In Praise of Saint Colum Cille - from a Homily in the Leabhar Breac

Now there never was born to the Gael offspring nobler, not wiser, nor of better kin, than Colombcille. There hath not come of them another who was meeker, or humbler, or lowlier. Surely it was great lowliness in Colombcille that he himself used to take off his monks' sandals and wash their feet for them. He it was that often carried his quota of corn on his back to the mill, and ground and brought it home to his house. He it was that never put flax not wool against his skin. He it was that slept not until his side came against the bare mould: nought was under his head save a pillar-stone for a bolster. And he slept only so long as Diarmait his fosterling used to be chanting three chapters of the Beatus. He would rise up after that, and would cry and beat his hands together like a loving mother lamenting her only son. He would chant thrice fifty (psalms) after that, till morning in the sand of the strand, ut dixit poeta—

The three fifties—sore the watching—in the night—great was the pain.

In the sea beside Scotland before the sun had risen,

Clear ... in the sand, it was great labour,

The trace of his ribs through his raiment was manifest when the wind blew.

That was his nightwork. In the daytime he attended to the canonical hours: he offered Christ's Body and his Blood: he preached his gospel: he baptized: he consecrated: he anointed; he healed lepers and the blind and lame and folk of every disease besides: he raised the dead to life.

Now when Colombcille drew nigh to his ending days, and when the bell for nocturn was struck on the night of Pentecost Sunday, he fared before the rest to the church, and knelt and made fervent prayer at the altar. At that moment an angelic radiance filled the church around him from every side, and then the venerable elder sent forth his spirit to heaven in delight and in joyance of heaven's household altogether.

His body is here on earth in honour and veneration from God and menfolk, with daily marvels and miracles; and, though great is his honour at present, greater will it be at the Assembly of Doom, when like an unsullied sun shall shine the ... of his body and soul.

There shall he have that great glory and elevation: in union with nine orders of heaven that have not transgressed; in union with apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ; in union with the Godhead and Manhood of God's Son; in union that is noblest of all unions, union with the Holy Trinity, noble, venerable, almighty, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

I implore the mercy of Almighty God, through holy Colombcille's intercession, that we may all reach that union, that we may deserve it, that we may dwell therein, in saecula saeculorum. Amen!

Whitley Stokes, ed. and trans., Three Middle-Irish Homilies on the lives of Saints Patrick, Brigit, and Columba (Calcutta, 1877), 124-5.

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A Liturgy for Saint Columba

A second recording of material from the Inchcolm Antiphoner can be found on this CD. Seven Antiphons are appended to the Gregorian chants from the Roman Liturgy sung by the monks of Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland. The accompanying sleevnotes are useful and for a flavour, here are the notes for Track 20, the Magnificat Antiphon:

The text is a poem, with a strong rhythmic beat and persistent rhyme, in a style that appears often in the Bangor Antiphoner. This still surviving Irish liturgical book of the 7th century gives texts but, of course, no music. Could the music provided here have come down to mediaeval Inchcolm along with the words, through all those centuries? It is a lovely piece, in the first mode, having a wide range, and featuring the repetition of recurring motifs.

Salve splendor et patrone
iubarque iustitiae.
Orthodoxe doctor bone
pastor et vas gratiae.
O Columba columbine
felicis memoriae,
tuae fac nos sine fine
cohederes gloriae.
Magnificat... (Lk.1:46-55)

Hail Columba our glory and our patron;

sun beam of righteousness.

Orthodox doctor, good shepherd, and vessel of grace.

O Columba of happy memory,

truly dove-like:

make us also inherit your glory without end.

My soul magnifies the Lord....

The recording is available to order from the Abbey Shop. There are 22 tracks in all with a total playing time of 55 minutes.

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O Columba, spes scotorum!

St Columba 13th century Scottish chant from the Inchcolm Antiphoner

On St Columba’s Day (9 June) the Bishop of Dunkeld, to whose See the Priory belonged, authorised the burning of 20 candles upon the altar, and one can imagine their flickering flames slowly giving way to the light of dawn as the choir sang the Hymn Aurora rutilatat the beginning of Matins. The Priory’s precarious location and the constant danger from English pirates is reflected in some of the prayers for protection which feature in the Office.

Hymn - Aurora rutilat

Antiphon - Pater Columba decus morum

Responsory - Volens Jesus

Antiphon - Os mutorum

Antiphon - Carne solutus pater Columba

Responsory - O Columba insignis signifer

Aurora rutilat lucis prenuncia:
letos nos excitat a sompnolencia,
volentes celebre festum recolere
Columba venerabilis.
Qui fuit humilis, mitis, affabilis,
vultu vir hilaris, vir venerabilis,
ortu vir nobilis, vir statu stabilis,
corpore castus et mente.
Columba merita et signa singula,
factis prophetica, clara miracula,
vel dictis dicere vel scriptis scribere,
nemo novit totaliter.
Relinquens patriam caram Yberniam,
per Christi graciam venit Britanniam;
per quem ydonea vite promordia
rex gentis sumpsit Britanniam.
O pater patriae, paster egregie,
Columba tribue nobis spem venie;
et labe criminum nostrorum omnium
nos munda sancte Columba.
Qui nobis tribuat peccati veniam,
reatum diluat et donet patriam;
nos tuos famulos, et omnes catholicos
commenda regi gloriae.
Sit laus perpetua, sit semper gloria
patri et filio sancto paraclito,
simplici Domino qui regit omnia
per cuncta semper secula. Amen.

Dawn harbinger of light, glows red:

it rouses us glad ones from sleep,

wanting to reflect on the famous feast

of the venerable Columba.

Who was humble, gentle, approachable.

in appearance a cheerful man, a noble

by birth, a man steadfast inattitude,

chaste in body and mind.

No one knows totally, to say in words or

to write in script, the merits of Columba

and his songs, prophetic deeds,

evident miracles.

Leaving Ireland, the dear homeland,

through the grace of Christ he came to

Britain; through him the king of the British

people received a proper ordination.

O father of this land, excellent shepherd,

Columba, grant us hope of forgiveness;

from the blemish of the guilt of all of us,

cleanse us St Columba.

Who may grant forgiveness of sins to us,

absolve the guilty and vouchsafe this land;

commend us your servants and all

Church people to the king of glory.

Let perpetual praise and glory be to the

Father, Son and Holy Paraclete,

one lord who reigns over all,

world without end. Amen.

Pater Columba decus morum
suscipe vota famulorum
te laudantem serva chorum
ad incursu anglicorum
et insultu emulorum.

Father Columba, glory of our national

tradition, receive the prayers of your

servants, save this choir that is praising

you from attack by the English

and assualt by rivals.

Volens Jesus linire gementem pro
contu vocavit Columbam de
foraminibus petre de cavernis materie.
Qui ad arcem reversus est.
Deferens autem clementie Dei
Columba in ore suo

Jesus, wishing to relieve sighing in favour of

a song, called forth Columba from the

holes of the rock, from the hollows of timber.

This dove returned to the ark,

bearing, moreover, the sign of God’s mercy

in his mouth.

Os mutorum lux cecorum pes
claudarum porrige lapsis manum.
Firma vanum et insanum corrige.
O Columba spes Scotorum nos
tuorum meritorum interventu
beatorum fac consortes angelorum.
Alleluia.

Mouth of the dumb, light of the blind,

foot of the lame, stretch out a hand to the

fallen; strengthen the unreliable and correct

the mad. O Columba, hope of Scots, by the

intervention of your kindness, make us

colleagues of the blessed angels.

Alleluia.

Carne solutus pater Columba
angelorum constipatus turma quibus
conregnat perhenni premio in
resultante celo. Sanctus, sanctus,
sanctus proclamat Deo, alleluia.

Father Columba, released from flesh and

pressed by the crowd of angels, with whom

he reigns as his eternal reward, and with

heavens resounding. They cry out to God:

Holy, holy, holy, alleluia.

O Columba insignis signifer,
mentes mundo ne fallens pestifer
servis officiat maris discrimine.
Tuis ut placeat circumdatis
psallere. Tibi precleris condecet
proxime leticie. Huc aurem adhibe.

O Columba, distinguished standard-bearer,

cleanse our minds lest the deceiving

destroyer injure your servants with danger

from the sea, that it may please those

around you to sing. To you before others it

is fitting that voices of joy be closest. Lend an ear!

Details of the recording of Capella Nova can be found here. The texts have been reproduced from a programme of fellow ensemble Canty.

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A Hymn for the Feast of Saint Colum Cille

Let us joyfully celebrate the great feast of Columba, happy in this night season, with musical prayer.

He was born of royal stock; pure was his childhood; he despised earthly glory, desiring only the things of heaven.

He had worked great marvels, had cured all diseases, had foretold the future, had given life to the dead;

he had assuaged enemies and wars, had seen the citizens of heaven; the good that he had spoken in words, he fulfilled in himself by deeds.

He had been head over all the people of the Isles; for seven years he had been king, he had dispensed both laws, he had stood as both king and teacher.

Accept our prayers, father Columba, most holy of monks; protect and guide us in the way of peace.

A. Macquarrie, The Offices for St Columba (9 June) and St Adomnán (23 September) in the Aberdeen Breviary in The Innes Review, Vol. 51, no.1, (Spring 2000), 1-39. 

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Manus O’Donnell’s life of Colum Cille

Although the Life of Saint Columba is most famously covered by the monk Adamnan, there is a later and less well-known Life by the 16th-century Donegal prince, Manus O'Donnell. It was first translated in the early twentieth-century by Andrew O' Kelleher et al., and this work is in the public domain here. Contemporary Columban scholar, Brian Lacey, has brought out a new edition:

From about 1510 Maghnus Ó Domhnaill (Manus O’Donnell) was a leading political figure in the north west of Ireland. Between 1537 and 1555 he was chieftain of Tír Conaill. In 1532 he completed the greatest cultural achievement of his life, the composition of the Beatha Colaim Chille or ‘Life’ of the 6th-century monastic founder whom Manus claimed as his ‘high saint and kinsman in blood’. The ‘Life’ is an extraordinary work, running to nearly 100,000 words of verse and prose, written, for the most part, in clear, elegant Irish. It is a compendium of all that was known or (more correctly) believed about Colum Cille in Manus’ day.

Like the life of Manus himself, the Beatha Colaim Chille is being recognized increasingly as an example of the extension to Gaelic Ireland of Renaissance ideas and standards. Although the Beatha is not our best source for reconstructing the life of Colum Cille, it does provide an insight into the beliefs, practices and cultural interests of Gaelic Ireland in the early part of the sixteenth century, prior to the onset of the Reformation and the Tudor conquest.

Brian Lacey is Director of the Discovery Programme, author of Colum Cille and the Columban Tradition (1996), and editor of the Archaeological Survey of Donegal (1983).

The book is published by Four Courts Press.

Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

Clancy on Columba

Saint Columba

An article by Thomas Owen Clancy, lecturer at the University of Glasgow in the department of Celtic history, and author (with Gilbert Márkus) of "Iona: The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Monastery" (Edinburgh, 1995).

Scion of the most powerful family in the north of Ireland, founder of monasteries, and instigator of missions to the Picts and the English, Columba is undoubtedly the most important saint associated with Celtic churches.

Legends about him grew over the centuries, and many of the stories must be treated with caution. One of the more famous paints him as a sort of Christian sorcerer's apprentice, naughtily copying his master's precious psalter by the light of his own hand, and thereby sparking a major battle!

So too, hundreds of poems, some quite romantic in their descriptions of nature, others simple devotional verses, were attributed to the saint long after his death. Nevertheless, through the obscuring mists of his legends, it is possible to make out an outline of this key figure in the early Gaelic church. In fact, of all the Celtic saints, he is also the one about whom we know the most historically.

Fox and dove

Columba was born of royal stock around 521, in northwestern Ireland's Donegal. Although destined for the church by an early age, his noble birth gave him insight and influence in the political world.

Legend tells us that his original name was Crimthann ("fox") and that when he was trained as a priest he changed it to Columb, ("dove"), later known to all as Colum Cille: "dove of the church." It has become something of a tradition in modern times to view the saint through the twin lenses of these names: the astute fox on the make, and the peacemaking and peaceable dove.

He apparently took part in a battle in 561 between his near and more distant cousins; this led to his exile and even excommunication for a time. Yet his biographer and successor, Adomnán, saw it differently, glossing over his excommunication, and telling us only that: "In the second year following the battle of Cúl Drebene, when he was 41, Columba sailed away from Ireland to Britain, choosing to be a pilgrim for Christ."

Despite the skeletons in Columba's closet, his efforts in Scotland reveal a man who had learned much in his 41 years, enough to establish a string of monasteries in the Inner Hebridean islands off the west coast of Scotland. This monastic system anticipated later orders such as the Cistercians and Carthusians.

Iona, a small island off the larger Hebridean island of Mull, was the fertile centre of this system. Remote to modern eyes, Iona was at the hub of early medieval sea lanes that brought pottery and perishable goods north from France and the Mediterranean. Still, Iona was intended as a true monastery, a place set apart for Columba and his brethren.

Other island monasteries, such as one on Tiree, housed lay-folk serving out penances for their sins. Another island housed older, more experienced monks living as holy anchorites.

Iona, however, trained priests and bishops, and Columba's reputation for scholarship was great when he died (though we have little of his own work). From Iona, priests and monks ranged far and wide, founding churches in Scotland and seeking "deserts in the ocean" (lonely, distant islands).

Mighty monk

Columba's legends give us a flavour of both the fox and the dove. The Life of Columba, by Adomnán, is packed with stories about Columba conversing with angels, sending an angel to rescue a monk falling from a roof, and being whipped by an angel to convince him to ordain God's (rather than his own) choice for king of the Gaelic colony in Scotland.

He is seen rapt in contemplation, seeing "with a mind miraculously enlarged . . . the entire orbit of the whole earth and the sea and the sky around it." From these visions, he proclaims prophecies, sends monks to help distressed people, or prays to refresh his tired monks labouring in the fields.

Columba holds his own with kings. Though he prays for the military success of kings whom God has chosen, he argues with angels over their appointment. He faces down the king of Picts through his power, blasting him with loud psalms, throwing wide his strong oak doors, and besting the magic of the king's druids. He even defeats wild animals: a fierce boar drops dead on the spot, and a strange monster on Loch Ness runs from his power.

Though Columba's power is often depicted in entertaining form, his influence was in fact the key to winning over the kings of Gaelic Scotland, and his legendary powers were famous enough for his monks later to convince the Picts to convert.

After his death, Columba's political and military power became a key element in his cult. His relics were taken into battle by minor Irish chieftains and Scottish kings--one of his relics preceded the victorious Scottish army at Bannockburn in 1314.

One particular appearance, decades after his death, to the English king of Northumbria was pivotal in the history of Christianity in Britain. That king was Oswald, who had been raised in exile in Iona. As Oswald fought the battle in which he secured his kingship, Columba towered above the field promising victory, as one modern scholar puts it, like Batman over Gotham. In 635, Oswald sent for missionaries from Iona to renew the flagging Christianity of Northumbria with their monastic sobriety and good works.

Posthumous achievements

Columba was a poet, scholar of wide-learning, monastic founder and leader, a visionary churchman. At the time of his death on June 9, 597, he was already celebrated.

Though more monk than missionary, Columba established churches in Scotland that went on, in time, to evangelize the Picts and the English. The legacy of the monasteries he founded, which drew constantly on the inspiration of their patron saint, multiplies many times the influence of the man himself. Fittingly, at the end of the Life, Adomnán has his hero ascend the little hill near the monastery on Iona, and declare;

"This place, however small and mean, will have bestowed on it no small but great honour by the kings and peoples of Ireland, and also by the rulers of even barbarous and foreign nations with their subject tribes. And the saints of other churches too will give it great reverence."

One way Columba's influence was felt after his death was the Law of Innocents enacted by Adomnán in 697. This law sought protection for non-combatants (in the midst of a militarised society) and for women (in danger from domestic violence, common abuse, and appalling labour conditions).

Adomnán's Law imposed strong punishments against offenders. It is a remarkable landmark in the history of law.

Adomnán records many tales of Columba as a protector of innocents, and these tales reinforce the stern message of the Law. In the most famous, Columba is a young boy, studying in a meadow with his tutor. A young girl appears, pursued across the plain by a vicious thug, who spears her at the very feet of the clerics. Appalled, the tutor cries, "How long, Columba, my holy son, will God the true judge let this crime and our dishonour go unpunished?" Columba calls down God's wrath on the killer, who falls dead on the spot.

It is difficult to summarise his accomplishments, but one memorial composed after his death does it better than most:

"He was learning's pillar in every stronghold,

he was foremost at the book of

complex Law.

The northern land shone,

the western people blazed,

he lit up the east

with chaste clerics."

Lacey on Colum Cille

Below is a short essay on Saint Colum Cille by Columban specialist Brian Lacey:

COLUM CILLE

Colum Cille (and other variations), the name by which he became known throughout Ireland and Gaelic Scotland, was revered as one of the three patron saints of medieval Ireland, along with Patrick and Brigit. He is also known by the Latin name, Columba. Almost every aspect of Colum Cille’s life became heavily mythologized, but around 700 his hagiographical Life was written in Latin by Adomnán, which, together with other sources, can be used to reconstruct some of the details of the saint’s actual life. The annals assign various dates to the main events of his life, suggesting that he was born around 520 (or 523) and left Ireland— ultimately to found the monastery of Iona—in 562 (or shortly afterward). His obituary is dated to 597 by the Annals of Ulster, which has been widely accepted, although Dr. Daniel McCarthy has argued that the chronology of the Annals of Tigernach, which would place his death at 593, may be more accurate. Legends say his birth occurred on December 7, the day St. Buite of Monasterboice died, and that this fell on a Thursday. There were strong traditions, especially in Scotland, associating the saint with Thursday. Colum Cille belonged to the Cenél Conaill, part of the northern Uí Néill. Legends claimed that he could have become high king. He certainly was extremely influential in the highest aristocratic and royal circles of his time, both in Ireland and northern Britain. Tradition points to a number of sites in the Gartan area of Donegal, said to be the locations of his birth and other events in his early life. Eithne, his mother, among other possibilities is claimed to have belonged to the Corbraige of Fanad, north of Gartan. She too was venerated as a saint. Her alleged grave is pointed out on Eileach an Naoimh, in the Garvellachs, in the Inner Hebrides. Colum Cille’s father, Fedelmid, was said to be a great-grandson of Niall Noígiallach. The saint had a brother, Iogen, and three sisters: Cuimne, Sinech, and Mincoleth, who was mother of the sons of Enan (after whom Kilmacrennan, Co. Donegal, is named). Several other members of his family became monks and priests, and some were also commemorated as minor saints. Legends claim that his original name was Crimthann, meaning something like “fox” or “deceitful one.” It is not certain that the name Colum Cille was ever used when he was alive, although it occurs in very early texts about him. Almost certainly his “Christian” name was the Latin Columba (Dove). The Irish “Colum Cille” (Dove of the Church) may itself be part of the growth of his cult. While he was still a deacon, Colum Cille spent time in Leinster studying with an “old master,” Gemmán. He is also said to have studied sacred scripture with a bishop Uinniau, identified by Pádraig Ó Riain as St. Finbarr of Movilla, County Down. Although there are many legends that purport to tell us about Colum Cille’s life as a young cleric, it is only with his departure for Iona in 562 (at about forty-one years of age) that we have any reliable information about him. He is credited with founding Derry (his first and thus most beloved church) as early as 546, but it is clear that this date is too early, and the name of an alternative founder is recorded elsewhere. He is said to have founded many other monasteries in Ireland (such as Moone, Co. Kildare, and Swords, Co. Dublin), but it is certain that they too were established much later. One such place was Kells, County Meath, associated with the Book of Kells. Although traditions claim that Colum Cille founded this monastery, we know that it was established about 804–807. Likewise, the famous manuscript was sometimes later, erroneously, attributed to the saint. The one monastery that we can be certain that Colum Cille did found in Ireland, probably in the 580s on one of his return trips from Iona, was Durrow in County Offaly. Other places in Ireland that have strong traditional connections with the saint include: Glencolumbkille, in County Donegal, and Tory Island, nine miles off the coast of the same county. In the 1850s, William Reeves listed thirty-seven churches in Ireland, and fifty-three in Scotland, that had dedications to Colum Cille; most of these, however, originated later than the life of the saint.

Adomnán links Colum Cille’s departure from Ireland with the battle of Cúl Dreimne in 561. Cúl Dreimne was near Drumcliff, County Sligo, where later there was a monastery dedicated to St. Colum Cille. The annals say that victory was gained for the northern Uí Néill on that ocasion, “through the prayer of Colum Cille,” over Diarmait mac Cerbaill. The facts about this battle became enshrouded in legends that suggest that Colum Cille himself had been responsible for it, and that it was as penance for this that he went into exile. Modern scholars and the earliest sources available, however, would suggest that Colum Cille’s exile was voluntary; Adomnán called him a “pilgrim for Christ.” This sort of practice, exile for the love of God, became known in the Irish church as “white martyrdom.” A list, drawn up about the early eighth century, claims that he left Ireland accompanied by twelve companions.

Iona

Colum Cille eventually established his most important monastery (c. 562/3) on Iona, a small island off the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland. This was to become one of the most influential ecclesiastical centers in western Christendom. A rectangular earthwork enclosing about eight acres, built, apparently, by earlier settlers, was re-occupied by the Irish monks; within it they built their monastery. We can get some impression of what that monastery was like from Adomnán’s Life. The great restored Benedictine Abbey that dominates the island now was begun in the early thirteenth century, but there are some earlier buildings, including one that is pointed out as the burial place of the saint, despite another tradition that he was reburied at Downpatrick. Among the significant early monuments on Iona are the three great High Crosses, dedicated respectively to St.Oran, St. John, and St. Martin, that were carved, in that order, between about 750 and 800. Many other churches and monasteries in Ireland, Scotland, and northern England were founded from Iona, that is, the federation known as the Familia Columbae; some of these, although not all those claimed, were founded within the lifetime of the saint. Colum Cille did travel away from Iona, up the Great Glen of Scotland and even back to Ireland. He attended a significant meeting in Ireland around 590, between his relative, the important Donegal king Áed mac Ainmerech, and the king of an Irish colony in Scotland, Áedán mac Gabráin. The Convention of Druimm Cete, as this meeting came to be known, and at which Colum Cille is said in legend to have saved the poets from expulsion from Ireland, gave rise to a whole host of legends. Colum Cille is, himself, remembered as a poet. Three Latin poems attributed to him are possibly genuine, but there are many others in Irish, which later propagandist poets put into his voice. The apparently contemporary manuscript of the Psalms, known as the Cathach, is also claimed as his work, but this has neither been substantiated nor disproved. Colum Cille died on Iona, probably on June 9 (his feast day) in 593 or 597. Very shortly after his death, the long poem known as the Amra Choluimb Chille (Elegy of Colum Cille) was written, allegedly by the famous poet Dallán Forgail. Other similar poems praising Colum Cille were written in the seventh century, and we know that a liber de virtutibus sancti Columbae (book on the virtues of saint Columba) was compiled in the mid-seventh century, although only one paragraph survives as a quotation in a version of Adomnán’s Life. In the later twelfth century another Life of Colum Cille was written in Irish, probably in Derry. This took the form of a homily for preaching on his feast day. The text is structured, mainly, as an account of the saint’s alleged journey around Ireland, founding churches and monasteries. The most elaborate Life of Colum Cille was written just over a thousand years after his birth, in 1532. This was prepared for Maghnus Ua Domhnaill who, in 1537, became chieftain of Tír Conaill (most of Co. Donegal). Throughout the Middle Ages, many other works, both hagiographical and secular, were also written about, or referred to, Colum Cille, each of which developed the fabulous legends about him and moved his fictional character ever more distantly from that of his true identity. Professor Pádraig Ó Riain has also argued that several other early Irish saintly characters, such as St. Cainnech of Achad Bó, are really aliases of Colum Cille. In England, Durham Cathedral, as inheritor of some of the traditions of the seventh-century monastery on Lindisfarne Island off the coast of Northumberland, preserved aspects of the cult of Colum Cille down to the later Middle Ages, including some of the important early texts about him. His cult was also brought to continental Europe by various means. 

BRIAN LACEY

References and Further Reading

Anderson, M. O. Adomnán’s Life of Columba, revised ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. 

Bourke, Cormac, ed. Studies in the Cult of Saint Columba. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997. 

Clancy, Thomas Owen, and Márkus, Gilbert. Iona: The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Monastery. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995. 

Herbert, Máire. Iona, Kells and Derry: The History and Hagiography of the Monastic Familia of Columba. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1996. 

Lacey, Brian. Colum Cille and the Columban Tradition. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997. 

Lacey, Brian. Manus O’Donnell: The Life of Colum Cille. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998. 

Lacey, Brian. “Columba, Founder of the Monastery of Derry?— ‘Mihi manet Incertus’.” Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 128 (1998): 35–47. 

MacDonald, Aidan. “Aspects of the Monastery and Monastic Life in Adomnán’s Life of Columba.” Peritia: Journal of the Medieval Academy of Ireland 3(1984): 271–302. 

Ó Riain, Pádraig. “Cainnech alias Colum Cille, Patron of Ossory.” In Folia Gadelica, edited by R.A. Breatnach, 20–35. Cork: Cork University Press, 1983. 

Picard, Jean-Michel. “Adomnán’s Vita Columbae and the Cult of Colum Cille in Continental Europe.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 98C (1998): 1–23. 

Reeves, William. The Life of St. Columba, Founder of Hy; Written by Adomnan. Dublin: The Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society, 1857. 

Sharpe, Richard. Adomnán of Iona: Life of St. Columba. London: Penguin Books, 1994.

MEDIEVAL IRELAND AN ENCYCLOPEDIA Seán Duffy, Editor (Routledge 2005), 97-99.