Columba was born at Gartan, Donegal in Ireland
and came from a warring royal line. After a battle in Ulster
in around 563 it is thought that he was banished, thus bringing
him to Iona. It is, of course, possible that he came of his
own free will to work as a missionary to the Scots in Dal
Riata but his later involvement in Scottish politics suggests
that he was always involved in non-religious activities. In time his monastery on Iona came to dominate the other religious establishments in both the Pictish and Dalriadic territories. Over a century after his death he was being asked to give sailors better weather as they moved materials for a new church on Iona across the water so that they could get home for his feast day. Columba easily became the most important saint in Scotland and this has meant that we have lost valuable information on other missionaries of this period. Iona had also become the burial place of Scottish kings where the deceased royal hoped to appear more pious by his closeness to Columba.
Before moving to Iona he had already founded a church at
Derry and a monastery at Durrow so he was experienced in building
new ecclesiastical foundations. He was granted Iona by Aidan
whom he had crowned king of Dal Riata (modern Argyll) and
at Iona he worked at, among other things, the copying of religious
texts in the traditional Celtic style. He also travelled to
Inverness to convert King Brude of the Picts
but it is unlikely that he achieved this as his biographer,
Adamnan, would certainly have mentioned it in his Life of
Columba. Adamnan's biography is one of the main sources of
information on Scotland during this period.
Columba's work spread throughout the west of Scotland and
linked with the earlier foundation at Whithorn, he died on
Iona in c.597.
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Columba preaching to the Picts - portrait by
William Hole |
