COLUMBANUS
137
COLUMBANUS
?( Titling. On the eve of his death he was engaged in
till worlc of transcription. It is stated that he wrote
.■>()() books with his own hand, two of which. "The
Honk of Durrow" and the psalter called "The Ca-
thai-h". have been preserved to the present time.
Tlir psalter, enclosed in a shrine, was originally carried
into battle by the O'Donnells as a pledge of victor^'.
."Several of his compositions in Latin and Irish have
collie down to us, the best known being the poem
■ \ltus Prosator", published in the "Liber Hym-
nnriiin",andalsoin another form by the late Marcjucss
of Hute. There is not sufficient evidence to prove
f liiil the rule attributed to him was really his work.
In the spring of .597 he knew that his end was ap- proaching. On Saturday, S June, he a.scended the liill overlooking his monastery and blessed for the la.st time the home so dear to him. That afternoon he «ii^ present at ^'espers, and later, when the bell sum- moned the community to the midnight service, he forestalled the others and entered the church without a--istance. But he sank before the altar, and in that plinc breathed forth his .soul to God, surrovmded by 1:1- disciples. This happened a little after midnight lici ween the Sth .and 9th of June, .597. He was in the sc\cnty-seventh year of his age. The monks buried him within the monastic enclosure. After the lapse of a centurj- or more his bones were disinterred and placed within a suitable shrine. But lis Northmen ai'l Oanes more than once invaded the island, the relies of St. Columba were carried for purposes of safety into Ireland and deposited in the church of
I lownpatrick. Since the twelfth century historj' is siliiit regarding them. His books and garments were lielil in veneration at lona, they were exposed and carried in procession, and were the means of working miiaeles (Adam., II, .xlv). His feast is kept in Scot- laii'l and Ireland on the 9th of June. In the Scottish Province of St. Andrews and Edinburgh there is a \l:t-~. and Office, proper to the festival, which ranks as
- i double of the second cla.ss with an octave. He is
pat ron of two Scottish dioceses, .\rgyle and the Isles and Dunkeld. According to tradition St. Columba was tall and of dignified mien. Adamnan says: 'He was angelic in appearance, graceful in speech, li'ily in work" (Praef., II). His voice was strong, saeet. and sonorous, capable at times of being heard at a L'leat distance. He inherited the ardent tempera-
' and strong pa.ssions of his race. It has been
imes .said that he was of an angrj- and vindic-
-pirit, not only because of his supposed part in
I I ,i 1 lattle of C'ooldrevny, but also because of instances related by .\damnan (II, xxiii sq,). But the deeds tliat roused his indignation were wrongs done to "tiers, and the retribution that overtook the perpe- iioors was rather predicted than actually invoked. W' it ever faults were inherent in his nature he over- r ■ e. and he stands before the world conspicuous for ! lility and charity not only towards his brethren. 1 !' towards strangers also. He was generous and
iriii-hearted. tender and kind even to dimib crea-
1 lo-. He w;is ever ready tosjTnpathize with the joys omI sorrows of others. His fa.sts and vigils were car- ri' 1 to a great extent. The stone pillow on which he ~lept is said to be still preserved in lona. His cha.s- iitv of body and purity of mind are extolled by all In- biographers. N'otwithstanding his wonderful au- sieriiies, .\damnan assures us he was beloved by all,
lor a holy joyousncss that ever beamed from his countenance revealed the gladness with which the Holy Spirit filled his soul". (Prsef., II.)
InFLUENTE, .\Nn .^TTITtDE TOW.\RDS RoME. He
\' 1- not only a great missionary .saint who won a whole kmtrdom loChrist. btit he was a statesman, a. scholar, a po, 1 :ind the founder of niuneroiLs churches and mon- a-ti ri<'s. His name is dear to Scotsmen and Iri.shmen alike. .\nd because of his great and noble work even iion-C'atholics hold his memory in veneration. For
the purposes of controversy it has been maintained by
spme that St. Columba ignored papal supremacy, be-
cau.se he entered upon his mission without the pope's
authorization. Adamnan is silent on the subject; but
his work is neither exhaustive as to Columba's life,
nor does it pretend to catalogue the implicit and ex-
plicit belief of his patron. Indeed, in those days a
mandate from the pope was not deemed essential for
the work which St. Columba undertook. This may be
gathered from the words of St. flregorj' the Oreat,
relative to the neglect of the British clergj- towards
the pagan Saxons (Haddan and Stubbs, III, 10 1.
Columba was a son of the Irish Church, which taught
from the days of St. Patrick that matters of greater
moment should be referred to the Holy See for set-
tlement. St. Cohmibanus. Columba's fellow-coimtrj'-
man and fellow-churchman, asked for papal judg-
ment {judicium) on the Easter question; so did the
bishops and abbots of Ireland. There is not the
sliglitest evidence to prove that St. Columba differed
on this point from his fellow-countrymen. Moreover,
the Stowe Missal, which, according to the best au-
thority, represents the Mass of the Celtic Church dur-
ing the earl}' part of the seventh century, contains in
its Canon prayers for the pope more emphatic than
even those of the Uonian Liturgy. To the further ob-
jection as to the supposed absence of the cultus of
Our Lady, it may be pointed out that the same
Stowe Missal contains before its Canon the invoca-
tion "Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis", which epitomizes
all Catholic devotion to the Bles.sed Virgin. As to
the Easter difficulty, Bede thus sums up the reasons
for the discrepancy: "He [Columba] left successors
distinguished for great charitv. Divine love, and strict
attention to the rules of discipline; following indeed
uncertain cycles in the computation of the great fes-
tival of Easter, because, far away as they were out of
the world, no one had supplied them with the synodal
decrees relating to the Paschal obser\-ance" (H. E.,
Ill, iv). As far as can be ascertained, no proper sym-
bolical representation of St. Columba exists. "The
few attempts that have been made are for the most
part mistaken. A suitable pictorial representation
would exiiibit him clothed in the habit and cowl usu-
ally worn by the Basilian or Benedictine monks, with
Celtic tonsure and crosier. His identity could be best
determined by showing him standing near the shell-
strewn shore, with rurrach hard by, and the Celtic
cross and ruins of lona in the background.
Reeves, S. Columba by Atlamnan (Edinburgh, 1874); Fow- ler, Adamnani Vila -S. Coiumbcp (Oxford, 1894); Lan'1(;a.n-, Ecclesiastical Uisl. of Ireland (Dublin. 1829); Skene, Cellic Scotland (Edinburgh. 1897); Healy, Ireland's Ancimt SrhnoU and Scholars (Dublin, lS90f; MoRAN, Irish Saints in Great Britain (Dublin, 1903); O'Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints (Dublin, 187fi), \'T; Edmonds, Early Scottiih Church, Doctrine and Discipline (Edinburgh, 1906); Dowden, Celtic Church (London, 18941; .Montalembert, Monks of the West (Edin- burgh, I86i\ Columba Ed.monds.
Columbanus, S.^int, Abbot of Luxeuil and Bobbio, b. in West Lcinster, Ireland, in 543; d. at Bobbio, Italy, 21 Nov.. 615. His life was written by Jonas, an Italian monk of the Columban community, at Bobbio, c. 643. This author lived during the abbacy of Attala, Columbanus's immediate succes.sor, and his informants had been companions of the saint. Mabil- lon in the second volume of his " Acta Sanctoriun O. S. B." gives the life in full, together with an appendix on the miracles of the saint, written by an anonymous member of the Bobbio community.
Columbanus, whose birth took place the year St. Benedict died, was from chihlhood well instmcted. He was handsome and prepossessing in appearance, and this exposed him to the shameless temptations of .several of his countrywomen. He also had to struggle with his own tem|)tations. At la.st he betook hinL-ielf to a religious woman, who advised him thus: "Twelve years ago I fled from the world, and shut
