordinary diet and that of his community consisted of bread, milk, fish, eggs, and the flesh of seals, with beef and mutton only on great occasions. He wore a coarse cassock and hood of homespun undyed wool, and beneath it a linen shirt, and on his feet sandals. He slept on a flag of stone in his clothes. Of Columba's appearance it is known that he was tall with brilliant eyes, and with the whole front of his head shaved. His solitary habits had not made him inconsiderate of the concerns of ordinary men, and he was passionately loved by his community. He was kind to animals as well as to men. When an exhausted heron fell upon the strand, he ordered it to be fed and tended till it was able to fly again, and on the last evening of his life he caressed an old horse, which rubbed its head against him, and blessed it. He taught his followers to think that they and the great whales which now and then appeared in their seas had a common ruler : ' Ego et ilia bellua sub Dei potestate sumus.' In 593 he felt his health failing, but lived four years more. On Saturday, 8 June, he spent part of the day, as was his wont, in writing, and wrote to the verse of Psalm xxxiii. 'Inquirentes autem dominum non deficient omni bono.' The words reached to the foot of the page. 'Here,' he said in Irish, 'I make an end; what follows Baithene will write.' These words were afterwards held to be a formal nomination of his successor. He attended the first service on Sunday morning, and then went back and rested on his stone bed and stone pillow. As he lay filled with a consciousness of approaching death, and heard only by his attendant, he uttered a blessing on his monks. Soon after the bell rang for matins ; he rose and with a last effort hurried to the church. His attendant followed, and as the church was dark called out, ' Where art thou, father ? ' A moment later the brethren bearing lanterns, as was the custom, came in to service, when they saw the saint lying before the altar. Diarmait raised him up and supported his head ; all saw he was dying and began to wail. Columba opened his eyes and looked with a delighted smile to right and left. They thought he saw attendant angels. Diarmait held up Columba's right hand, and the saint moved it in benediction of those present, but could not speak ; then he passed away.
He was buried in his island, and his remains rested there for a century. They were then disinterred and enshrined, and the reliquary brought to Ireland in 878. In 1127 the Danes of Dublin carried it off, but restored it again ; but what ultimately became of the elaborately adorned shrine and its contents is unknown. A book attributed to his hand, and called ' Cathach ' (cath, battle), because it was carried into battle, was long preserved by the O'Donnells, descendants of Conall Gulban and kinsmen of the saint, was at last deposited in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, by one of them, and may there be seen. It was an object of veneration as of great antiquity in the eleventh century, when its present silver cover was made ; but though a very ancient manuscript it is stated to contain no evidence of having been written by Columba. The 'Book of Durrow,' now in Trinity College, Dublin, belonged to the Columban monastery of Durrow, and was enshrined as a venerable relic by Flann mac Maelsechnaill, king of Ireland, in 916. It was then believed to be a manuscript of the saint himself, and its original colophon, still legible, was certainly written long before 916, and may be the autograph of Columba, 'Rogo beatitudinem tuam, sancte presbiter Patrici, ut quicumque hunc libellum manu tenuerit meminerit Columbae scriptoris qui hoc scripsi met evangelium per xii dierum spatium. Several other books attributed to Columba and his personal relics are fully described by Reeves (Adamnan, Vita Columbes, p. 353). Adamnan mentions no original compositions of Columba, but several works in prose and verse are in middle Irish literature attributed to him. Colgan (Trias Thaumaturga, p. 471) gives a list of several works in Latin and in Irish attributed to Columba, and has printed three Latin hymns which are perhaps the most likely of the list to be authentic. Two are on the Trinity, and are said to have been composed on the island. The third, beginning 'Noli pater indulgere,' is a prayer for protection and guidance, of extreme simplicity of thought and rudeness of expression. Columba was succeeded as abbot of Icolumcille by Baithene, whom he had nominated, and the missionary school which he had founded continued for several generations to send preachers and founders of religious communities into Northern Britain and into several parts of Europe. At Milan (from Bobbio), at St. Gall in Switzerland, and at Wiirzburg may be seen manuscripts in the hands of men who had learnt penmanship and theology in Icolumcille or in the monasteries which recognised the successor of Columba as their superior. It was not till the twelfth century that the fire kindled by Columba was outshone and lost to view in the light of a new learning and a fresh religious enthusiasm. In his own mountain country he is still an object of popular devotion.
The chief biographies of Columba are: 1. That of Cumine, abbot of Icolumcille, who died in 669. This is not extant, but is cited by Adamnan. 2. 'Vita Sancti Columbæ,' by Adamnan [q. v.], ninth abbot, based on that of Cumine. 3. An old life in Irish ('Leabhar Breac,' fol. 15 a and V). This is a sermon on the text 'exi de terra tua,' &c., printed by W. Stokes, Calcutta, 1877. Other copies exist in the ' Book of Lismore ' and in a manuscript in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. 4. A life, or rather collection of all written information and local tradition about Columba, written in 1532 by Manus O'Donnell at Lifford in Donegal. This interesting collection of everything believed about Columba in Donegal is a finely written manuscript of 120 pages with double columns. It was bought by Rawlinson at the Duke of Chandos's sale in 1777 for twenty-three shillings, and is now in the Bodleian collection, Rawlinson B. 514. It contains a large illuminated figure of the saint with a mitre on his head. 5. Colgan prints ('Trias Thaumaturga,' pp. 325, 332) two lives, which are compilations of little value. It is a curious illustration of Columba's fame in his own region that all the writers who have thrown light on the life of Columba have come from the north of Ireland. Cumine, Adamnan, and Colgan from Donegal, while Dr. William Reeves, whose book 'The Life of St. Columba, written by Adamnan,' Dublin, 1857, is the storehouse to which all modern writers on the Columban period have gone, and in which no points are neglected, was curate of Kilconriola in Antrim when he wrote the book, and is now bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore.
[Reeves's Adamnan; Reeves's Acts of Archbishop Colton, Dublin, 1850; Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga, Louvain, 1647; O'Donovan's Notes in Ordnance Survey of the County of Londonderry, Dublin, 1837; Crowe's Amra Choluimcille, Dublin, 1871; Bædæ Historia Ecclesiastica, bk. iv. ed Cologne, 1601; Irish Historical MSS facsimiles of Book of Durrow and of Cathach, and of O'Donnell's Life; Royal Irish Academy, facsimiles of Leabhar Breac and Lebor na Huidre; Stuart's History of Armagh, Newry, 1819; Bodleian MS., Rawlinson B. 514.]