1404 Years Ago:
St. Columcille Dies 
Edward T. O'Donnell * The Irish Echo * June 6, 2001

One thousand four hundred and four years ago this week, on June 9, 597 a.d., the great monk Columcille blessed his followers and died at the altar of his monastery chapel.  His had been a long and extraordinary life of preaching, teaching, and writing, as well as founding monasteries in Ireland and Scotland.  It profoundly affected not only  the early Christian church, but the very foundation of western civilization itself. 

St. Columcille was the greatest of Ireland’s Christian missionaries after Patrick.  He was born in Garton, County Donegal in 521 a.d.   Named Crimthann (or Fox), he belonged to a royal family (the O’Neill’s) in the line of the great High Kings.  From childhood he was placed in the care of a local priest who educated him for the religious life.  Later he studied for the priesthood under Bishop (and future saint) Finian of Clonard.  At his ordination he took the name Colum, or dove.  Later as he gained a reputation to establishing churches and monasteries the cille (“of the churches”) was added.  Many know him as Columba, the Latinized version of his name. 

As with most ancient saints, most of what we know about Columcille comes from the writings of later hagiographers who added embellishments, myths, and miracles to the basic biography.  The best source for Columcille is a biography written by his famed successor, Adamnem (or Adomnan).  From it we learn that the monk was an imposing figure: “A man well-formed, with powerful frame; his skin was white, his face broad and fair and radiant, lit with gray, luminous eyes.”  He possessed an engaging voice, a nimble mind, and charismatic personality.  But Columcille was also zealous and hot-tempered, character traits that served him well in some instances, but that ultimately led to his near demise.

One story that captures the essence of his personality involved an altercation with his mentor, Finian.  Columcille loved books, especially a psalter owned by Finian.  Secretly, he copied the manuscript in his room (in the dark with the page lit by light emanating from his fingertips according to one legend).  When Finian found out, he demanded the original and the copy (books were extremely rare in those days).  When Columcille refused to surrender the latter, the case went before King Diarmaid who issued his famous edict: “to every cow its calf, to every book its copy.”  Reluctantly, Columcille handed over the book.    It would not be his last encounter with the king.

Soon after the psalter incident, Columcille began his life as a missionary.  His predecessor Patrick had done much to establish Christianity in Ireland, but in the mid-6th century it remained an overwhelmingly pagan society.  Traveling throughout the north of Ireland, Columcille earned a reputation for his success in winning converts, establishing churches, and founding monastic communities – as many as 40 by the time he was 41. The turning point Columcille’s life came in 561 a.d. when he again clashed with King Diarmaid.  He’d offered sanctuary to a man who sought protection from the king after accidentally killing his son in a sporting event.  When the king violated the sacred law of sanctuary by having his soldiers break into the monastery and execute the man, Columcille fled north to rally his kinsmen.  Whether or not he actually planned to spark a war, he got one.  His supporters laid waste to the army of Diarmaid in the Battle of Cooldrevne, killing 3,000 and losing only one of their number. 

Columcille won back his book, which thereafter was known as the Cathach (“Warrior”), and carried into battle by the O’Donnell’s for centuries to come.  But it was small compensation given the punishment he received for causing the bloodshed.  Briefly excommunicated, he soon received his penance: he must leave Ireland forever and carry Christianity to pagans abroad. 

At the age of 42 he set out in a small curragh with twelve followers.  They headed north and eventually chose to settle on Iona, a small island off the coast of present-day Scotland.  Irish missionaries had already arrived to preach among the Picts and Scots, but it was Columcille whom history would record as the man who Christianized Scotland.

Their monastery quickly achieved a wide reputation and received a steady stream of monastic applicants.  To keep Iona from growing too large and to spread the faith, Columcille repeatedly sent groups of monks out to establish new communities.  By the time of his death on Iona in 597 a.d., he and his charges had established 60 monasteries in Scotland. 

His successor, Aidan, continued his mission into northern England and others pressed on still further to the European continent.  As Thomas Cahill writes in his wonderful book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, “[J]ust as Cuchulainn had served as the model of prehistoric Irish manhood, Columcille now became the model for all who would earn the ultimate victory.  Monks began to set off in every direction, bent on glorious and heroic exile for the sake of Christ.”  These Irish monks brought with them not merely the message of Christianity, but also the collective knowledge (and books) of western civilization that had been all but eradicated during the barbarian destruction of the Roman Empire.   Thus did St. Columcille play a decisive role in both the spread of the early Church and the “saving of civilization.” 

HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK

June 8, 1853: leader of the Young Ireland uprising John Mitchel escapes from his exile in Australia and heads for America. 

June 11, 1534: Silken Thomas Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare, rebels against the authority of Henry VIII.  He and several members of his family are captured and executed in 1537. 

June 12, 1775: Captain Jeremiah O’Brien gains the first naval victory of the American colonists by capturing the British ship Margaretta off the coast of Maine.

HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES:

June 6, 1880: First President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, William Cosgrave, is born in Dublin.

June 7, 1892: Nationalist and government minister Kevin O’Higgins is born in Stradbally, Co. Laois

June 9, 1916: U.S. Secretary of Defense and head of World Bank Robert McNamara is born in San Francisco.

(c) Edward T. O'Donnell, 2001