Columba
Columba (/kəˈlʌmbəˌ ˈkɒlʌmbə/) or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries. He is the patron saint of Derry. He was highly regarded by both the Gaels of Dál Riata and the Picts, and is remembered today as a Catholic saint and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.
Columba | |
|---|---|
Saint Columba, Apostle to the Picts | |
| Apostle of the Picts | |
| Born | 7 December 521 AD Gartan, Tyrconnell, Gaelic Ireland |
| Died | 9 June 597 AD (aged 75) Iona, Dál Riata |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Anglicanism Lutheranism |
| Major shrine | Iona, Scotland |
| Feast | 9 June |
| Attributes | Monk's robes, Celtic tonsure and crosier. |
| Patronage | Derry, floods, bookbinders, poets, Ireland, and Scotland. |
Columba studied under some of Ireland's most prominent church figures and founded several monasteries in the country. Around 563 AD he and his twelve companions crossed to Dunaverty near Southend, Argyll, in Kintyre before settling in Iona in Scotland, then part of the Ulster kingdom of Dál Riata, where they founded a new abbey as a base for spreading Celtic Christianity among the pagan Northern Pictish kingdoms. He remained active in Irish politics, though he spent most of the remainder of his life in Scotland. Three surviving early medieval Latin hymns are attributed to him.