¹ To the holy lords and fathers or brothers in Christ, bishops, presbyters, and all other ranks of the holy Church,
Columba, a sinner, sends greetings in Christ.

² I give thanks to my God that, on my account, so many holy men have gathered together to discuss the truth of faith and good works and, as is fitting for such men, by their exercised senses, to distinguish good from evil, judging matters with righteous judgment. Would that you might do this more often; and although, according to the canons, you are obliged to hold councils once or twice a year, because of the tumultuous dissensions of this age, you are not always able to observe this custom. Yet, at the very least, this should be your foremost endeavor, even if less frequent, so that the negligent might feel fear and the zealous might be encouraged toward greater progress.

³ Behold, I give thanks to God that on my account, for the discussion of Easter, you have been given the opportunity of holding a holy synod. May our Lord Jesus Christ, that chief shepherd, grant that it may contribute to the good of His Church.

⁴ May your council bring benefit to your welfare, and may God Himself, who is accustomed to stand in the assembly of the gods, inspire the hearts of His own people to follow His will completely and with strength, through the observance of His commandments. Thus, let your deliberations not focus solely on the matter of Easter, which has long been discussed and judged in various ways by different authorities, but also on all the necessary canonical practices, many of which, to the greater detriment, have been corrupted. And since the day of judgment is now closer than before, may you adopt a more rigorous approach to the evangelical religion and apostolic tradition. For if you diligently examine the commandments of the Gospel, it is no wonder that they are found to conflict with the customs of certain individuals.

⁵ Let it suffice to note that everyone should be conformed to the example of their Redeemer and to the model of the true Shepherd. He first preached humility, proclaimed the seven beatitudes, and united the first beatitude of poverty of spirit with His teaching. He taught humanity to follow His footsteps to such a degree that they might reach the true circumcision of the eighth day by pursuing righteousness. The eighth beatitude is fulfilled in martyrdom, as it signifies that not only is one just by acting, but also becomes a martyr for enduring suffering for justice’s sake, desiring the heavenly kingdom and crowned together with those who strive similarly.

⁶ Thus, as it is written: “He who says he believes in Christ must also walk as Christ walked”, meaning in poverty, humility, and always preaching the truth amidst human persecution. Likewise: “Those who desire to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution”; and: “Faith without works is dead in itself.” The Lord responds to the foolish, who are satisfied with faith alone: “I do not know you.” He promises that even those who believe and call out “Lord, Lord” will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who cannot renounce all they possess are neither His disciples nor worthy of Him. Let everyone reflect whether they have firmly fulfilled or endured these commands, in case they find themselves alien to the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. A son and disciple should not deviate from their Master’s teaching or preach anything contrary to it. For “he who does not enter by the gate into the sheepfold is a thief and a robber,” and anyone who avoids the labor of rebuking and resisting the wicked is a hired hand, not a son, and will not always remain in the Church.

⁷ I have briefly mentioned these points so that, if you are willing, we, though lesser than you, fathers, might remind you of this voice of the true Shepherd. Let this voice be ever on your lips and actions: the voice which His sheep recognize and do not follow a stranger, for they flee from him whose voice they do not know. Unless a person’s voice aligns with that of the true Shepherd, it will not agree with His authentic teachings. A word spoken by a hired hand cannot effectively penetrate the minds of those being instructed if it bears the mark that he himself does not heed it. What the teacher has scorned by his actions, he cannot communicate effectively by mere words to preserve as an example.

⁸ Therefore, let us all—whether clerics or monks—first simply fulfill these true and singular commands of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then, having set aside the arrogance of pride, let us carefully strive to write and follow additional guidance. If we are all humble and voluntarily poor for Christ, who “became poor for us, though He was rich,” then through humility we shall rise from the ground of vice. By embracing the voluntary poverty admonished by the Gospel, setting aside various desires and worldly cares, and cutting off the roots of dissension and discord, all the children of God will share true peace and complete charity with one another. This will arise from the similarity of their conduct and the unity of their wills.

⁹ Indeed, the diversity of conduct and the variety of traditions have caused great harm to the peace of the Church. However, if, as I said, the poisons of pride, envy, and vain glory are treated according to the precept of our Savior, in imitation of His words—“Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart”—and through exercises in true humility, then these vices will be overcome.

¹⁰ Let us hasten, without any further scandal, to become perfect, so that, with hatred destroyed, we may love one another with our whole hearts, just as the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ did. And if there is any diversity of traditions, such as in the observance of Easter, while the humble do not engage in contention, and the Church does not hold to such a custom, those who seek with the same intent and the same desire to know the truth will soon come to recognize what is more correct and will follow it. In such cases, no one is defeated except error, and no one glories in themselves but in the Lord.

¹¹ Therefore, let us seek together, I beg you, most beloved fathers and brothers, and examine which tradition is truer: yours or that of your brethren in the West. For all the churches of the entire West, as I indicated in the document of my response that I now send to you (though it was written three years ago), do not consider it proper to celebrate the resurrection before the Passion—that is, before the equinox. They do not exceed the 20th moon for Easter, so as not to celebrate the sacrament of the New Testament without the authority of the Old Testament. But let us set these matters aside for now. As for what they hold regarding Easter, I have made this known to the holy pope through three volumes, and I have also presumed to write a brief treatise on the same matter to your holy brother Arigius.

¹² One thing, therefore, I ask of your holiness: that with peace and charity, you tolerate my ignorance and, as some say, my arrogant presumption in writing. Necessity, not vanity, compelled me to do so, as the simplicity of my efforts demonstrates. And since I am not the author of this diversity and have come into these lands as a pilgrim for Christ the Savior, our common Lord and God, I implore you by our common Lord, and by Him “who will judge the living and the dead,” I adjure you, if you wish to be recognized by Him who will say to many: “Amen, I say to you, I never knew you,” to grant me the peace and charity to live quietly in these forests near the bones of our seventeen deceased brethren, as we have been permitted to live among you for these twelve years. Thus, we may continue to pray for you, as we have done until now, as is our duty.

¹³ May Gaul, I pray, receive us together—those of us who shall also be received into the kingdom of heaven, provided we are worthy. For we have one kingdom promised to us and one hope of our calling in Christ, with whom we shall reign if, indeed, we suffer with Him here first, that we may also be glorified with Him.

¹⁴ I know that my verbosity may seem superfluous to many, but I thought it better that you be aware of what we consider and discuss among ourselves here. These are, after all, our canons: the Lord’s and the apostles’ commandments. In these rests our faith; these are our arms, shield, and sword. These are our defense. These are what moved us from our homeland, and here we strive to preserve them, even if feebly. To these we pray and desire to hold fast until death, as we have seen our elders do.

¹⁵ But as for you, holy fathers, consider what you do regarding these poor, aged, and wandering old men. As I see it, it would be better for you to strengthen them rather than disturb them.

¹⁶ As for myself, I have not dared to come to you, in case, being present, I might dispute contrary to the saying of the Apostle: “Do not quarrel over words.” And again: “If anyone is contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.” But I confess the secrets of my conscience: I trust more in the tradition of my homeland, according to the teaching and reckoning of the eighty-four years [Paschal cycle], as celebrated by Anatolius, the bishop praised by Eusebius, the author of Ecclesiastical History, and by the holy writer of the Catalogus, Jerome, than in the Paschal reckoning of Victor, who recently wrote ambiguously and, where clarity was needed, defined nothing, as he himself admitted in his prologue. Victor wrote this one hundred and three years after the time of Lord Martin, Lord Jerome, and Pope Damasus, under Pope Hilary.

¹⁷ You, however, make your choice. You yourselves, whom you should rather follow and whom you might better believe, according to the Apostle’s words: “Test everything; hold fast to what is good.” Let it never be that I contend against you in such a way that our enemies—whether Jews, heretics, or pagan gentiles—rejoice over a dispute among us Christians. May this never happen, truly never! Otherwise, we could agree in another way, so that each person may remain in the calling in which they were called before God, if both traditions are good. Or, with peace and humility, without any contention, both books may be read, and what aligns more with the Old and New Testament may be preserved without envy from anyone.

¹⁸ For if it is from God that you would drive me from here—from this place in the desert, which I sought across the sea for the sake of my Lord Jesus Christ—then it will be mine to say the words of the prophet: “If this storm is because of me, take me up and throw me into the sea so that this storm may cease for you.” Yet it should first be yours to attempt, with the compassion of heartfelt mercy, to save the shipwrecked and bring the ship to shore, just as those sailors, though gentiles, attempted to do, as the Scripture recounts: “The men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.”

¹⁹ Finally, as a bold suggestion, I say this: Because on the wide and broad way of this world many walk and run toward destruction, while only a few are found who walk the narrow and constricted path that leads to life according to the Lord’s command, let those few be led by you toward life rather than hindered. Otherwise, perhaps the Lord’s rebuke to the Pharisees will also apply to you: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor do you allow those who would enter to go in.”

²⁰ But someone might say: “Are we not entering the kingdom of heaven?” Why, then, are you unable to, according to the grace of the Lord, if you become like little children—namely, humble and pure, simple and innocent in evil, yet prudent in good, agreeable, and free from harboring anger in your hearts? However, women—often distracted by what they see and frequently quarreling over worldly matters—find it exceedingly difficult to fulfill all these things. Therefore, those among us who have renounced the world once and for all, and who first cut off the causes of vices and the roots of quarrels, believe it is easier for the poor, rather than the rich, to fulfill the words of the Lord.

²¹ For before these four things, the kingdom of heaven is not entered, as Saint Jerome attests to three and Saint Basil to the fourth, who interpret the way of infants according to the force of the Gospel saying. For an infant is humble, does not remember wrongs, does not lust after women, and does not say one thing with the mouth and another with the heart. These things, as I have said, are better observed by one who is free from distractions and sees that God Himself is the Lord, rather than by one who is occupied by everything they see and hear. Let no one detract from the good of silence. Unless they grow lukewarm, those who live in seclusion live better than those in public, except for a still harsher life, which would have greater reward—for where the battle is harder, the crown is found more glorious.

²² As Saint Gregory says, those who do not avoid public sins do not believe in private virtues. Hence, Saint Jerome, knowing this, commanded bishops to imitate the apostles, while he taught monks to follow the perfect fathers. For the teachings of clerics and monks are distinct and separate from one another. Each one should hold to what they have taken up. But the whole Gospel is for all, and both groups, as if they were members of one body in harmony, should follow Christ, the head of all, through His own commands, which He has shown to be perfected in love and peace.

²³ These two—love and peace—cannot be perfected perfectly except by true humility and by those united in spirit who fulfill Christ’s commands.

²⁴ The Lord Himself testifies: “If you love me, keep my commandments”; “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you”; “By this, all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Therefore, the union of hearts, peace, and charity infused into the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit can truly exist when all equally desire to fulfill the divine commandments. For to the extent that there is dissimilarity in the measure of one’s actual efforts, to that extent there will be a feigned peace and charity among the imperfect.

²⁵ Thus, in order that we may love one another with genuine, unfaked charity, let us diligently consider the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ and hasten to fulfill them once understood. By His teaching, may the entire Church, with a single surge of fervent zeal, hasten entirely toward heavenly things. May He grant this to us by His freely given grace, so that we may all despise the world, love Him alone, and desire Him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

²⁶ From now on, fathers, pray for us, as we also, though unworthy, pray for you. Do not regard us as strangers to you, for we are members of one body, whether Gauls, Britons, Iberians, or any other peoples. Therefore, let all nations rejoice in the knowledge of faith and the recognition of the Son of God, and let us all hasten to meet the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ, in whom we love one another, praise one another, correct one another, exhort one another, and pray for one another, so that we may reign with Him and rejoice together.

²⁷ I beg you, most patient and holy fathers and brothers, to pardon my verbosity and presumption in speaking beyond my ability.