Anglican Commemoration
Abbot of Iona & Missionary to the Scots
June 9 · d. 597
Columba was an Irish prince, monk, and missionary who founded the monastery of Iona off the western coast of Scotland in 563 and made it the base for the evangelization of the Picts and the Scots. With Patrick and Brigid, he is one of the three patron saints of Ireland, but his greatest legacy lies in Scotland: Iona became the spiritual center of Scottish Christianity and one of the most influential monasteries in the early medieval West, sending missionaries throughout northern Britain and training generations of monks, bishops, and scholars. Columba died on Iona on June 9, 597 — the same year, by tradition, that Augustine of Canterbury landed in Kent.
Columba became the subject of extensive hagiographic tradition. Adomnán's Life records numerous miracles: supernatural knowledge of distant events, power over demons, miraculous healings, prophetic visions, miraculous escapes. He is presented as a man of extraordinary spiritual authority, founder of a monastic empire, and missionary whose influence extended across Scotland, Ireland, and eventually English mission.
Columba (Colum Cille, 'dove of the church') was born around 521 into the royal family of the northern Uí Néill in Donegal — a lineage that made him eligible for the Irish high kingship. He was educated at monastic schools under Finnian of Moville and Finnian of Clonard, and was ordained a priest. By his early forties he had founded several monasteries in Ireland, including Derry, Durrow, and Kells.
In 563, at the age of about forty-two, Columba left Ireland with twelve companions and established a monastery on the small island of Iona, granted to him by his kinsman King Conall of Dál Riata. The reasons for his departure are disputed: Adomnán's Life presents it as a pilgrimage 'for Christ,' but a persistent tradition links it to Columba's involvement in a dispute that led to the Battle of Cooldrevny (561), after which he was pressured or chose to exile himself in penance.
From Iona, Columba launched the mission to the Picts. His meeting with King Bridei at his fortress near Inverness — described vividly by Adomnán — was the critical breakthrough. The Pictish king allowed Columba to preach, and over the following decades, Christianity spread among the northern peoples. Iona also maintained close ties with the Irish churches and the kingdom of Dál Riata, and Columba played a significant diplomatic role among the Irish and Scottish kingdoms.
The monastery of Iona became a center of learning, manuscript production, and prayer. The Book of Kells may have been begun there. Columba himself was a poet and scribe — he was said to have loved books with an intensity that could get him into trouble — and his foundation continued to produce scholars and missionaries for centuries.
Columba died at Iona on the night of June 8-9, 597. Adomnán records that his last act was to bless the monastery's working horse, which had come to him weeping.
Almighty and everlasting God, you called your servant Columba to preach the Gospel to the people of Scotland: Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.