Columba of Iona (June 9th), an Irishman by birth, is the most celebrated saint in Scotland. He was born in 521 to a noble family. Educated by local monks, his scholarly abilities led him to enter the monastic life. Almost immediately, he embarked on missionary journeys, establishing two monasteries before his ordination to the priesthood in 551. In 565 he set out with twelve companions for the region of northwest England/southwest Scotland where the local people, the Picts, were still generally ignorant of Christianity. He landed on the island of lona, just off the Scottish coast. The Picts received him kindly, giving him possession of the island and allowing him to preach, convert, and baptize. He established a monastery on lona, which came to be the headquarters of Christianity for the region as Columba and his missionaries built up strong and distinctive Churches for both the Picts and the Scots.
Though rather hot-headed as a younger man, Columba had by this time settled into a quiet pattern of offering spiritual direction, mediating disputes between civil rulers, and copying sacred texts (he made some 300 copies of the Gospels), while leading his monastery and exercising the Church's primary authority in his area (even though he was not a bishop). Columba made long journeys into Scotland (as far as modem-day Aberdeen), and he became deeply loved and revered by the people.
His death in 597 is the stuff of legends; one morning, he had been copying the Psalter and then went into the monastery's Chapel to prepare for Matins. Arriving for morning prayers, his monks found him dead at the altar, a smile on his face. Columba's influence in Scotland, Ireland, and northern England only increased after his death. |
