Columba, St.

(c. 521-c. 597)

   An Irish monk and missionary, Columba was an important force in the evangelization of the Picts in Scotland and the Angles in northern England. He may also have had followers from among the southern Anglo-Saxons, and thus have introduced Christianity to them before the arrival of St. Augustine of Canterbury. Bede notes that Columba was "distinguished by his monastic habit and life," and that "whatever type of man he may have been, we know for certain that he left successors distinguished for their purity of life, their love of God, and their loyalty to the monastic rule" (147).

   Columba was an Irish monk born in circa 521 to the Ui Neill line, one of the most powerful ruling families in Ireland. He was raised fully in the Irish Celtic Christian tradition, which emphasized the role of the monastery and its abbot in the institutional structure and religious life of the church. He was also influenced by the missionary tradition, as was his younger contemporary St. Columban, and undertook a pilgrimage to spread the faith. In Ireland, he founded a monastery at Durrow or, as Bede notes, Dearmach, or Field of Oaks. He is best known, however, for his missionary activity in Scotland, where he converted the Picts to Celtic Christianity. He left Ireland with several companions in 563 and converted the people by his personal example of sanctity, his preaching, and his performance of numerous miracles. As thanks for his good work, Columba was granted the island of Iona, where he founded a monastery that was known for its piety and learning. It was the royal Scottish monastery and may have been the site of the Northumbrian king Oswald's conversion. At the very least, Oswald sought aid from Iona to reform the monasteries in Northumbria. The community at Iona was organized according to the Celtic, rather than the Roman Christian, model in which the abbot was the leading figure and all, including the bishop, were subject to his authority. And although he notes that Columba erred on the matter of Easter and other things, Bede clearly honored the piety and memory of St. Columba.

   See also

   Anglo-Saxons; Augustine of Canterbury, St.; Bede; Columban, St.; Monasticism

   Bibliography

 ♦ Adomnan. Adomnan's Life of Columba. Ed. and trans. Alan O. Anderson and Marjorie O. Anderson. London: T. Nelson, 1961.

 ♦ Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People with Bede's Letter to Egbert and Cuthbert's Letter on the Death of Bede. Trans. Leo Sherley-Price. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1991.

 ♦ Blair, Peter Hunter. The World of Bede. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.

 ♦ Laistner, Max L. W. Thought and Letters in Western Europe, a.d. 500 to 900. 2d ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1976.

 ♦ Lawrence, C. H. Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 2d ed. London: Longman, 1989.

 ♦ Stenton, Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England. 3d ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.