Ireland’s three patron saints are Patrick, who supposedly brought Christianity to the island; Bridgit, a former goddess; and Colm Cille, who exported Irish Christianity.
According to the legends, Colm Cille (also known as Colum Cille) had secretly made a copy of a psalter belonging to his old teacher, St. Finnian of Moville. When St. Finnian discovered what Colm Cille had done, he demanded that the copy be returned to him. Their dispute was taken to the High King who made one of the world’s first copyright rulings:
“to every cow belongs its calf, to every book its copy.”
Colm Cille was not pleased with this ruling and so, in good Christian fashion, he raised an army in an attempt to overthrow the King. He failed, but his army managed to kill about 3,000 people. In 563 a church synod was held which decreed that Colm Cille was to leave Ireland forever and to convert as many souls as had been killed in his rebellion. Exile at this time was considered a form of martyrdom.
With 12 companions, Colm Cille sailed to Iona where he founded the monastery that would become the hub of a group of monasteries in Scotland and northern England. Iona is the monastery where the Book of Kells was produced. In Scotland he became known as St. Columba.
According to some legends, Colm Cille had an encounter with the Loch Ness Monster in 565 and banished this ferocious water beast to the depths of the River Ness.
Historians, such as Richard Sharpe of Oxford University, tell a somewhat different story. First, Colm Cille, unlike some Irish saints, was a real person who was born about 521 and died in 597. He did establish the monastery at Iona in Scottish territory. The story that he established the monastery as a penance for his role in the 561 battle of Cúl Dreben, however, does not appear until the tenth century. The later poetic tradition also portrays him as a permanent exile from Ireland. However, the historic record shows that he established churches in Ireland after 563 and that he visited the Irish churches and monasteries which he founded.
Colm Cille is generally credited with spreading Christianity among the pagan Picts in Scotland. Some works depict him as the Apostle to the Picts.
Shown above is "Columba at Bridei's fort" by John R Skelton (illustrator).
Colm Cille was born into the Northern Uí Néill lineage of Cenél Conail and his close kinship with the northern Uí Néill high king Áed mac Ainmerech was a help to him. He was born in County Donegal and was the great-great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, a fifth-century Irish high king. He was also closely connected with Áedán mac Gabráin, the king of Dál Riata, an Irish kingdom in Scotland. Writing in 1923, Seumas MacManus, in his The Story of the Irish Race: A Popular History of Ireland, reports:
“Colm Cille was of Irish royal stock, very close in the line of succession to the kingship of Tir-Conaill, and the high-kingship of Ireland.”
He was one of twelve students of St. Finnian at the monastic school at Clonard Abbey and is thus known as one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He became a monk and was eventually ordained as a priest.
When he was 24 or 25 years old, the Prince of Tir-Conaill, a close relative, gave him a grant of land. It was here that he established his monastery of Derry. While the churches of most monasteries were built with the chancel towards the east, Colm Cille did not do this at Derry for he wanted to save the grove of oak trees. The monastic settlement at Derry was settled about 540. The Irish name for Derry is Doire Colmcille.
After establishing his monastery at Derry, he established the monasteries of Durrow, Kells, Swords, Drumcolum, Drumcliff, Screen, Kilglass, and Drumhome. According to some sources, he may have established 30 monasteries in Northern Ireland.
Immediately after his death in 597 he was regarded as a saint. His biography was first published in 697. He was considered a patron saint of Irish poets as well as the patron saint of Derry.