Saint Columba
Columba and the monastry of Iona
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/genhist/hist18.html
St. Columba was born in the
country of Donegal in
Ireland, in the year
521, and was connected both on his father's and mother's
side with the Irish royal family. He was carefully
educated for the priesthood, and, after having finished
his ecclesiastical studies, founded monastries in
various parts of Ireland. The year of his departure from
Ireland is, on good authority, ascertained to have been
563, and it is generally said that he fled to save his
life, which was in jeopardy on account of a feud in
which his relations were involved. Mr Grub believes that
"the love of God and of his brethren was to him a
sufficient motive for entering on the great work to
which he was called. His immediate objects were the
instruction of the subjects of Conal, king of the
British Scots, and the conversion of their neighbours
the heathen Picts of the North". In the year 563, when
Columba was 42 years of age, he arrived among his
kindred on the shores of Argyle, and immediately set
himself to fix on a suitable site for a monastry which
he meant to erect, from which were to issue forth the
apostolic missionaries destined to assist him in the
work of conversion, and in which also the youth set
apart for the office of the holy ministry were to be
educated. St. Columba espied a solitary isle lying apart
from the rest of the Hebridean group, near the
south-west angle of Mull, then known by the simple name
I, whose etymology is doubtful, afterwards changed by
Bede into Hy, latinized by the monks into Iova or Iona,
and again honoured with the name of I-columb-cil, the
island of St. Columba of the church. This island, Conal,
who was then king of the Christian Scots of Argyle,
presented to Columba, in order that he might erect
theron a monastry for the residence of himself and his
disciples. No better station could have been selected
than this islet during such barbarous times.
In pursuance of his plan, St. Columba settled with
twelve disciples in Hy. "They now", says Bede, "neither
sought, nor loved, anything of this world", true traits
in the missionary character. For two years did they
labour with their own hands erecting huts and building a
church of logs and reeds. "The monastry of Iona, like
those previously founded by Columba in Ireland, was not
a
retreat for
solitaries whose chief object was to work out their own
salvation; it was a great school of Christian eduction,
and was specially designed to prepare and send forth a
body of clergy trained to the task of preaching the
Gospel among the heathen. Having established his
missionary institution, and having occupied himself for
some time in the instruction of his countrymen the Scots
of Argyle, the pious Columba set out on his apostolic
tour among the Picts,
probably in the year 565. At this time Bridei or Brude,
whose reign extended from 536 to 586, the son of Mailcon,
a powerful and influential prince, reigned over the
Northern Picts, and appears also to have had dominion
over those of the south. Judging well that if he could
succeed in converting Brude, who, when Columba visited
him was staying at one of his residences on the banks of
the Ness, the arduous task he had undertaken of bringing
over the whole nation to the worsip of the true God
would be more easily accomplished, he first began with
the king, and by great patience and perseverance
succeeded in converting him.
The first Gaelic entry in the Book of Deer lets us see
the great missionary on one of his tours, and describes
the founding of an important mission-station which
became the centre of instruction for all the surrounding
country. The following is the translation given of the
Gaelic origional: "Columcille, and Drostan son of
Cosgrach, his pupil, came from Hi, as God had shown to
them, unto Abbordoboir, and Bede the Pict was mormaer of
Buchan before them, and it was he that gave them that
town in freedom for ever from mormaer and toisech. They
came after that to the other town, and it was pleasing
to Columcille because it was full of God's grace, and he
asked of the mormaer, to wit Bede, that he should give
it to him; and he did not give it, and a son of his took
an illness after [or in consequence of] refusing the
clerics, and he was nearly dead [lit. he was dead but if
it were a little]. After this the mormaer went to
entreat the clerics that they should make prayer for the
son, that health should come to him; and he gave in
offering to them from Cloch in tiprat to Cloch pette
meic Garnait. They made the prayer, and health came to
him. After that Columcille gave to Drostan that town,
and blessed it, and left as (his) word, 'Whosoever
should come against it, let him not be many-yeared [or]
victorious'. Drostan's tears came on parting from
Columcille. Said Calumcille, 'Let Dear be its name
henceforth'".
The Abbordoboir here spoken of is Aberdour on the north
coast of Aberdeenshire, and Dear probably occupied the
site of what is now Old Deer, about twelve miles inland
from Aberdour. There is every reason for believing in
the substancial truth of the narrative. The two saints,
probably from the banks of the Ness, came to Aberdour
and "tarried there for a time and founded a monastry on
the land which had been franted them. In later times the
parish church of Aberdour was dedicated to St. Drostan".
One would almost be inclined to suppose, from the manner
in which the missionaries were apparently received, that
Chrisianity had been heard of there before; possibly
Bede the Pictish mormaer had been converted at the court
of King Brude, and had invited Columba to pay him a
visit in Buchan and plant the gospel among the
inhabitants. Possibly St. Ninian, the apostle of the
southern Picts, may, during his mission among them, have
penetrated as far north as Buchan. On the side of the
choir of the old parish church of Turriff, a few miles
west of Deer, was found painted
the figure of St. Ninian, which was probably as old as
the 16th century. At all events, Columba and his
companion appear to have been made most welcome in
Buchan, and were afforded every facility for prosecuting
their sacred work. The above record doubtless gives us a
fair notion of Columba's mode of procedure in
prosecuting his self-imposed task of converting the
inhabitants of Alba. As was the case in Buchan, he
appears to have gone from district to district along
with his missionary companions, see the work of
conversion fairly begun, planted a monastry in a
suitable place, and left one or more of his disciples as
resident missionaries to pursue the work ofconversion
and keep Christianity alive in the district.
Coumba soon had the happiness of seeing the blessings of
Christianity diffusing themselves among a people who had
hitherto sat in the darkness of paganism. Attended by
his disciples he traversed the whole of the Pictish
territories, spreading everywhere the light of faith by
instructing the people in the truths of the Gospel. To
keep up a succession of the teachers of religion, he
established, as we have seen, monasteries in every
district, and from them issued, for many ages, men of
apostolic earnestness, who watered and tended the good
seed planted by Columba, and carried it to the remotest
parts of the north of Scotland and its islands, so that,
in a generation or two after Columba, Christianity
became the universal religion. These monastries or cells
were long subject to the Abbey of Iona, and the system
of church government which proceeded from that centre
was in many respects peculiar, and had given rise to
much controversy between presbyterians and episcopalians.
St. Columba died on the 9th of June 597, after a
glorious and well-spent life, thirty-four years of which
he had devoted to the instruction of the nation he had
converted. His influence was very great with the
neigbouring princes, and they
often applied to him for advice, and submitted to him
their differences, which he frequently settled by his
authority. His memory was long held in reverence by the
Scots and Caledonians.
Conal, the fifth king of the Scots in Argyle, the
kinsman of St. Columba, and under whose auspices he
entered on the work of conversion, and to whom it is
said he was indebted for Hy, died in 571. His successor
Aidan went over to Iona in 574, and was there ordained
and inaugurated by the Abbot according to the ceremonial
of the liber vitreus, the cover of which is supposed to
have been encrusted with crystal.
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/genhist/hist18.html
Quoted from:
General History of the Scottish Highlands
This history is taken
from the "History of the Scottish Highlands, Highland
Clans and Scottish Regiments" mostly compiled around
1830 with some updates done in the late 1870's. Edited
by John S Keltie F.S.A. Scot.
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