Saint Columba of Iona, Enlightener of Scotland
- Jul 26
- 14 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” [Matthew 28:19]"
The Apostles and those who joined and who followed them took our Lord’s admonition so seriously that within a few hundred years of the Resurrection and Ascension, their missionary efforts had brought the story of our salvation to most of the known world. Exactly how and by whom and by what route Christianity was taken to the British Isles we do not know, but by the grace of God, there were Christians being washed in the waters of Baptism and living by the Bread of the Eucharist in this most remote part of the Roman Empire in the second century and possibly earlier.
"Did St. Joseph of Arimathea (possibly with St. Philip the Apostle) travel to this land, as many legends (East and West) claim? Were there Christians among the Roman legions stationed in Britain until the year 410? Did merchants who sold their wares from the Mediterranean through Gaul and on to Britain also bring word of the Triune God?"
Whatever its origins – and despite the hardship of being a minority religion in a predominantly pagan land – Christianity was alive and flourishing in pockets of Britain for hundreds of years before the “official” missionaries arrived from Rome in 597.
According to St. Bede, the Church historian, Pope Eleutherus received a request for baptism from a British king around the year 167; St. Alban, the first known British martyr is thought to have received his crown of glory in either the persecutions of 209 or 305; British bishops are recorded as having attended the Council of Arles in 314; and by the 5th century there were numerous monasteries, particularly throughout Ireland. It was the men in these monasteries who, by their constant prayers, their daily recitation of the Psalms, and their zeal to share the faith who kept alive the light of Christianity. One of those monks was St. Columba.
His Life
Saint Columba (or Colum Cille, "the dove of the Church") was of noble birth, a member of the powerful Ui Néill clan, which traced its descent to Niall of the Nine Hostages, who died around the year 450. His parents were Fedelmid mac Ferguso and Eithne. Although it is difficult to determine the date of Saint Columba's birth with any degree of certainty, it is believed that he was born in County Donegal on December 7, 521.
His parents may have been pagans, and named their son Crimthann. He was brought up by a foster-father, according to the custom of that time, a priest named Cruithnechan. We do not know what happened in Saint Columba's life from the time he completed his studies until his departure from Ireland in 563. He may have been baptized with the name Colum, which later became Columba (dove). Some sources state that after being ordained as a priest, Saint Columba preached in Ireland, and established monasteries at Derry and Durrow. It is said that he also founded one hundred churches.
"Born into a royal clan in Donegal in the year 521, Columba showed a desire to follow God at an early age. His education was begun by his parish priest and he was later sent to be further educated by St. Finnian of Clonard who ordained him to the diaconate. Columba loved the monastic life and founded several monasteries in his native land – Derry, Durrow and possibly Kells, in which the beautifully illuminated Book of Kells was produced. Miraculous works were reported of the deacon Columba and he was known as a skilled scribe and a poet in the tradition of the Irish bards."
Something happened in the year 561 which changed the course of the monk’s life. There are several stories about what that momentous event was: some say that he was instrumental in inciting the people to avenge the death of a young man who had been murdered; others say that columba was involved in a fight over refusing to return a Psalter which he had copied for another monastery. Whatever the reason, Columba and twelve of his fellow monks left Ireland two years later for Scotland, the land of the Picts.
Here they were given a small island for their use and the monastic community of Iona, with Columba as abbot, was established.
Columba’s penitential exile lasted for the rest of his life, and during this time the monks converted the pagans of the area to Christianity and built churches, strengthening a missionary tradition that was to continue after Columba’s death and spread from this land to continental Europe.
In Saints of the British Isles, Columba is said to have “looked upon the monastic life as military service for Christ, and the organization of the monastery reflected this. He practiced great asceticism, often retiring for prayer at night to solitary places, or by day into the woods. His bed was a stone.” [pg. 93-94] Columba maintained communication among the monastic communities he had founded, acting as the spiritual head of all, with local leaders under his authority. This unique custom was continued by Columba’s successors. He and his monks also maintained communication with the broader society back in Ireland. When the Irish high king expected the monks to contribute to an army, they instead provided him with a fleet. At an assembly in Druin Cetta around 580, the question of the social position of bards was being discussed, and Columba was instrumental in helping to preserve the status of these educated members of Irish society.
"Separated as they were from much of the Christian world, the monks of Iona and other monasteries in Ireland and Scotland were unaware of Conciliar decisions regarding the figuring of the date of Pascha, following instead an ancient custom taught them by the anonymous first Christian leaders in this area."
This became a major subject of conflict in the next century when there were contacts between the Roman missionaries and the Irish. The controversy was eventually settled at the Synod of Whitby in 664 (and Iona complied in 715) so that all the Christian world eventually came to celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection together.
Miracles
Columba chases the Loch Ness Monster
About to cross the Ness Columba learned a certain monster was terrorising the locality and feasting on anyone who entered the river. As a man attempted to swim over Columba declaimed: "Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed". At the voice of the saint 'the monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes', Adomnán tells us.
Columba turns water into wine
Columba was residing with the holy bishop Findbarr with whom he was learning the scriptures as a young deacon. On a certain feast day there was no wine to celebrate the Eucharist. Taking a vessel Columba went to a fountain and collected some pure spring water, which he miraculously turned into wine.
Columba draws water from a rock
On his travels Columba was asked to baptize a child but there was no spring nearby. He blessed a rock and there 'immediately gushed out an abundant stream of water' and the infant was blessed.
Columba cures pilgrims at Drumceatt
"Columba famously returned to Ireland for the meeting of the kings at Drumceatt in 590AD. Forbidden from setting foot in Ireland the saint strode to the meeting point at Mullagh Hill in Limavady with clods of earth under his soles. Many people came from far and wide to be cured. "Merely stretching out his holy hand, or by the sprinkling of the sick with the water blessed by him, or by their touching even the hem of his cloak, or by their receiving his blessing on anything, as, for instance, on bread or salt, and dipping it in water, they who believed recovered perfect health," Adomnan records."
Columba bans poisonous reptiles from Iona
The saint blessed the soil of the holy island so that ‘no poison of serpents should henceforth hurt any one in it’.
Columba sweetens a bitter apple tree
The early inhabitants of Derry were complaining about the bitterness of the fruit of a bountiful apple tree immediately to the south of Columba's monastery. Columba blessed the tree and 'at that very instant, all the apples of the tree lost their bitterness, and were changed to an amazing sweetness'.
Columba provides a miracle harvest
During Columba's time on Iona some monks were sent to request wood from a poor farmer to build a dwelling. In return for some branches Columba gave the peasant, a man named Findchan, some barley to sow. This was in spite it already being June and too late to sow for an August harvest. Thanks to the benediction of the saint he yielded a bumper crop much to the admiration of all his neighbours.
Columba makes salt impervious to fire
A man called Colga asked Columba for a lump of salt for the cure of his sister. A few days later a terrible fire destroyed the woman's entire village but the wall on which the salt was suspended was untouched.
Columba foretells the appearance of a monstrous whale
Some monks were due to sail over the open sea to Tiree in the Hebrides. Columba warned them to take a circuitous route so as not to be 'thrown into great terror by a huge monster'. They didn't take any heed and on their voyage encountered 'a whale, of huge and amazing size' that raised itself like a mountain and opened its mouth which were full of 'bristling teeth'.
Columba destroys a ferocious wild boar
Encountering a huge wild boar in a dense forest Columba destroyed it through prayer alone.
Columba's book survives 20 years at the bottom of a river
A young man fell into the Boyne with a satchel of books and was sadly drowned. Twenty years later his body was recovered from the river. All of the books were rotten but for a 'volume written by the sacred fingers of St. Columba' which 'was as dry and wholly uninjured as if it had been enclosed in a desk'.
Columba cures men and animals afflicted by a pestilential rain
"A huge cloud of pestilential rain fell over Ireland raising 'large and putrid ulcers on the bodies of men and on the udders of cows' so that men and cattle sickened and died. Columba blessed some bread and dipped it in water. A monk named Silnan sprinkle man and beast with the water and all were cured."
Columba foretells a huge fish
Some fishermen cast their net in a river and took five fish from it. Columba told them to cast their net again to 'find a large fish which the Lord has provided for me'. They did so and caught a salmon of 'astonishing size'.
Columba cures a malign druid to secure the release of a maiden
A malign druid called Broichan had taken an Irish maiden captive as a slave. As punishment he was struck down with a terrible disease. Columba agreed to cure him with a blessed white pebble on condition that he release the girl which he did.
Columba sails against a violent wind
The druid Broichan raised up a violent storm to hinder Columba ahead of an onward voyage. Columba embarked in his small boat and w'hilst the sailors hesitated, he the more confidently ordered them to raise the sails against the wind'. "No sooner was this order executed, while the whole crowd was looking on, than the vessel ran against the wind with extraordinary speed," Adomnán relates.
Columba exposes sorcerer by turning milk to bull's blood
"A sorcerer had gained notoriety by, through a 'diabolical art', apparently taking milk from a bull. Columba, to prove it was not true milk but blood 'coloured by the artifice of demons' turned it back to its true natural colour - red. The bull wasted away and was all but dead. But Columba blessed the animal and it recovered rapidly."
Columba exorcises a pail of milk
While writing in his cell Columba noticed a young man returning from milking cows with a vessel full of new milk. A demon was at the bottom of the pail but quickly fled in terror after the saint made the sign of the cross.
Columba calms a violent sea
There are a number of accounts of miracles where Columba calmed a violent sea. On one occasion the vessel on which he was travelling was 'violently tossed and shaken with the huge dashing waves' but the waters were calmed by the saint's invocations.
Columba blesses a poisonous fountain
In the land of the Picts (Scotland) there was a poisonous fountain. Anyone who drank or washed from it was struck by a 'demoniacal art, and went home either leprous or purblind, or at least suffering from weakness or other kinds of infirmity'. Columba blessed the fountain after which people came to be cured from it.
Columba increases poor man's herd 20-fold
On being hospitably received by a poor man called Nesan the Crooked Columba blessed his five heifers and his herd increased to 105 cows.
Columba cures a man of a nosebleed
A man had a nose bleed for many months. Columba pressed his nostrils with the two fingers of his right hand and blessed him. He never suffered a nose bleed again.
Columba raises a boy from the dead
The son of a householder was attacked with a dangerous illness. Columba was summonsed. The saint blessed the boy and raised him from the dead.
Columba predicts the violent death of a rich and stingy man
"Meeting a rich and stingy man who despised St. Columba and showed him no hospitality, the saint predicted the wealthy miser would be be reduced to nothing and that he would be killed by 'a rival beggar with an axe, in the pit of a threshing-floor.’ It came to pass."
St. Columba’s last years were spent quietly in Iona, writing and copying manuscripts and continuing the ascetic life of prayer. There are three extant Latin poems which are thought to be St. Columba’s compositions, and the Irish Academy has a Psalter whose Irish majuscule writing is believed to be the work of the saint.
His Death
On the morning of June 9, 597 (the same year that St. Augustine and his monks arrived in Kent to begin their missionary work among the Anglo-Saxons), Abbot Columba remained in the church after the night office. He gave up his soul to God before the altar where his monks found him as they arrived for Matins. St. Columba had lived a long, faithful life and his contribution to the spread of Christianity among the people of Irish and Scottish heritage lives on today. May God be praised in the witness of his saints.
St. Columba’s Iona Prophecy Fulfilled?
The Irish monk St. Columba, who died in 597, brought Christianity to Scotland, first by establishing a monastery on the Isle of Iona. That monastery was repeatedly attacked by Vikings in following centuries, and monastic life eventually died out.
"Among the Orthodox, there is a tradition that Columba prophesied the eventual desolation of monastic life on Iona, but said it would return shortly before the Second Coming of Christ. (For the record, I read that this alleged prophecy does not appear in the Life Of St. Columba, circa 697, which collected the wonderworking saint’s prophecies.)"
If the return-to-Iona prophecy is valid, then it has been fulfilled. "The Free Press writes about a Romanian Orthodox monk who has re-established Orthodox monasticism on the Isle of Iona. Excerpts from Huw Paige’s piece:
Orthodox Christianity is the branch of the Christian faith that split from Roman Catholicism in the Great Schism of 1054. It retains the early creeds, sacraments, and saints of Western Christianity; but where the Western faith has diverged, its theology, liturgy, and rhythms of life have remained unchanged. Services are largely chanted rather than spoken. Monks and nuns still follow ancient ascetic disciplines. And Christmas falls not on December 25 but on January 7, in accordance with the old Julian calendar."
Well, that’s not strictly true. It is for the Slavic Orthodox churches, generally, but the Greeks and others follow the “New Calendar” (Gregorian). Not sure why this Romanian monastery follows the Old Calendar; it might be part of a small Old Calendarist group within the Romanian Orthodox Church. Anyway:
"Father Seraphim says his purpose came to him in 2010, after praying in the crypt of Father Sophrony—the Russian monk who founded the UK’s principal Orthodox monastery in 1959 and was recently canonized as a saint. He asked for a sign of what to do next, and when he emerged into the light, his phone rang.On the line was the parish priest in Glasgow. He had just heard about an old church on the Isle of Mull. It was teetering on the edge of abandonment: Situated in a place with no permanent residents—Orthodox or otherwise, it would be lost unless someone was mad enough to take it over and turn it into a monastery. Step forward Father Seraphim, then 30. “I had just prayed literally less than a minute before about a way forward,” he remembered. “So I took that as a sign that maybe God is taking me towards this place.”
Funny, but I booked a pilgrimage in 2015 to his fledgling monastery on Mull, but didn’t make it in the end. I had forgotten about Father Seraphim and his project. Not only has the original Mull monastery thrived, but it has a daughter house on nearby Iona.
In some ways, the timing of Father Seraphim’s mission could not have been more fortuitous. According to Reverend Boniface Carroll, an Orthodox priest and anthropologist at University College London, much of Orthodoxy’s recent growth can be traced to the enforced stasis of the Covid years. “Any time people are threatened with having to rethink their worldview,” he said, “we see people opening up to new questions.”Back on the island of Iona, the monks emphasize that Orthodoxy is not a political project but a spiritual one: a tradition focused on cultivating an intimate, unbroken relationship with Christ. A recent report from the Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life on shifting religious beliefs in the UK attributed a “striking number of new or returning adherents” to Christianity to a move towards “experiential and personalized belief.” Such a description applies neatly to Orthodoxy.
Last bit:
"Other than on special days of worship, the monastery’s days follow a common pattern. The morning begins an hour or so after dawn with matins (morning prayers) in the monastery’s chapel, a shepherd’s hut standing in the center of the guesthouse’s small garden. This is followed by breakfast: On the regular fasting days of Wednesday and Friday, this involves a vegetarian spread of toast, jam, and leftovers from the night before; during the rest of the week, there are omelets and cheeses. Orthodoxy is full of such requirements: from ritual prostrations to weeks-long fasts before Christmas and Pascha (Easter). It is this seriousness—the combination of discipline and beauty—that draws many new converts. "
Declan Collins, 28, is one relatively recent convert, having found his faith six years ago. For him, attending church was “the culmination of an intellectual journey,” prompted by watching the YouTube videos of an Orthodox icon carver. “I’m not really sure of anyone I know who hasn’t got to it online in some kind of capacity,” he said. While he emphasized the difficulty in summarizing theoretical and spiritual ideas for nonbelievers, he sees Orthodoxy fundamentally as “a way of transformation of the person towards being more loving.” He described it as “a complete way of life.”
He continued. "Iona has a very special place in Celtic monasticism — and as the Celtic monks were thriving when the Church was united, both Catholics and Orthodox can claim them as their own.
The nuns live on the original settlement on Mull, and the monks in a hermitage on nearby Iona, established in 2022. Here’s a link to Fr Seraphim’s YouTube channel. Here’s a photo of the church, monastery, and guest cottages on Mull. I’ve got to get there one of these days. Why not book a pilgrimage yourself?"
(Feast Day ~ June 9)
Troparion
— in 5th Tone
By your God-inspired life / you embodied both the mission and the dispersion of the Church, / most glorious Father Columba. / Using your repentance and voluntary exile, / Christ our God raised you up as a beacon of the True Faith, / an apostle to the heathen and an indicator of the Way of salvation. / Wherefore O holy one, cease not to intercede for us / that our souls may be saved.
Holy Father Columba, pray to God for us!
Sources: ocl.org , oca.org , stgregoryoc.org , Rod Dreher’s Diary A History of the English Church and People by Bede, tr. Leo Sherley-Price; Christianity in England from Roman Times to the Reformation, Vol. I: From Roman Times to 1066, Kenneth Hylson-Smith; Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, F. L. Cross, ed.; Saints of the British Isles, A. Bond and N. Mabin; The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Hugh Farmer.]
Comments