Loch Ness monster taming saint marks his 1500th birthday

Celebrations have already been going on across Scotland and Ireland, but the traditionally accepted date for his birth was December 7, 521 – not 520, as others have maintained. I first wrote in the Sunday National back in May about Columba’s greatest achievement, which was his almost single-handed conversion of the Picts to Christianity.

Readers wrote to me asking if I could give more details about his life, and try to solve several puzzles about Columba, such as his real name and the reasons why he left his native Ireland for Scotland at the age of 41 – already an old age in those days.

No-one can truly solve those puzzles, and that’s why there are a lot of possibles and probables in this article, and I will be making some alternative suggestions to the legends and myths that surround Columba. At least we have a little evidence as to some of the facts – and some of the mysteries – of Columba’s life and career as they were recorded in the Life of Saint Columba, written in Latin by St Adomnán, ninth Abbot of the Iona monastery, in the century after Columba lived. Today, I will be quoting from the translation, edited by William Reeves and published in Edinburgh by Edmonston and Douglas in 1874. It is still in print today. The Life is hagiographic and is not a chronological narrative of Columba’s life, rather an episodic account of the miracles, vision and prophecies attributed to the saint, and there were a lot of them.

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It does hint at several matters about Columba that are generally accepted as facts – that he was born into a high-ranking family; that he became a monk and a priest; that he founded a monastery in Derry along with many other religious institutions; that he left Ireland for the west of Scotland in 563, arriving in Dalriada, then the kingdom of the Scoti, the Irish Gaels; that he founded the Iona Christian community; that he led the mission to convert the Picts to Christianity; that he died on Iona in 597 at the

age of 75.

The first important thing to know about Columba is that Ireland and Scotland both have a claim to him. He spent more than half his life in his native land, and was already famed there by the time he left for Dalriada in modern Argyll and Bute. He is the patron saint of the city of Derry and is acknowledged as the third patron saint of Ireland after St Patrick and St Brigid of Kildare.

HIS original name appears to have been Colum, and on his father’s side he was the great-great-grandson of the famed Niall of the Nine Hostages – a legendary Irish high king of the 5th century. Colum was of the tribe known as the Cénel Connail, the kindred of Conall, who were an important branch of the northern Ui Néill, the mightiest clan of Northern Ireland.

He was most probably born in Donegal, and is said to have been raised in a village which afterwards was called Glencolmcille in his honour – in Ireland he was always known as Colmcille, a name which means “dove of the church”. It is likely that his name was changed when he entered the church at the age of 20 having already studied letters and calligraphy – there are plenty of accounts of his brilliance as a scribe and he did translate and transcribe many works in his life.

Having been a pupil of a famous bard, Gemman, Columba now entered the monastic school at Clonard Abbey and came under the tuition and influence of Finnian of Clonard. This St Finnian was operating at the time when Ireland was on the cusp of transforming from a pagan society to a Christian country.

Finnian saw himself as leading that transformation and deliberately picked 12 followers, including Columba, who would afterwards be known as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland – a dozen students at Clonard who completed the Christianisation of Ireland, and whose number included the famous St Brendan the Navigator.

Columba grew into a powerful physical presence, as well as a man noted for his determination and possibly even his tetchiness, according to some accounts. He was certainly renowned for his loud voice, which was of great assistance as he preached to the people back in his native north-west.

He founded the monastery at Derry and went on to found similar monasteries across Ireland, before he left for Scotland under mysterious circumstances. The legendary

story is that Columba was caught copying a book, supposedly the Vulgate translation of the Bible by St Jerome, at Moville Abbey – where the abbot Finnian demanded that

he hand it over. Columba refused, and a campaign began to have him arrested and possibly even excommunicated. He was already in the bad books of the High King Diarmait for giving sanctuary to a relative, Curnan, who had accidentally killed an opponent in a hurling match. Diarmait sent his troops and they dragged out Columba’s relative and killed him on the spot.

Finnian took his copyright dispute to Diarmait who found against Columba, allegedly saying “To every cow belongs her calf, therefore to every book belongs its copy.” This was too much for “Dove of the Church” who called on his O’Neill family for support, which in turn led to the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne, known as the Battle of the Books, in 561. The O’Neills won a bloody battle with the number of dead apparently in four figures, but depending on which source you believe, Columba was so upset at the slaughter he had caused that he sent himself into exile, or more probably his fellow clerics advised him to leave, and there is some evidence that coincidentally, King Conall of Dalriada was on the lookout for missionaries to attend to the religious needs of his people.

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HOWEVER it happened, Columba set off with a dozen companions for the Mull of Kintyre and then gained the island of Iona from King Conall – the story about him going farther so he could no longer see Ireland didn’t surface until the 1600s, and in any case, as we shall see, he did return to Ireland several times.

Columba’s first task was to get a monastery built on Iona, and then spread the gospel of Christ to the Scoti people of the west coast and the Hebrides. He was not the first Christian missionary in Scotland – that had been St Ninian of Whithorn – but he was the most successful of that era, with Conall’s son King Áedán a strong supporter.

The kingdom of the Scoti was adjoined by the much larger Pictish lands and it was to their king that Columba went to seek permission to spread his mission.

In describing Columba’s efforts to convert the pagan Picts from their Druidic rituals, Adomnan was at his most fanciful. Columba definitely did go north to visit the Pictish King Brude, or Bridei, who was described by the Venerable Bede in his later chronicle as “a most powerful king,” but things probably did not quite happen as Adomnan states.

“When the saint made his first journey to King Brude, it happened that the king acted haughtily, and would not open his gates on the first arrival of the blessed man. When the man of God observed this, he approached the folding doors with his companions, and having first formed upon them the sign of the cross of our Lord, he then knocked at and laid his hand upon the gate, which instantly flew open of its own accord, the bolts having been driven back with great force.

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“The saint and his companions then passed through the gate thus speedily opened. And when the king learned what had occurred, he and his councillors were filled with alarm, and immediately setting out from the palace, he advanced to meet with due respect the blessed man, whom he addressed in the most conciliating and respectful language. And ever after from that day, so long as he lived, the king held this holy and reverend man in very great honour, as was due.”

Adomnan forgets to mention the salient fact that there is no evidence of Brude converting to Christianity before his death which is traditionally held to have occurred in 586. Yet clearly he did not object to Christianity – perhaps he saw the way the wind was going to blow.

Columba and his companions certainly did have success in their mission. No wonder when, as Adomnan recalls, they had all the best miracles and stories besides which the Druids were cauld kale.

Adomnan writes: “While the blessed man was stopping for some days in the province of the Picts, he heard that there was a fountain famous amongst this heathen people, which foolish men, having their senses blinded by the devil, worshipped as a god.

“For those who drank of this fountain, or purposely washed their hands or feet in it, were allowed by God to be struck by demoniacal art, and went home either leprous or purblind, or at least suffering from weakness or other kinds of infirmity. By all these things the Pagans were seduced, and paid divine honour to the fountain.

“Having ascertained this, the saint one day went up to the fountain fearlessly; and, on seeing this, the Druids, whom he had often sent away from him vanquished and confounded, were greatly rejoiced, thinking that he would suffer like others from the touch of that baneful water. But he, having first raised his holy hand and invoked the name of Christ, washed his hands and feet; and then with his companions, drank of the water which he had blessed. And from that day the demons departed from the fountain; and not only was it not allowed to injure anyone, but even many diseases amongst the people were cured by this same fountain, after it had been blessed and washed in by the saint.”

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AS if that wasn’t enough, Columba also dealt with the Loch Ness Monster. Adomnan’s Life contains the first mention of Nessie: “On another occasion also, when the blessed man was living for some days in the province of the Picts, he was obliged to cross the river Nesa (the Ness); and when he reached the bank of the river, he saw some of the inhabitants burying an unfortunate man, who, according to the account of those who were burying him, was a short time before seized, as he was swimming, and bitten most severely by a monster that lived in the water; his wretched body was taken out with a hook.”

Columba told one of his companions to swim across the Ness, and the monster duly appeared, ready to eat him.

“Then the blessed man observing this, raised his holy hand, while all the rest, brethren as well as strangers, were stupefied with terror, and, invoking the name of God, formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying, “Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed.” Then at the voice of the saint, the monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes.”

No wonder the Picts fell under the charismatic spell of Columba of Iona. Next week I’ll examine his wider impact on Scotland.