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Columcille (Irish for “Dove of the Church”) or
Columba (Latin)
was from royal lineage in County Donegal and was a member of the O'Neils of
Ulster, one of Irelands ruling dynasties. He was a man of influence and had trained to be a
monk. Before coming to Iona Columba founded monasteries in Ireland before leaving for
Iona in AD563.
The kingdom of Dalriada was a gaelic speaking realm and
stretched from the west of Scotland (Argyll) to the north east of Ireland
(Donegal). In the year AD 563 Columba journeyed from Loch Foyle with twelve clansmen to establish a
religious foundation in Argyll with the King of Dalriada, Conall MacComhgalls
help. Conall gifted the Isle of Iona to Columba and his followers. Iona was
ideal in practical terms of defence, agriculture and raw materials and the monks
on Iona formed a self sufficient community maintaining a tannery, iron and wood
workshops. The land produced plentiful grain and fodder. They hunted deer on
neighbouring Mull and caught seals around the shores of Iona, a valuable source
for oil for lamps.
Columba was a renowned writer and scholar of his day;
this led
to a tradition of the written word and all things scholarly on Iona.
Two hundred years after Columba's death, the monks true to
tradition, commenced work on an illuminated transcription of the gospels, an
item of rare beauty. When Viking raids started this treasure was transferred to
a new monastery in Kells, County Meath, Ireland where it was completed. The book is now
known as the Book of Kells.
The Viking raids in the 9th century included the pillage and
looting of Iona on several occasions and eventually Iona was abandoned until a
Benedictine monastery was started in the 12th century.
Although a great traveller and statesman,
Columba was also a
dedicated church leader and spent most of his last 34 years on Iona.
The twin influences of Columba’s life, austerity and power,
are reflected in the sculpture of the following two centuries as indeed in the
Book of Kells. Today countless churches in Scotland, England and Ireland are
named after him.
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