9 JUNE – SAINT COLUMBA (Abbot and Confessor)
This day marks the festival of the one man who above all his self-sacrificing brethren to whom Scotland owes gratitude for the first grand missionary work in behalf of the Christian religion among the northern Picts, the then dominant power in Alban. To understand clearly the grandness of Saint Columba’s work we must first give a very brief page from Scotch history for, singular as it sounds, the Scotch came originally from Ireland, and the word “Scotia” in the earliest recorded history, was applied only to inhabitants of Irish Dalriada. In 360, certain Scots came first to Britain, not as colonists, but as allies to the Dalriadan Picts in Alban. They soon disappeared and next are heard of in 501 when, according to Tighernac (an Irish annalist) Fergus mor mac Ere, from County Antrim in Irish Dalriada, and of the “Irish Gael,” with a small colony settled in what is now “Southern Argyle” on the coast and founded the future monarchy of Scotland.
I must not follow further this most interesting part of Scottish history except to add that it was among the descendants of this Fergus mor mac Ere, Columba first found friends when he came to Alban. Now to sketch briefly this wonderful man’s career as student, soldier, missionary and saint. Columba (commonly pronounced Colm’e) was born December 7, 521, and was descended through his father Fedhlmidh from the royal Hy Neill’s, and by his mother from a long line of Irish Dalriadan kings. Innumerable prophecies attended his birth, among them one by Saint Patrick who foretold his birth and:
“That will not utter a falsehood;
He’ll be a saint and will be devout,
He’ll be an Abbot, the King of royal graces,
He’ll be lasting and ever good;
The eternal kingdom be mine by his protection.”
Lack of space precludes a record of his brilliant student life at Moghbile (his first school) under Gemma, a noted Bard, who inspired in him that poetic love of the beautiful of which I will later speak. His education was completed and he took holy orders at Cluin-Brad and I may say in passing became one of the historic “Twelve Apostles of Ireland.”
His life soon became a busy one both in ecclesiastic and public affairs. His fervent Christian and poetic nature made him devout, yet he was a typical Irishman and allowed no one “to tread on the tail of his coat.” “Athletic Christianity” was then largely in evidence, as we see by the number of “doughty men of valour” who appear in the sanguinary battles of those days. So we find Columba engaged in several pitched battles. One feature of Columba’s character from his student days was his love of rare manuscripts and it was this which under God’s providence sent him forth as a missionary, for God works quite as often by human as by Divine agencies. At Moghbile, Finnian, Columba’s old teacher, had a rare manuscript of the Psalter which the pupil often desired to copy — for he was a skilled penman — but was refused for Finnian was of the true “bookworm” nature which keeps secret his treasures.
About 560 Columba visited his old tutor. He had not forgotten the coveted Psalter and by some means managed surreptitiously to obtain possession of the MS. When “the theft,” as Finnian termed it, was discovered and traced he demanded it should be returned, but the demand was refused and then King Diarmid took a hand in the matter uttering what became an Irish proverb: “To every cow belongs her calf.”
To sum up a long story short, the Hy Neills met King Diarmid in the battle of Cuil-dreme and defeated him. Columba’s trouble was now serious: a synod of the Saints of Ireland” was called and Columba was held responsible for the loss of life at Cuil-dreme and it was decreed “he must rescue as many souls from Paganism as lives had been lost in the battle.” Thus it came that Columba went forth on that pilgrimage to the Picts which has made his name memorable. I only regret I cannot give the many interesting details which throw such clear “side-lights” on the story.
Conal, a descendant of Fergus mor mac Ere, was then king of the Dalriadan Scots who were Christians and who “by grace” the powerful pagan Picts had allowed to remain thus far unmolested in Argyle and in some of the islands along the coast: among them Mull and Hii, later corrupted into Iona. Conal knew the tender ground he stood on with the Picts. While at heart a Christian he could not defy these fierce pagans. Indeed he stood “between the devil and the deep sea.” So he gladly took a middle course and sent Columba and his associates on to Hii (or as I will from now call it Iona) to let them work out their own salvation on that utterly desolate barren strip of rocky land.
With infinite toil they built their “bothies” (huts) and began their strenuous struggle, first for the necessities of life. Even the journey from Ireland had been an arduous one in their open “cruaths,” (wicker boats covered by raw skins of animals drawn over the frame and thus allowed to dry there) and in these they now carried their slender stock of provisions and other belongings to this rugged, rock bound island so often and graphically described by tourists to it.
The monastery at Iona in most respects was like those of Ireland at that time, and the household ordered on similar lines, but with some advance since Adamnan speaks of the “pincinco” or butler, and “pistor” baker, adding as a curious fact that the latter “was a Saxon.” The elders and certain ones of the labourers were tonsured from ear to ear, that is, having the hair shaved from the front of the head back to a line drawn from the ear, while elsewhere it was allowed to grow. Their young men were not tonsured as in Ireland. Their dress was of but two garments, a “tunica”or white woollen undershirt and a “Camilla,” or sleeved woollen gown (unbleached), reaching the ankles. This had also a hood. They wore hide sandals when travelling, but in the house and field went barefooted. In such a rigourous climate such a dress we today would not think even safe for health. But they were hardened to this from childhood, while the Picts, save for a skin worn over the shoulders, even in winter were almost nude. The food was of the simplest kind: bread made from crushed barley or oatmeal, milk and fish, varied only by the addition on festivals of seal flesh, wild fowls and eggs. In honour of guests or some especial “high feast” beef would be added to the menu.
I must for lack of space omit mention of their daily lives and devotions except to say that they followed in all ways the rules of the Irish monasteries. Saint Columba’s cell was separated from the brethren on one of those rugged dunes still so prominent a feature of the island. In his life he shared alike with the humblest of his brethren in everything. Gentle, kind and affectionate, yet beneath all his austerity (for he never forgot his mission) he had a deep love for the beautiful and a quaint, subtle sense of humour: as one writer puts it “with a laugh always in the tail of his eye.” His teachings to the heathen were of the plainest, simplest truths. But his real missionary work had not yet begun and it is too important to be treated within the small limit left me and therefore I must return to it later when I can also speak of Saint Comgall whom I intentionally passed on May 10th, as these fellow workers can hardly be separated.
Columba was now in the flower of manhood and is described as a “type of manly beauty,” endowed with a sweet, sonorous voice, a certain magnetism of manner which drew everyone toward him, yet never lacking in dignity. His fame had already spread far beyond the narrow limits of Iona among the northern Picts who from the first had been his objective point. They were a race strangely compounded. They were barbarians not savages, and possessed of wonderfully quick, clear intellects, though utterly untutored. This is shown by the manner in which they met the Romans, grasping instantly the secret of their “tactics” in war, grafting the best on their own methods and surprising their invaders by utilising them. Pagans they of course were but not unthinking. Through the Romans they had seen something of their religion and had laughed at it, refusing to be cajoled yet quick to learn the lessons the Romans had unconsciously taught them. Immured by exposure from infancy they regarded the warm, well-clad Romans as effeminate.
They were a strong race wholly devoid of tenderness or sentiment, yet superstitious from their Druidic teachings, still with an inborn, high sense of honour and fidelity. Such were the people Columba had chosen to bring back from paganism. Till now his work had only been what may be termed predatory missionary labour, barely reaching the borders of the great Pictish kingdom over which Brude then reigned: a man who beyond doubt was the most powerful that had ever sat on the throne. A man of unusual penetration and perhaps the only one among his people outside of the priesthood who saw through the superstitions of the Druidical religion. How much of Brude Columba knew is uncertain, but he was well aware that between Iona and Inverness, where Brude held court, save the comparatively safe districts of Morven and Lochaber, lay the dangerous Drumalbans; beset with difficulties from unknown paths where fierce superstitious natives lurked under the guidance of the Druid and Magi priests, ready to intercept his way. Yet his resolution did not fail him. Unfortunately neither Adamnan or Montelembert are able to give a clear account of this remarkable journey. We only know that Comgall of Bangor and Caimach of Achaboe were his companions. These two men were of the race of Irish Picts from whom the Dalriadan Picts had come and so to a certain extent they had kept in touch with their kinsmen in Alban.
Beyond brief mention of hunger, lack of shelter and constant opposition by the Druid and Magi priests, the chronicles are silent save for some miraculous acts of Columba by which the party were preserved until they reached the fortress of King Brude at Loch Ness and which antiquarians have positively identified with the vitrified fortress now termed “Craig-Phadrie” at Inverness, so well known to Scotch tourists. Here again at the arrival of Columba and his companions at Inverness these chroniclers allow the miraculous to overshadow the details we desire to know. Thus we are told that the gates of the town and of the palace were closed against the strangers. But at the sign of the cross made by Comgall the town gates opened and when they had come to the doors of the royal house Saint Columba advanced and, making a similar sign, these also admitted them into the presence of the king. Angered beyond measure at such intrusion, Brude raised his sword to slay them, but Caimach made the all-powerful sign of the cross over Brude’s hand and it fell withered at his side, and, the chronicles continue, so remained until he (the king) believed in God. But what was spoken or how the stern Pict was brought to terms is wholly unknown. Some even declare that no such conversion took place. That at Columba’s intercession, Brude’s strength was at once restored, and that from then during his life he held Columba in especial reverence is historic. But Bede records that in the ninth year of Brude, or Bridius, which would be in 565 and thus correspond with Columba’s dates in leaving Iona for his mission, he was baptized by Columba. The Pictish chronicles also confirm this in date and fact.
In the Irish life of Saint Comgall I find an incident nowhere else mentioned, “that then Mailcu the son of the king came with his Drui (Druid priests) to contend (argue) against Columielle (Columba) through paganism: but he and his Drui with him were destroyed (overcome) by the name of God and through Columielle He was magnified.” Just here it is interesting in some measure to understand what the nature of this pagan belief was but it must be very sadly condensed. It was the same in all respects as met Saint Patrick when he came to Ireland, and perhaps cannot be better summed up than by quoting from a metrical “Life of St. Patrick,” by Fiacc of Sleibhte, who says:
“He preached three-score years
The Cross of Christ to the Tuatha of Feni.
The Tuatha, adored the Side,
On the Tuatha of Erin there was darkness,
They believed not the true God-head
Of the Trinity.”
The Book of Armagh explains that the “Side,” or “Sidhe,” were “gods of the earth, a phantom.” Mysterious beings who were supposed to dwell alike in heaven, on the earth, in the sea, sky, rivers, mountains and valleys at will. Spirits to be dreaded and conciliated, to be worshipped and invoked by themselves and through the natural objects in which they were supposed to dwell. Hence we see the sacredness of the Druidic oaks and stones. The Druid and Magi priests contended they did not worship idols, but their deities who dwelt in them, that these natural objects were not themselves powers, but that through them the Drudh could consult their deity. The Magi added soothsaying, enchantment and divination, while as doctors they practiced on the superstitions of their patients as did the Drui. In one of these metrical accounts I find these lines:
“The Drui of Cruithnech in friendship
Discovered a cure for the wounded,
New milk in which they were washed
In powerful bathing.”
And a little further on speaking of:
“Six demon —like Druadh —
Necromancy, idolatry and illusion.
In a fair well-walled house. By them were taught
The hovering of the sreod and omens,
Choice of weather, lucky times,
The watching of the voice of birds
They practiced without disguise.”
This word sreod Dr. Todd glosses as “sneezing.” But I must not enlarge further on this strangely interesting point.
As already said we are without any details of the methods used by Columba to combat these pagan beliefs, but the conversion of their king exercised no doubt a most powerful influence in aiding Columba’s efforts, and he seemed by kindness rather than by force to have first won their confidence and then by degrees to have taught the Christian faith, then following the Irish method of monastic colonies, or as they were termed, monasteries, and in many places building churches. Thus for twelve years Columba, Corngall and other faithful men worked steadily in laying the foundations of the Columbate Church as it has been called in his honour, and after these years broadening the sphere of their labours to include the Southern Picts, who under Saint Ninian had been converted but who soon apostatized, all of which must be mentioned under the notice of this great teacher Ninian on September 16th.
We cannot follow through Columba’s work, so full of incidents which prove his devotion; his never failing hope even under dire misfortunes and cruel wrongs, till at last he reaches his Iona family once more. Nor may I copy as I would like, the long and touching description of those last days written by his biographer, Cummene, until on the morning of June 9, 597, Columba called his faithful attendant, Diormet, to him and said: “This day is called in the sacred Scriptures a day of rest and truly to me it will be such, for it is the last of my life and I will enter into my rest after the fatigues of my labours.”
Thus peacefully passed to his reward one of God’s noblest and most faithful servants, leaving behind him an imperishable memory not alone in the affection and veneration of those of his own day, but in the breasts of all true Christians who now after thirteen centuries study his character.
