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Columba

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                                                            Saint Columba
                      Saint Columba, Apostle of the Picts
                              Apostle of the Picts
                Born                      December 7, 521, County Donegal
                Died                                    June 9, 597, Iona
        Venerated in                                Roman Catholic Church
        Major shrine                                                 Iona
               Feast                                               June 9
           Patronage        floods, bookbinders, poets, Ireland, Scotland

        My Druid is Christ, the son of God, Christ, Son of Mary, the Great
                            Abbot, The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
                                                               St. Columba

   Saint Columba ( 7 December 521 - 9 June 597) is sometimes referred to
   as Columba of Iona, or, in Old Irish, as Saint Colm Cille or Columcille
   (meaning "Dove of the church"). He was the outstanding figure among the
   Gaelic missionary monks who reintroduced Christianity to Scotland
   during the Dark Ages.

Early life in Ireland

   He was born to Fedlimid and Eithne of the Uí Néill clan in Gartan, near
   Lough Gartan, County Donegal. On his father's side he was
   great-great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish king of
   the 5th century. He became a monk and was ordained as a priest.
   Tradition asserts that, sometime around 560, he became involved in a
   dispute with Saint Finnian 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.) As
   penance for these deaths, Columba suggested that he 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.

Scotland

   In 563 he traveled 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. Aside
   from the services he provided guiding the only outpost of literacy in
   the region, 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, 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 transcribed 300 books personally. One of the few,
   if not the only, time he left Scotland after his arrival was toward the
   end of his life, when he returned to Ireland to found the monastery at
   Durrow. He died on Iona and was buried in the abbey he created.

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".

Vita Columbae

   The main source of information about Columba's life is the Vita
   Columbae by Adomnán, 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 also composed in the course of the 7th century. It
   consists of 25 stanzas 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
   the Loch Ness Monster. According to Adomnan, Columba came across a
   group of Picts who were burying a man 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 through 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 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".

   St Columba's feast day is June 9 and with Saint Patrick, March 17, and
   Saint Brigid, February 1, is one of the three patron saints of Ireland.
   Prior to the battle of Athelstaneford, he was the patron saint of
   Scotland.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columba"
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