COLTON. 181 COLXTMBA. Shore in Madeira, Lifihon, and the Mediterranean (1835); A Visit to Athena and Connluntinoidc (1830) ; Three Years in California (1850) ; and Deel; and Port ( 1S50) , besides oUior lively stoi'ies of travel and the sea. COLTSFOOT. See Tr.ssiLAiiO. COLU'BRID.a: (Xco-Lat. nom. {)!., from Lat. coUihir, serpent). The largest and most scat- tered family or group of snakes. It is variously limited by systematic authors, and has served as a residuary group for all serpents not easily classified elsewhere, so that a definition is ditii- cult. The grouj), however, may be said to include the "common' small, harmless serpents every- where. The garter-snakes, water-snakes, hog- nose, etc., are North American representatives of this family, to which. indeed, all non-venomous American snakes belong except a few species along the Mexican border. COLTJGO, ku-loo'go, or Kaguan. See Cobego. COLXJM'BA, Saint, Saint Colum-cille, or Saint C'olm (521-597). An Irish missionary, one of the greatest names in the early ecclesias- tical history of the British Isles. He was born at Gartan, County Donegal, northwest Ireland, December 7. 521. His father was Fedhilmidh, of the powerful Clan O'Donnell, and related to sev- eral of the rulers of Ireland and West Scotland: his mother was Eithne. who also boasted royal ancestry. He studied first at iloville. County Down, five miles south of Bangor, on Belfast Lough, under Bishop Saint Finnian. and was or- dained deacon by him; next mider another Saint Finnian, at Clonard, who ordained him a priest. He was early distinguished by his piety, and the name Columba, i.e. dove, was recognized as an appropriate one. He showed rare monastic zeal. In 545 he founded the church and monastery of Derry, and in 553 those of Durrow, not far west of Dublin. The latter became of great impor- tance, and in both places the saint is still com- memorated by a well and a stone. He founded other monasteries, the chief of which was Kells. In 5(51 he embroiled himself in the civil strifes of his country and was charged with having incited the bloody battle of Culdreimhne (now Coola- drummon), because he appealed to his tribe to defend by force of arms the copy of the Latin Psalter which he had made from one borrowed of his old teacher. Saint Finnian of JMoville. But for being thus the occasion of bloodshed he was censured by 'an Irish ecclesiastical .synod, and recommended to do penance by foreign mission- ary labor. Accoi'dingly. in 5(i3, he headed a little company of twelve disciples and sailed across to the west coast of Scotland, and landed upon the little island of Hy, since called I-colum- cille, but better knowTi as lona. It lies just opposite Oban. There he began the great work of converting the Picts, to which he owes his fame. His missionary operations were prob- ably very simple, consisting of persistent per- sonal appeals. In the legends which are told about him, as in the life of him liy Adam- nan ^nd in the Book of Deer, a Celtic JIS. of the eleventh or twelfth century, preserved at Cam- bridge, England, edited by .John Stuart for the Spalding Club (Aberdeen, 1869), the miraculous enters. Many miraculous occurrences are nar- rated of him, whose traditions still linger in the scenes of his labors. He promoted monasti- cism, overenme the opposition of the Druids, made many converts, including royal personages, and founded many churches. As in Ireland, so in Scot- land, he took part in secular all'airs, and at least one battle is said to have been incited by him. He died at lona at midnight beUvcen .lune 8 and !l, 51)7, and left an ini[>erishalilc name. With loving care his boiu's wi're enshrined, and his relies — the stone i)ilUnv on which he slejit, the books lie loved so well, the stall which was the symbol of his pastoral authority, and other objects which he had used — were long preserved and exhibited. Columba was a poet, and three Latin liynuis now extant are attributed to him. In one of them, the "Altus Prosator," published with an English paraplirase, by .John. .Manpiis of Bute (Edinburgh, 1872), each strophe begins with a different letter, in aljihabetical order. Besides these, some Celtic poems are attributed lo him, and a Rule (printed in Celtic and Eng- lish in Haddon and Stubbs, Councils and Ecele- siastieal Documents, ii. 119, and in English only in Skene, Celtic Scotland, ii. 508). Columba was an ascetic, capable of any amount of deprivation. He was an eager stu- dent and nmde copies with his own hand of documents which fell in his way. Two of these ■ — the Bool: of Kells and the Bool: of Durrow — were long preserved. His energy* sometimes led him to harsh actions, but that he was tender- hearted the affection of his monks evinces. He seems to have had original ideas upon Church government; for Bede writes of lona that its ruler was "an abl)ot, who is a priest, to whose direction all the i)rovince. and even the bishops, contrary to the usual method, are subject, ac- cording to the example of their first teacher [Columba], who was not a bishop, but a priest and a monk" (Eccles. Hist., iii. 4). Bede then criticises the Columban monks because they did not, until 715, keep Easter after the Western manner, but upon the 14th of Ni.san, or what- ever day it came, as the Eastern Church did. Other peculiarities of the Columban monks, pre- suming that they followed the Irish models, wa.s that they Jived in huts grouped around a church and surrounded by a wall; each hut had its head, but all were under the abbot, who per- formed episcopal functions though not usually a bishop, and was a spiritual father to all the community, and when he pleased summoned all the members to him by ringing a hand-bell, one of the insignia of his ofiice. The monks dressed in an undergarment covered by a coarse woollen wrapper fastened around the" waist by a rope. They shaved the front ]iart of their heads from a line drawii over the top from ear to ear. Their religious services were numerous and strictly attended to. but the rest of their time was spent in labor, either in working upon their fields and tending cattle (for they raised what they needed for their support), or in copying books, particu- larly the Bible, or in studying or in teaching others. Latin was spoken as well as Celtic, and was employed by them in writing. Some of the monastic conmiunities contained famous schools, where Greek and even Hebrew were taught. The continuance of the memory of Saint Columba in Scotland is shov-n by the fact that his is one of the conunonest names given to a church, even to-day. among the Presbyterians. The life of Saint Columba was writtenby two of his suc- cessors in the abbacy of lona— Cuimine Ailbhe, seventh abbot (057-09), whose De Virtiitihiis
