¹ Columba Hagiographer (about 1150AD) - born/died Derry.

“Leave your country, and your land, your kindred in the flesh, and your own home, for My sake, and go into the country that I will show you.”

² The Lord Himself gave this friendly counsel to the head of the perfect Faith and of the complete Belief, namely to Abraham son of Terah, that he should leave his own country and land, namely the country of Chaldea, and that he should go on pilgrimage into the country which God showed him, namely the Land of Promise.

³ Now Moses son of Amram, chief of God’s people, the man who was filled with the grace and the favour of the Holy Ghost, it was he who wrote this consecrated text there in Genesis of the Law that it might abide perpetually with the Church, this friendly counsel which the Lord himself gave to Abraham to enjoin pilgrimage on him, when He said to him: “Leave the country and your land for My sake.”

⁴ It is a well-known tale in the scripture: the Lord himself enjoining Abraham to leave the country of Chaldea, which was his own fatherland, and to go on pilgrimage into the Land of Promise, because of the good which was to come of it to himself and to his children, and to their descendants after them.

⁵ The man, therefore, to whom God gave this counsel, namely Abraham, it is he who is accounted in the scripture as the father of all the faithful, as the apostle declares and says: “The sons of Abraham, in truth,” says the apostle, “are all who resemble him in perfect faith.”

⁶ The good, then, which God here enjoined on the father of the faithful, namely on Abraham, it is incumbent on his sons after him, namely on all the faithful, to fulfil it: to leave their country and their land, their wealth and worldly delight, for the sake of the Lord of the Elements, and to go into perfect pilgrimage in imitation of him.

⁷ Now, in three ways are men called to the knowledge and the friendship of the Lord.

⁸ The first way is the urging and the kindling of men by the Divine Grace until they come to serve the Lord, after the example of Paul, and of Antony the monk, and of the other faithful monks who served God there in Egypt.

⁹ Men, again, are called in the second way through a human being, namely through the holy preachers who preach the divine scripture to the people, after the example of the Apostle Paul, who preached to the Gentiles until he brought them by the line of the Gospel to the harbour of Life.

¹⁰ Men, then, are called in the third way through necessity, that is, when they are constrained to serve God through tribulations and through dangers of death, or by separation from the temporal good in which they sojourn, after the example of the people of Israel, who often returned to the Lord from the worship of idols and images which they met with from the foreign tribes; as is told in the Holy Scripture, where the Prophet David declares: “They cried to the Lord when they were in trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.” Whenever the people of Israel underwent tribulations and great dangers, they used to beseech and pray the Lord to free them from those hardships.

¹¹ Abraham, therefore, the head of the perfect Faith and of the complete Belief, when he was urged by the Divine Grace, fulfilled the command which was enjoined on him by the Lord, namely he went out of the country of Chaldea as far as Haran, where his father died, and he came out of it to the Land of Promise.

¹² Now, three ways there are in which one leaves his fatherland when he goes on pilgrimage, and there is one of these for which no reward is obtained from God, and two for which reward is obtained. Sometimes a person leaves his fatherland in the body only, and his mind does not separate itself from sins and vices, and he does not desire to practise virtues or good deeds. The pilgrimage, therefore, that is made in that way — from it there grows neither fruit nor profit to the soul; but it is a labour and disturbance of the body in idleness, for it little profits a man to abandon his fatherland if he does not do good away from it. For even to Abraham himself, on leaving his own country and on separating from it in the body, the Lord gave this counsel, when He said: “Take your heed henceforth off country and land, and let not your mind be for turning to it again.” As if what God himself had plainly said to Abraham was: “Shun both body and soul henceforth, in your pilgrimage, the sins and vices of the land in which you have dwelt before in the body; for it is the same to anybody as if he dwelt in his home, should he copy in his pilgrimage the customs of his home.” For it is not by the path of the feet, nor by motion of the body, that one draws near to God, but it is through the practice of good customs and virtues.

¹³ Another time, a person leaves his home in desire of heart and of mind, though he does not leave in the body, as happens to the ordained, who spend their lives in their own countries until death, for laymen and clergy detain them in the lands in which they dwell, because of their great profitableness to all; and since it is not for the sake of the body that they abide in their fatherland, their good will shall avail them with the Lord as a pilgrimage.

¹⁴ At another time, then, a man leaves his fatherland completely in body and in soul, even as the twelve Apostles left, and those of the perfect pilgrimage for whom the Lord foretold great good in the gospel, when he said: “Take heed of this,” says Jesus, “you few of many who have forsaken for me your land and your fleshly kindred, your wealth and your worldly happiness, that you shall receive a hundredfold of good from me here in the world and in the life everlasting there, after the sentence of Judgement.”

¹⁵ These are they of the perfect pilgrimage in truth; it is in their person that the prophet spoke in praise and in thanks to God: “I give you thanks for it, O God,” says the prophet, “I have pilgrimage and exile in the world even as the elders who went before.”

¹⁶ Many of the faithful servants of the Lord, both in the Old Law and the New Testament, fulfilled perfectly this kindly profitable counsel, namely they left their country and their land, their home and their kindred in the flesh, for the sake of the Lord of the Elements, and they went into willing pilgrimage in far-off lands with monks, even as he fulfilled it and left his native country for the love and fear of the Lord — he, the high saint and the high sage and the chosen son of God, for whom there is a festival and commemoration at the occurrence of this season and of this time, namely the holy priest Columba, the noble priest of the Island of the Gael, the focal ball which was set forth with the various talents and gifts of the Holy Ghost, namely the holy Colomb Cille son of Fedilmith.

¹⁷ The time at which the Christians celebrate the festival and high feast of Colombcille’s death is on the fifth of the Ides of June, as to the day of the solar month, every year on this very day.

¹⁸ Now, the wise men of the Gael relate at that season every year a small abridgement of the setting forth of the noble kin and noble descent of holy Colombcille, and of the marvels and miracles innumerable which the Lord worked for him here in the world, and of the completion and special end which he gave at last to his victorious career, namely the attaining to his true home and his own true heritage, to the abode of Paradise in the presence of God for ever.

¹⁹ Noble, indeed, was the kin of Colombcille as regards the world, for of the kin of Conall son of Niall is he. He had, in right of kin, a choice of the sovereignty of Ireland, and it would have been given to him had he himself not put it from him for the sake of God.

²⁰ It is manifest, moreover, that he was a chosen son of God, because Ireland’s elders had been prophesying of him before his birth.

²¹ Firstly, the eldest of the priests of Ireland, namely old Mochtai of Louth, foretold Colombcille a hundred years before his birth; for once upon a time Mochta’s cook (Macrith was his name) came to him with a mess of nuts in his hand for him, whereupon Mochta said to him: “To me belongs not the land from which those nuts have been brought. Keep them until he whose land it is shall come.” “When will he come?” says the cook. “At the end of a hundred years,” says Mochta.

²² Mochta, again, used to turn his face to the north when praying. His household would ask him why he did so, and he said to them:

²³ A man-child will be born in the north
At the uprising of the …
Ireland grows fruitful, (a splendid flame)
And Scotland … his.

²⁴ The father of baptism and teaching of the Gael, namely Patrick, when he was blessing Conall at Sith Aeda, placed his two hands on Conall and on his son Fergus son of Conall, namely his right hand on the head of Fergus and his left on the head of Conall. Conall wondered at that, and he asked him why he placed his hands in that way, so Patrick sang this stave:

²⁵ A man-child shall be born of his family,
He will be a sage, a prophet and a poet, etc.
He will be a sage, and he will be pious,
He will be an abbot with the King of the royal ramparts,
He will be steadfast and he will be ever good,
He will be in the eternal kingdom for his consolation.

²⁶ Brigit foretold him and said:

²⁷ Son of long-sided Ethne,
He is bright, he is a blossoming,
Colombcille, clear with blemish,
It was not over soon to perceive him.

²⁸ Bishop Eogan of Ardstraw foretold him, when he said:

²⁹ A son will be born to Fedlimith,
He will be a diadem over every company,
Fedlimith son of Fergus,
Son of Conall, son of Niall.

³⁰ At the hour of his death, Bóite son of Bronach foretold Colombcille, when he said to his household: “There has been born this very night a son, splendid, venerable before God and men, and he will come here in thirty years from tonight. Twelve men, moreover, will be his company, and it is he who will make manifest my grave and mark out my cemetery, and in heaven and on earth our union shall abide.”

³¹ Even as Colombcille’s birth was foretold by Ireland’s elders so was it figured in visions and dreams. Even so it was figured in the vision which appeared to his mother, namely it seemed to her that a great cloak was given to her which reached from the Isles of Mod to Caer nam-Brocc, and of hues there was not a hue that was not in it. And a youth perceived the radiant vesture and took the cloak away from her into the air, and Ethne was sorrowful at that, and it seemed to her that the same youth came again to her and said to her: “O good woman,” said the youth, “you have no need to grieve, but more fitting for you were joy and delight, for what this cloak portends is that you will bear a son, and Ireland and Scotland will be full of his teaching.”

³² In like manner the woman saw a vision, namely the birds of the air and of the land, as it seemed to her, bore Ethne’s bowels throughout the borders of Ireland and Scotland. Ethne herself gave judgement on this vision, and thus said she then: “I shall bear a son,” she says, “and his teaching shall reach throughout the borders of Ireland and Scotland.”

³³ As was foretold by Ireland’s elders, and as was seen in visions, so was Colombcille born. Now Gortán is the name of the place in which he was born. On the seventh of the Ides of December, as regards the day of the solar month, he was born — on a Thursday, of the days of the week.

³⁴ Wonderful, indeed, was the son that was born there — a son of the King of heaven and earth, namely Colombcille, son of Fedlimith, son of Fergus, son of Conall Gulban, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. His mother was of the Corprige of Leinster, namely Ethne the Great, daughter of Dimma mac Noe.

³⁵ After his birth he was at once taken to be baptised by Cruithnechán, son of Cellachán, the noble priest, and he fostered him afterwards, being so bidden by an angel of God.

³⁶ Now, when the time came for him to read, the cleric went to a certain seer who was dwelling in the country, to ask him when the boy ought to begin. When the seer had scanned the sky, he said, “Write for him his alphabet now.” It was thereafter written on a cake, and in this manner Colombcille ate the cake, namely half of it to the east of the water and the other half to the west of the water. The seer said, through the gift of prophecy, “So shall the territory of this son be: half of it to the east of the sea, that is in Scotland, and the other half to the west of the sea, that is in Ireland.”

³⁷ Not long after that he and his fosterer went at Christmas to Brugach son of Deg, the bishop, to the Ramparts of Mag Enaig in Tir Enda. It was entrusted to his fosterer the cleric to perform a priest’s duties in that place during the feast. But bashfulness seized him so that he could not chant the psalm that came to him to chant: “The mercies of the Lord” was that psalm. However the gifted son Colombcille sang the psalm in his fosterer’s place. And yet until then he had read his alphabet only. And God’s name and Colombcille’s were magnified through that great miracle.

³⁸ At another time he (Cruithnechán) went to watch by a sick person. As they were going through a wood, the cleric’s foot slipped on the path and of that he suddenly died. Colombcille put his cowl under the cleric’s head, thinking he was asleep, and takes to rehearsing his lesson, so that certain nuns heard him as far as their cell. The learned compute that there was a mile and a half between them, and the sound of his voice was often heard at that distance, as the poet said:

³⁹ The sound of Colombcille’s voice —
Great was its sweetness above every company,
To the end of fifteen hundred paces,
Though great the distance, it was clear.

⁴⁰ Then came the nuns and found the cleric dead before them, and they told Colombcille to bring the cleric back to life for them. At once he went to bring the cleric to life. The cleric arose out of death at Colombcille’s word even as if he had been asleep. Thereafter Colombcille offered himself to the Lord of the Elements, and begged three boons of Him, namely chastity and wisdom and pilgrimage. The three were fully granted to him.

⁴¹ He then took leave of his fosterer, and the fosterer gave him leave and a fervent blessing.

⁴² Then he went to learn wisdom to the high bishop, namely to Finden of Movilla.

⁴³ At a certain time wine and bread were lacking to Finden for the mass. Colombcille blessed the water and it turned to wine, and was put into the offertory-chalice. God’s name and Colombcille’s were magnified through that miracle.

⁴⁴ He then took leave of Finden and went to Gemman of Mag S…

⁴⁵ Once while he was reading his lesson to Gemman, they saw a girl fleeing towards them before a certain manslayer, and she fell down in their presence and the man killed her. Colombcille set a word of banning upon him, and he died on the spot.

⁴⁶ He then took leave of Gemman and went to Finden of Clonard. He asked Finden where he should build his hut. Said Finden: “Make it in the door of the church.” He then built his hut, and it was not in the door of the church at that time. He said, however, that it would afterwards be the door of the city, which thing was also fulfilled.

⁴⁷ Each of the apostles used in turn to grind the night’s meal in a quern. An angel of the God of heaven used to grind on behalf of Colombcille. That was the honour which the Lord rendered him, because of the nobleness of his kin beyond the others.

⁴⁸ At another time there appeared to Finden a vision, namely two moons arose from Clonard, a golden moon and the other a silvery moon. The golden moon went into the north of the island, and Ireland and Scotland glistened by it. The silvery moon went on until it stayed by the Shannon, and Ireland at her centre glistened by it. Colombcille was the golden moon, with the gold of his noble kin and his wisdom, and Ciaran the Wright’s son was the silver moon, with the refulgence of his virtues and his righteous deeds.

⁴⁹ Colombcille then took leave of Finden and went to Glasnevin, for there were fifty studying in that place with Mobii, together with Cainnech, and with Comgall, and with Ciaran. Now their huts were to the west of the water. One night the bell for the night office was rung. Colombcille went to the church. There was a great flood in the river that night. Nevertheless, Colombcille went through it with his raiment. “Bravely you come there tonight, O descendant of Niall!” said Mobii. “God is able (?)” said Colombcille, “to take the labour from us.” When they were coming out of the church, they saw the huts to the east of the water near to the church.

⁵⁰ Once upon a time a great church was built by Mobii, and the clerics were wondering what its fill each of them would wish to have with him in the church. “I should like,” said Ciaran, “it full of church-students to attend at the canonical hours.” “I should like,” said Cainnech, “it full of books for the service of the Sons of Life.” “I should like,” said Comgall, “it full of affliction and disease to be in my body, to subdue and to repress me.” Colombcille chose it full of gold and silver to cover God’s relics and shrines. Mobii said that it should not be so, but that Colombcille’s congregation should be wealthier than any congregation, both in Ireland and Scotland.

⁵¹ Mobii told his fosterlings to leave the place in which they were, for there would come an unknown pestilence, namely the Buide Chonaill, and he said, besides, to Colombcille, that he should not take territory until he permitted him. They went forth, thereafter, each of them his own way. Colombcille went into Tirconnell as far as over the river the name of which is Biur. There he said: “Biur against tribulation!” And the pestilence did not go past that, and it is an ever-living miracle still, because any pestilence that is carried over it follows no farther than that, according to Colombcille’s word.

⁵² Then Colombcille went to Derry, to the chief stronghold of Aed son of Ainmire, who was King of Ireland at that time. The King offered that stronghold to Colombcille, and he refused it, because of Mobii’s command. However, on his coming forth out of the stronghold he met with two of Mobii’s household, bringing Mobii’s girdle for him and consent to take the territory, Mobii having died. So Colombcille said:

⁵³ Mobii’s girdle —
Rushes were not round …(?)
It never was opened against surfeit:
It never closed on lies.

⁵⁴ Colombcille thereafter settled in Aed’s stronghold and founded a church there and worked many miracles in it.

⁵⁵ Once upon a time he sends his monks into the wood to cut wattles for building a church for him in Derry. The wattles were cut in a certain warrior’s land which lay near the cell. Now he was vexed that the timber was cut in his land without his own consent. So when Colombcille heard of that he said to his household: “Take him,” says he, “the price of his wood in barley-grain, and put it into the earth.” Now at that time it had passed midsummer. The grain, however, was brought to the warrior. He cast it into the ground, and it grew and was ripe on Lammas-day thereafter.

⁵⁶ Once when he was in Derry, a little child was brought to him to be baptised. There was no water near to him. He made the sign of the cross over the rock that lay before him, and a spring of water broke from it, and with it the child was then baptised.

⁵⁷ Another time afterwards he was in Derry, and he thought of going to Rome and Jerusalem.

⁵⁸ He went at another time from Derry to Tours of Martin, and brought away the gospel that had lain on Martin’s breast a hundred years in the ground, and he left it in Derry.

⁵⁹ Many were the marvels and miracles which God worked for Colombcille in Derry. He loved that city greatly and said:

⁶⁰ For this do I love Derry,
For its stillness, for its purity,
For it is quite full of white angels
From one end to the other.

⁶¹ Thereafter Colombcille founded Raphoe. It was there he brought back from death to life the wright who had been drowned in the millpond.

⁶² In Raphoe, moreover, his household lacked a ploughshare, whereupon he blessed the hands of the little boy that was with him (Fergna was his name), and Fergna made the share, and he was skilful in smith-work thereafter through Colomb’s blessing.

⁶³ He went afterwards on a preaching circuit to the King of Teffia. Aed son of Brenann was his name, and Aed gave him the site on which Durrow is this day, and a cell was built by him there. In Durrow, moreover, bitter apples were brought to him and he blessed them, and they became sweet. And it was from Durrow that a blessed sword was taken from him to Colman the Great, son of Diarmait. The virtue that lay in that sword was that none could die in its presence. And it was afterwards begged by a certain man who was in sickness, and the sword was given to him, and he had it. A year was that sword with him, and during that time he was not alive, and he was not dead. Whereupon the sword was afterwards taken away from him, and he died at once. So, therefore, Colombcille blessed Durrow, and left in it a warden of his household, namely Cormac descendant of Liathan.

⁶⁴ Then he went to Aed Slaine son of Diarmait. He came to the place where Cenannus stands at this day; it was the King of Ireland’s stronghold at that time, the stronghold of Diarmait son of Cerball. When Colombcille was delaying at the door of the stronghold, he began to foretell what should happen to the place afterwards, and he said to Becc son of Dé, Diarmait son of Cerball’s chief seer:

⁶⁵ O Becc, tell me,
Cenannus the wide, pure-grassed,
Whether clerics dwell in it,
Whether warriors abandon it?

⁶⁶ As Becc said:

⁶⁷ The companies who are amidst it
Shall sing praises of the Lord’s Son,
Its warriors shall depart from its threshold,
There will be a time when it will be secure.

⁶⁸ He then marked out that city in the manner in which it is, and blessed it vehemently, and said it would be the noblest church-building he should have on earth, although his resurrection would not be in it. And when he was making that prophecy he set his face to the south-west, and laughed greatly. Boethín asked the cause of the gladness. “Fifty sons of Life,” said Colombcille, “will be born in one night to the Lord in this border (?) to the west.” It was Grafann of Cellscire he foretold then, as was afterwards fulfilled.

⁶⁹ There was a great oak under which Colombcille rested, while he stayed in that place. That oak lived for very many ages, until it fell through the crash of a mighty wind; and a certain man took some of its bark to tan his shoes with. Now when he put on his shoes after they had been tanned, leprosy seized him from sole to crown.

⁷⁰ Colombcille then went to Aed Slaine, and made prophecy for him, and said that he would be long-lived, unless he became a kinslayer. If, however, he should kill a kinsman, he was to live but four years after.

⁷¹ So Colombcille blessed a cowl for him and said he would not be wounded while that cowl was on him. However, Aed Slane killed a kinsman, against the word of Colombcille — Suibne son of Colmán. At the end of four years after, he went upon a raid: he forgot his cowl: he is killed on that day.

⁷² Thereafter Colombcille founded many churches in Bregia. He left two elders and many relics in them. He left Ossíne son of Cellach in Clonmore. He went thereafter to Manister-Bóiti. It was there that his staff touched the ladder of glass by which Bóite had ascended to heaven, so that its sound was heard throughout the whole church, and he showed Bóite’s grave, and he marked out his church, as Bóite himself had foretold on the day of his death. For many were the churches he marked out and the books he wrote, namely three hundred cells and three hundred books, as the poet said:

⁷³ He marked out, without loosening,
Three hundred fair churches, it is true;
And three hundred gifted, lasting (?),
Bright, noble books he wrote.

⁷⁴ Though any book that his hand would write were ever so long under water, not a single letter in it would be drowned.

⁷⁵ He founded a church in Rachra in the east of Bregia, and left deacon Colmán in it. Once on a time when they were in that church — namely Colombcille and Comgall and Cainnech — Comgall said that Colombcille should make an offering of Christ’s Body and his Blood in their presence. Colombcille did service for them as to that. Then it was that Cainnech beheld a pillar of fire over Colombcille’s head while at the offering. Cainnech told that to Comgall, and then they both beheld the pillar.

⁷⁶ He founded a church in the place where Swords is at this day. He left an ancient man of his people there, namely Finán Lobur, and he left the gospel which his own hand wrote. There, too, he marked out a well named Sord, that is, pure, and blessed a cross; for it was his custom to make crosses and satchels and wallets for books and all church gear; as the poet said:

⁷⁷ He blessed three hundred victorious crosses,
Three hundred springs that were swift,
A hundred book-satchels …,
With a hundred croziers, with a hundred wallets.

⁷⁸ One day Colombcille and Cainnech were dwelling on the brink of the sea, when a great tempest was on the open sea. Said Cainnech, “What does the wave sing?” Said Colombcille: “Your household were in peril some time ago on the sea, and one of them has perished, and the Lord will bring them to us tomorrow morning to this bank on which we are.”

⁷⁹ Brigit was once travelling through the Currach of Liffe, and when the virgin saw the delightful shamrock-flowering plain before her, she said in her mind that if she had power over the plain, she would offer it to the Lord of the Elements. That was manifested to Colombcille in his cell at Swords, whereupon he said with a loud voice: “Well is what has happened to the holy Virgin! For it is the same to her with the Lord as if the land she has offered were her own by right.”

⁸⁰ Thereafter he went to the Leinstermen and left many churches which he founded with them, together with Druim Monach and with Moen and with other churches in plenty.

⁸¹ Thereafter Colombcille went to Clonmacnois, with the hymn which he had made for Ciaran: for he made many praises for God’s house, as the poet said:

⁸² Noble a hundred and fifty, …
The number of miracles are the grass-blades,
Some in Latin which was eloquent (?),
Others in Gaelic, fair the tale.

⁸³ Now, it was in Clonmacnois that the little boy came to him and stole a small hair from his raiment without being perceived by him. However, God manifested that matter to him. He prophesied for the boy that he would be a sage and pious. He is Ernán of Cluain Deochra at this day.

⁸⁴ Thereafter Colombcille went into the borders of Connaught on his preaching circuit, and he founded many churches and holy dwellings in that province, together with Ess mic Eirc and Druim Cliab.

⁸⁵ He left Mothoria in Druimcliab and left him a crozier which he himself had made.

⁸⁶ Colombcille then went over Assaroe and founded many churches with Conall and Eogan. He founded Torach and left an elder of his household in it, namely Ernaine.

⁸⁷ Now when Colombcille had made the circuit of all Ireland, and when he had sown faith and belief, and when numerous hosts had been baptised by him, and when he had founded churches and holy dwellings, when he left elders and reliquaries and relics in them, the determination which he had resolved on from the beginning of his life came to his mind, namely to go on pilgrimage. He then resolved to go over sea to preach God’s word to the Highlanders and to the Britons and the Saxons.

⁸⁸ So he went forth on the expedition. Forty-two years was his age when he went. Thirty-four he lived in Scotland. Seventy-seven was his full age. And the number that went with him was twenty bishops, forty priests, thirty deacons, fifty students; as was said:

⁸⁹ Forty priests was their number,
Twenty bishops, a noble strength!
For the psalmody without work.
Thirty deacons, fifty boys.

⁹⁰ He went then in happy mood until he came to the place which today is named Hii of Colombcille. On the night of Pentecost he reached it. Two bishops who were dwelling in the island came to cast him out of it. But God revealed to Colombcille that in truth they were not bishops, whereupon they left the island to him when he told of them their story and what they ought to perform.

⁹¹ Then said Colombcille to his household, “It is well for us that our roots should go under earth here;” and he said to them, “It is permitted to you that some one of you go under the mould of this island to consecrate it.” Odran rose up readily, and this he said: “If you will accept me,” says he, “I am ready for that.” “O Odran,” says Colombcille, “of that you shall have the reward, namely to none shall his request be granted at my grave, unless he shall seek it first of you.” Odran then went to heaven.

⁹² Colomb then founded the church of Hii. A hundred and fifty monks had he in it for contemplation and sixty for the active life, as the poet said:

⁹³ Wondrous the warriors who dwelt in Hii,
A hundred and fifty in monastic rule,
With their boats along the sea,
Three score men a-rowing.

⁹⁴ When Colombcille had founded Hii, he went preaching throughout Scotland and the Britons and Saxons; and he brought them to faith and belief after many miracles had been worked by him, after bringing the dead to life out of death.

⁹⁵ Now there was dwelling in the country a certain man to whom Colombcille had preached, and he, with all his household, believed in the Lord. The devil was envious of that thing, so he struck the son of this man with a sore disease, of which he died. Then the heathen were reviling Christ and Colombcille, whereupon he made fervent prayer to God, and awoke the dead son out of death.

⁹⁶ As Colombcille was on a certain day preaching to the hosts, a certain man went from them over the river which was near them, so that he should not be listening to the word of God. The snake strikes him in the water and killed him on the spot. His body was brought into Colombcille’s presence, and he makes a cross with his crozier over the dead man’s breast, whereupon he at once arose.

⁹⁷ A sore disease came to his servant (Diarmait was his name), and he died; and Colombcille made prayer for him, and awoke him out of death; and not that alone, but he asked for a life of seven years for Diarmait after himself.

⁹⁸ On a time Cainnech came away from him out of Hii. He forgot his crozier in the east. When he had reached here, he found his crozier before him here, and a shirt of Colombcille’s along with it, namely Cainnech’s portion for his winding-sheet; and Colombcille did that because he knew that Cainnech was near to his death.

⁹⁹ A great flash came to him once in Hii. They asked him the cause of the flash. “The fire of God from heaven,” says he, “has even now come on three cities in Italy, and has killed three thousand men, besides women and boys and girls.”

¹⁰⁰ At another time he heard a call in the port of Hii. Then he said:

¹⁰¹ A shepherd is in the port
With his crook in his claw.
He will come to my little horn
And spill my ink.
He will stoop down
To my pax,
And will knock against my little horn,
Will leave it empty.

¹⁰² As to Colombcille at another time, Boethin left him cooking a cow for the reapers. They had an old former hero of the men of Ireland, Maeluma son of Boethin was he. Colombcille asked him, how much was his meal when he was a young warrior? Said Maeluma, “When I was a young warrior I used to eat a fat cow for my full meal.” Colombcille commanded him to eat his fill. Maeluma did that for him, and ate the whole cow. Thereafter Boethin came and asked if what should be eaten were ready. So Colombcille ordered Maeluma to gather all the bones of the cow into one place, and so it was done. Colombcille then blessed the bones, and their own flesh was upon them after that, and they were given to the reapers.

¹⁰³ One day in the month of May, Colombcille went to see the ploughmen in the north of the island. He was comforting and teaching them. “Well now,” says he, “at the Easter that went into the month of April, then I was eager to have gone to heaven, but I did not wish you to have grief or sorrow after your toil, so I have stayed with you to comfort you from Easter to Pentecost.”

¹⁰⁴ When the monks heard these words they were sorrowful exceedingly. He then turned his face westwards, and blessed the … of the island with its inhabitants, and banished toads and snakes out of it.

¹⁰⁵ When he had blessed the island he then came to his cell, and not long after came the end of the sabbath and the beginning of the Sunday. And when he raised his eyes on high there came a great glow to his countenance and to his face, and the brethren beheld that. An angel of God, moreover, tarried above him then.

¹⁰⁶ Thereafter he went to bless the barn, and he said to his servant Diarmait that on Saturday night he would depart to heaven. After that the venerable old man, Colombcille, sat down on the edge of the path, for weariness had come to him, though his journey had been but short; seventy-seven years was his age at that time. Then came to him the horse which the monks had in the island, and weeps in the breast of the cleric, so that his raiment became wet. The servant, Diarmait, sought to drive the horse away from him. “Let him be, O Diarmait,” says Colombcille, “until he has his fill of tears and sorrow in lamenting me.”

¹⁰⁷ Too many to recount and declare are the marvels and miracles which God worked on earth for Colombcille; for there is no one who could recount them fully unless his own angel or an angel of the God of heaven came to declare them; but we think these enough of them to give for a sample.

¹⁰⁸ Now there never was born to the Gael offspring nobler, nor wiser, nor of better kin, than Colombcille. There has 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 who often carried his share of corn on his back to the mill, and ground and brought it home to his house. He it was who never put flax nor wool against his skin. He it was who slept not until his side came against the bare ground: nothing was under his head save a pillar-stone for a pillow. 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 a hundred and fifty psalms after that, till morning in the sand of the strand, as the poet said:

¹⁰⁹ 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.

¹¹⁰ That was his night-work. In the daytime he attended to the canonical hours: he offered Christ’s Body and his Blood: he preached his gospel: he baptised: he consecrated: he anointed; he healed lepers and the blind and lame and folk of every disease besides: he raised the dead to life.

¹¹¹ Now when Colombcille drew near to the end of his days, and when the bell for the night office was struck on the night of Pentecost Sunday, he went 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 joy of heaven’s household altogether.

¹¹² His body is here on earth in honour and veneration from God and men, with daily marvels and miracles; and, though great is his honour at present, greater will it be at the Assembly of Judgement, when like an unsullied sun shall shine the … of his body and soul.

¹¹³ There shall he have that great glory and elevation: in union with the nine orders of heaven that have not transgressed; in union with the 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.

¹¹⁴ 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, for ever and ever. Amen!