[MR] Saint Columba, Missionary to the Picts

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

On this day in 597, Saint Columba died at his monastery on the Scottish
Island of Iona.


Columba was an Irish monk and priest who founded one of the earliest and
most successful monastic communities in what would eventually be Scotland.
He was, however, just one among several missionaries active in the region
during the 6th century.

Saint Columba was born circa 521 AD into a cadet branch of the powerful *Uí
Néill *clan. As a youth he was educated and trained for the priesthood
under Cruithnechán, and later Abbot Finnian of Morvilla. Columba was a fine
scholar, talented musician, powerful preacher, and founder of several
monastic houses.


He was also extremely arrogant, and did what he wanted no matter whose toes
he stepped on. Columba never admitted he was wrong, and never apologized to
anyone. In a famous incident, he returned to his teacher Finnian’s abbey to
study a particular manuscript. Columba had permission to read the document,
but not to make a copy, which he secretly did anyway. When Finnian learned
of the copy, he was furious and drove Columba from the abbey. Their spat
went all the way to Ireland's High King, who ruled in Finnian’s favor.


Eventually, Columba made so many enemies, he was summoned to a tribunal and
threatened with excommunication. Somehow he wriggled out the charges. One
of Columba’s few remaining friends recommended he take a long vacation from
Ireland "for his health". Columba saw the wisdom in this, and decided to
minister to the heathen Northern Picts (the “apostate” Southern Picts, who
had been Christianized in Roman times, were already being re-evangelized by
other missionaries).


Columba obtained permission from the king of *Dál Riata *to settle in
Argyle on the western coast of Scotland. Columba landed there with the
requisite 12 followers, but didn’t like the new site. Possibly without
permission, he packed up his disciples and sailed off to the tiny island of
*Hy* in 563. Today we know *Hy* as Iona, a speck of land about three miles
long, a mile wide (today with a golf course in the middle, but hey, this is
Scotland!), and two miles west from the much larger Isle of Mull.


The Iona monastery was the first, and for years one the few sites of
scholarship and literacy in the region. The monastery was famous for its
scriptorium, which may have in part produced the famous 9th century *Book
of Kells*. Workshops created carved stone crosses and grave slabs, as well
as smaller goods such as the Monymusk Reliquary, thought to have held a
relic of Saint Columba himself. The monastery was also a training school
for missionary monks and priests.


Although Columba is credited with a few forays to the Northern Picts, he
later left the missionary work to his followers. The Pictish mission was
not a success, but the Northern Picts were later evangelized by other
missionaries. Columba retired to his cell on a hill opposite the church,
and spent the rest of his life writing and praying. He occasionally
returned to Ireland to check on the other religious houses he had founded.
When Columba died in 597, he was buried at Iona and instantly proclaimed a
saint.


Vikings began “visiting” Iona beginning in 795. They returned in 802, 806
and 825, and several times massacred many of the monks. Most surviving
monks fled Iona. Some went to Kells Abbey in Ireland (a daughter house to
Iona), taking part of Saint Columba’s relics with them. Other relics went
first to Dunkeld in mainland Scotland, then were translated to St.
Andrews. Although all the saint’s bones are lost, two possible secondary
relics survive: the Monymusk Reliquary and a curiously shaped and
uncomfortable-looking stone known as  “Columba’s Pillow” now displayed in
the reconstructed 12th century church on the Iona Abbey site.


Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆

Continuing a crusade to keep the original Merry Rose relevant and in
business.