Prince, Poet, Priest and Saint

Marking the feast of Saint Colum Cille with an article published 120 years ago in the Australian Catholic newspaper, The Southern Cross. The writer 'J.B' of Sydney was a frequent contributor to the Australian religious press at this time. I find his articles solidly-based with a good use of hagiographical and liturgical sources. Here he looks at Saint Colum Cille in all his complexity as 'prince, poet, priest and saint' and concludes by inviting the reader to join in the collect for the saint's feast: 

Prince, Poet, Priest, and Saint.

The third great patron saint, of Ireland, the man who stands out almost as conspicuously as St, Patrick himself in the religious history of the Gael, the most renowned missionary, scribe, scholar, poet, statesman, anchorite, and school founder of the sixth century is St. Columcille. Everything about this remarkable man has conspired to fix upon him the imagination of the Irish race. He was not, like St. Patrick, of alien, nor like St. Brigid, of semi-servile birth, but was sprung from the highest and bluest blood of the Irish, being son of Felimidh, son of Fergus, son of Conall Gulban—renowned to this day in saga and romance—son of Niall of the nine hostages, that great monarch of Ireland who ravaged Britain and exacted tributes far and wide from his conquered enemies. He was born on the 7th of December, 523, twenty-nine years after the reputed death of St. Patrick, and four years before that of St. Brigid, at Gartan in Donegal, a wild but beautiful district, of which his father was the prince. The reigning monarch of Ireland was his half-uncle, while his mother, Ethne, was the direct descendant of the royal line of Cathoir (Cauheer) Mor, the regnant family of Leinster, and he himself would have had some chance of the reversion of the monarchy had he been minded to press his claims. 

Reared at Kilmacrenan, near Gartan, the place where the O'Donnells were afterwards inaugurated, he received his first teaching at the hands of St. Finnian in his famous school at Moville, for already since St. Patrick's death Ireland had become dotted with such small colleges. It was here that his schoolfellows christened him  Colum-Cille, or Calum of the Church, on account of the assiduity with which he sought the sacred temple. At this period the Christian clergy and the Catholic Order were the only two educational powers in Ireland, and after leaving Moville Columcille travelled south into Leinster to a bard called German, with whom he took lessons. From him he went to St. Finnian of Clonard, St. Ciaran (Keeran) was at this time a fellow student with him, and Finnian, says the Irish Life, saw one night a vision, "to wit, two moons arose from Clonard, a golden moon, and a silver moon. The golden moon went into the North of Ireland, and Ireland and Scotland gleamed under it. The silver moon went on until it stayed by the Shannon, and Ireland at her centre gleamed." The silver moon symbolised St. Ciaran, the golden moon represented St. Columcille. The saint was only twenty-five years of age when he founded Derry, his first religious institution, and like every man's firstling, it remained dear to him to the last. "Were the tribute of all Alba mine," said he, "from its centre to its border, I would prefer the site of one house in the middle of Derry. The reason I love Derry is for its quietness, for its purity, and for the crowds of white angels from the one end to the other. My Derry, my little oak grove, my dwelling, and my little cell, and Eternal God in heaven above, woe be to him who violates it." 

Columcille continued his labors in Ireland founding churches and monasteries and schools, until he was forty-two years of age. He was at this time at the height of his physical and mental powers, a man of masterful character, of fine physique, and enjoying a reputation second to that of none in Erin. The Commentator in the Feilire of Angus describes his appearance as that of "a man well formed, with powerful frame; his skin was white, his face was broad and fair and radiant, lit up with large, grey luminous eyes; his large and well-shaped head was crowned except where he wore his frontal tonsure, with close and curling hair. His voice was clear and resonant, so that he could be heard at the distance of fifteen hundred paces, yet sweet with more than the sweetness of the bards." His activity was incessant. "Not a single hour of the day," says Adamnan, "did he leave unoccupied, without engaging either in prayer, or in reading, or in writing, of in some other work," and he labored with his hands as well as with his head, cooking or looking after his ploughman, or engaged in ecclesiastical or secular matters. 

When St. Columcille left Ireland and settled in Iona. he was then in the prime of life. Twelve companions, amongst them two first cousins and his uncle, accompanied him in his voyage. For thirty-four years subsequently he was the legislator and captain of Christianity in those northern regions. The King of the Picts received baptism at his hands, the Kings of the Scottish colony, his kinsmen, received the crown from him on their accession, to the throne. The islet of Iona was presented to him by one of those princes. Here he and his companions built with their own hands their parent-house, and from this Hebridean rock in after times was shaped the spiritual and temporal destinies of many tribes and kingdoms. Formed by his teaching and example, there went out from it apostles to Iceland, to. the Orkneys, to Northumbria, to Man, and to South Britain. A hundred monasteries in Ireland (looked to him as their Patriarch. His rule of monastic life was sought for by chiefs, bards, and converted Druids. Clients seeking direction from his wisdom, or protection through his power, were constantly arriving and departing from his sacred isle. Before his death St. Columcille paid one visit to his beloved Ireland, and made a comparatively long stay. 

At length he returned to Iona, where, far into the evening of life, he waited for his summons to the beatific vision. His day of departure came in A.D. 596. Death found him at the ripe age of nearly eighty years, stylus in hand, toiling cheerfully over the vellum page. It was the last night of the week when the presentiment of his end came strongly upon him. "This day," he said to his disciple and successor, Dermid, "is called the day of rest, and such it will be for me, for it will finish my labors." Laying down the manuscript, he added, "Let Baithen finish the rest." Just after Matins on the Sunday morning he peacefully passed away from the midst of his brethren. Both education and nature had well fitted him for the great task of adding another realm to the domain of Christendom. His princely birth gave him power over his own proud kindred; his golden eloquence and glowing verse—the fragments of which still move and delight the Gaelic scholar—gave him fame and weight in the Christian schools, which had sprung up in every glen and island. As prince he stood on equal terms with princes; as poet he was affiliated to that all powerful bardic order, before whose awful anger kings trembled and warriors succumbed in superstitions dread. A spotless soul, a disciplined body, an indomitable energy, an industry that never wearied, a courage that never blanched, a sweetness and courtesy than won all hearts, a tenderness for others that contrasted strongly with his rigor towards himself, these were, in the words of McGee, the secrets of the success of this eminent missionary, these were the miracles by which be accomplished the conversion of so many barbarous tribes, and of so many pagan princes. His feast is celebrated on the 9th of June, and on that day the Church addresses to him the following prayer, in which she desires her children to join:—

"Let the intercession of the Blessed Abbot Columba, we beseech Thee, O Lord, commend us to Thee, that what by our own merits we are unworthy to receive, we may obtain by his patronage, through Christ our Lord. Amen."

Sydney. J. B.

"Prince, Poet, Priest, and Saint." Southern Cross, 19 February 1904.

Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2016. All rights reserved.