¹ In the year of the Lord five hundred and sixty-five, there came from Ireland to Britain a notable priest and abbot, St Columba, to preach the word of God to the Northern Picts, who are separated from their southern regions by steep mountains. For the Southern Picts had been converted to the faith long before by the holy Bishop Ninian. So St Columba, converting that people to the faith by word and example, received from them an island named Iona, on which he also built a monastery; and there he was buried when he was seventy-seven years old, thirty-four years after he had come to Britain to preach. Now that island is accustomed always to have an abbot as its ruler, to whose jurisdiction the whole province, and even the bishops themselves, must be subject by an unusual arrangement — after the example of its first teacher, who was not a bishop but an abbot.

² For there was a man of venerable life and blessed memory, Columba, father and founder of monasteries, who not only was worthy to be called by this name from his infancy by God’s gift, but many years before had been prophetically called by this name through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. For a certain Briton, St Patrick’s disciple, named Macceus, uttered this prophecy of him: “In the last times of the world a son shall be born, whose name Columba shall be spread abroad through all the provinces of the islands of the ocean, and shall brightly illume the last times of the world. For he shall be dear to God, and great before him.” This man, sprung from noble parents, came as a pilgrim for Christ from Ireland to Britain in the forty-fifth year of his age. He was angelic in aspect, polished in speech, holy in deed, keen in understanding and great in counsel. No space of an hour could pass in which he was not engaged in prayer, or reading, or the holy scriptures, or holy work; and so occupied in the unwearied labours of fastings and vigils that, beyond human possibility, he subdued his body to all virtues and holy labours.

³ For when the holy King Oswald, on the day before he went to war against Catlon, king of the Britons, was sleeping in his tent, he saw St Columba in a vision, shining in angelic form; who, revealing his name to the king, stood in the midst of the camp and protected that camp with his shining garment, saying: “Be of good comfort and act manfully, see I am with you: go out this following night from the camp to battle, for this time the Lord has granted me that your enemies be turned to flight, King Catlon being delivered into your hands; and after the battle you shall return victorious to reign happily.” So Oswald, encouraged, disclosed what he had seen to his men; and all his people promised that after the victory they would accept the faith of Christ. And when King Catlon had been slain and the victory won, St Oswald recounted this vision with great humility to Abbot Failbe, in the presence of certain holy men.

⁴ St Columba was renowned from his youth for the spirit of prophecy, being accustomed to foretell things to come, to announce absent things to those present, and to foresee things done afar. He saw the whole world, as it were gathered in one ray of the sun, with the bosom of his mind wondrously enlarged. When the abbot of the monastery of St Ceranus hastened with his brethren to meet St Columba, a certain boy, much despised in face and dress and displeasing to the elders, secretly approached to touch at least the fringe of the man of God without his knowing it. But the saint, divinely aware of this, stretching his hand behind him, took the boy by the neck and set him before his face, saying: “O son, open your mouth and put out your tongue.” Blessing it, he said: “Though this boy is held vile in your eyes, yet he shall grow little by little in good morals and virtues of the soul, and endowed with wisdom and prudence, he shall be very famous through all the churches of Ireland.” And so it came to pass.

⁵ When he was on the island of Iona, calling the brethren together and bending his knees, he said: “Now let us pray earnestly for this people and for King Aidan: for at this hour they are going into battle.” And after a little while, rising and looking up to heaven, he said: “Now the barbarians are turned to flight, and to Aidan, unhappy though it be, victory is granted.” And the blessed man also said that three hundred and three of Aidan’s army were slain.

⁶ On a certain night, calling the brethren to the church, he said: “Now let us earnestly beg the Lord, for at this hour some sin unheard of in the world has been committed, for which the judicial vengeance of God is greatly to be feared.” For when afterwards that wretched man who had committed the crime came to St Columba, the man of God said: “This man has committed fratricide after the manner of Cain, and has committed adultery with his mother.” Then that man, on bended knees, promised to fulfil all penance according to the saint’s command. The saint said to him: “If for twelve years among the Britons with weeping and tears you shall do penance, and shall not return to Ireland until death, perhaps God will forgive your sin.” And turning to the brethren, he said: “This man is a son of perdition, who will not fulfil the penance he promised, but soon returning to Ireland, struck down by his enemies shall perish.” And so it came to pass: for that wretch, returning to Ireland, fell into the hands of his enemies and was slaughtered.

⁷ Once when the face of the man of God was suffused with such splendour and redness that it could not be looked upon by anyone, he said to certain of the brethren: “A sulphurous flame from heaven has just now been poured out upon a city within the bounds of Italy under Roman jurisdiction, and nearly three thousand men, besides women and children, have perished.” And so it was afterwards found to be.

⁸ A certain priest named Findcanus brought with him to Britain a certain noble named Aidus, who had been very bloodthirsty and a slayer of many men; and when a bishop was summoned, he was ordained priest with the said Findcanus. But the bishop did not dare to lay his hand upon his head, unless that same Findcanus first laid his right hand upon his head for confirmation. Columba, hearing of this, said: “That hand which Findcanus laid upon the head of the son of perdition against ecclesiastical law, shall soon rot; and he who was unlawfully ordained, returning like a dog to his vomit, shall become a slayer of men, and at last, slaughtered and falling into water, shall be drowned.” And so it came to pass.

⁹ For the voice of St Columba, as he sang in the church with the brethren, was sometimes heard raised incomparably for four furlongs, sometimes for eight, yet in the ears of those who stood with him his voice did not exceed the measure of a human voice; but those who stood more than a thousand paces away could distinguish the verses he sang syllable by syllable. When he was celebrating vespers with the brethren, certain druids coming hindered him as much as they could. Learning of this, the voice of the man of God was raised in the air like thunder, so that the people stood terrified with unbearable fear.

¹⁰ When he reproved a certain rich man for his evil deeds and the man, despising him, mocked the saint, the man of God said: “Your enemies shall slay you in your bedchamber as you lie with a harlot, and demons shall carry off your soul to the place of torments.” And so it came to pass.

¹¹ While still a young student, when wine failed at mass, he took water, blessed it, and turned it into the best wine. The bitter apples of a certain tree were by his blessing suddenly turned to a wondrous sweetness. He also healed the diseases of various sick by invoking Christ’s name: for either by the stretching out of his hand, or being sprinkled with water blessed by him, or by the touch of his garment’s fringe, or by taking blessed bread dipped in water, many of the sick, believing, recovered full health.

¹² Books written by St Columba’s hand, though often submerged in waters, could by no means be corrupted or harmed, God’s power working. When water failed for baptising a certain boy, he made a prayer and struck the rock, and water began to bubble forth abundantly.

¹³ In the province of the Picts he heard of a certain spring which the heathen people worshipped as a god: for those drinking of that spring or washing their hands or feet were stricken — God permitting — by devilish art, and were either leprous or bleary-eyed or feeble or held by other infirmities; on this account the deceived heathens paid divine honour to the spring. The man of God, approaching it, signed the spring with the invocation of Christ’s name, washed his hands and feet, and drank of the water with his companions. From that day the infestation of demons departed from that place, and many sick were healed by that same spring.

¹⁴ Sailing in a great tempest of the sea, at the same hour in which the holy man stood in the prow with hands stretched out to heaven begging God, quicker than speech the tempest was calmed and tranquillity restored.

¹⁵ A certain sorcerer in the presence of the man of God drew milk from a bull by devilish art; but when that milk was brought into the holy man’s presence, it was changed into the nature of blood.

¹⁶ The man of God excommunicated the persecutors of churches; one of whom, at the devil’s prompting, rushing in with a spear, tried to kill the saint. But one of the brethren, foreseeing this and ready to die for the saint and clothed in his cowl, came between. And look, the blessed man’s garment, like a kind of impenetrable corslet, could not be pierced by the strong thrust of the sharpest spear, but remained unharmed, and he who was clothed in it was protected unhurt by that garment. Within a year that wicked man, pierced by a spear, perished.

¹⁷ While he was still a youth dwelling in Ireland, a certain wicked man was pursuing a fleeing girl. When she saw blessed Columba’s master reading in a field, she fled to him as quickly as she could; yet the persecutor, coming up, slaughtered the girl with a lance. And Columba said to his master: “At the same hour in which the soul of the girl slain by him ascended to the heavens, the soul of that slayer shall descend to hell.” And quicker than speech, at the word, that slaughterer, falling down before the eyes of the holy youth like Ananias before Peter, fell dead to the ground.

¹⁸ In the province of the Picts, instructing a certain commoner with his family in the faith, he baptised him; and for his dead son, on bended knees he begged God, and rising, said to the dead: “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, arise and stand upon your feet.” And when the soul returned to the body, the man of God took his hand and restored him to his father.

¹⁹ A certain druid said to Columba: “Tell me, Columba, at what time you propose to sail.” “On the third day,” he said, “God willing, I propose to sail.” “You shall not be able,” said the druid, “for I can make a contrary wind for you and bring down a dark mist.” “The omnipotence of God,” said the saint, “rules all things, in whose name all our movements are governed by his guidance.” On the third day the druids began to rejoice, seeing a great mist brought down and a contrary blast with a tempest. Nevertheless Columba, invoking God’s name and entering the ship, ordered the sail to be raised against the wind, and the ship ran with wondrous speed against the adverse blasts, and the contrary winds turned to his wish.

²⁰ And when a great drought occurred, the brethren of St Columba, taking counsel, went round a field lately ploughed and sown with the man of God’s white tunic and the books written by him, and opened his books and read them on the “little hill of the angels”, where the citizens of the heavenly country sometimes used to descend for blessed Columba’s comfort. And look, on that same day a great rain came down from heaven, and the earth, which before was thirsty, yielded its fruit in its season. For three times, when the brethren were to cross the sea and invoked St Columba’s name, contrary winds were turned to a prosperous one according to their wish.

²¹ A certain priest who had brought up St Columba, turning aside to his lodging after mass, found his whole house irradiated with a clear light: for he saw a fiery globe standing over the face of the sleeping boy. Seeing this, he at once trembled, and casting his face to the ground, understood that the grace of the Holy Spirit had been poured from heaven upon his foster-son.

²² When Columba was being unjustly excommunicated by a certain synod, he came to that same assembly; whom when St Brendan saw approaching from afar, rising up for him and bowing his face, he reverently kissed him. And when certain elders reproached him for showing such reverence to an excommunicated man, he said: “If you had seen the things which the Lord has deigned to reveal to me concerning this his chosen one, whom you dishonour, you would never have excommunicated him whom God, by not approving your sentence, magnifies more and more: I saw a fiery and very luminous column going before him, and holy angels as companions of his journey. Him, therefore, I dare not despise, whom I see preordained as the leader of peoples to eternal life.” Hearing this, all began to venerate St Columba.

²³ While St Columba was dwelling on the island of Iona, on a certain night he saw in his sleep an angel of God sent to him, who held in his hand a glass book of the ordination of kings. When Columba had taken it from the angel’s hand, he was bidden by him to read it. And when he refused to ordain Aidan king according to what was in the book, because he loved another brother more, the angel, suddenly stretching out his hand, struck the saint with a scourge, the mark of whose livid stroke remained on his side all the days of his life, saying: “Know for certain that I am sent to you by God, that you may ordain Aidan king according to the words you have read. But if you again refuse to obey, I will strike you a second time.” So when Aidan came to the island of Iona, he ordained him king as he had been bidden.

²⁴ On the island of Iona he sought a place remote from men, fit for prayer; and when he began to pray there, suddenly he saw arrayed against him a foul and blackest line of demons with iron spits; who, as was revealed to him in spirit, wished to invade his monastery and slaughter many of the brethren. For the saint, fighting strongly against them by the power of prayer, could nevertheless alone neither overcome the innumerable host nor drive them from the island, until the angels of God came to his aid; at whose fear the demons, dismayed, were compelled to flee from that place without delay. Then the demons, going to another island, invaded the brethren’s monasteries, and bringing pestilential diseases, killed some.

²⁵ A certain smith named Columbus, much intent on works of alms and full of the other acts of justice, when he lay sick at the point of death, St Columba said to the brethren: “Columbus has not laboured in vain, who has happily gained eternal rewards from the works of his hands. For look, now his soul has been found worthy to be lifted by a band of angels to the joys of heaven.” And the man of God, directing his eyes to heaven, said to those standing by: “Happy woman and pleasing to God, whose soul I saw carried to paradise by angels!” And the same day a year later Columba said to a certain brother: “Look, the woman of whom I spoke last year in your presence now meets her husband’s soul in the air, and with the angels wars against the adverse powers for it. By whose help, the same man’s righteousness aiding, that soul, snatched from the power of demons, has been brought to the place of eternal happiness.”

²⁶ Again he suddenly saw heaven opened and choirs of innumerable angels receiving the soul of St Brendan, by whose luminous and incomparable brightness the whole world was illumined at that hour. Again Columba said to the brethren: “Today,” he said, “though I am unworthy, I must celebrate in veneration of the soul of the holy Columbanus, bishop of the Leinstermen, which this night, raised among the holy choirs of angels, has ascended to paradise beyond the starry spaces of the heavens.”

²⁷ The man of God, gathering the brethren into one, said: “Now,” he said, “fleeing to prayer, let us aid the monks of Abbot Congell who at this hour are drowned in a lake. For look, at this moment they are waging war in the air against evil spirits, striving with all their might to snatch the soul of a certain man who was drowned with them.” After a tearful and long prayer, the saint, rising with a cheerful face, said: “Give thanks to Christ: for now the holy angels, meeting the holy souls, have like victorious warriors delivered that man also, snatched from the infestation of demons.”

²⁸ At another time the holy man said to the brethren: “Let us make haste,” he said, “to meet the holy angels, who, coming thus far to carry off the soul of a certain heathen, are expecting us, that we may baptise him, who has kept natural goodness through all his life to extreme old age, before he dies.” And hastening as much as he could, he came to the place; where the old man, named Emchat, hearing the word of God from him and believing, was baptised, and at once, joyful and secure, departed to the Lord with the angels who met him. And his son also with all his household, being baptised, received the faith of Christ.

²⁹ While the holy man sat writing in his hut, suddenly his face was changed, and from his pure breast he uttered this cry, saying: “Help, help.” And calling the brethren, he said: “An angel of the Lord who was just now standing among us has been bidden by the Lord to go quickly to the aid of one of the brethren who has fallen from the top ridge of the house which is being built in the monastery of Roboretum.” And he added: “Most wonderful and almost unspeakable is the swiftness of the angelic flight, equal, as I think, to the speed of lightning. For that heavenly citizen, who has just now flown away from us here, when that man began to slip, helping him before he touched the ground as in the blink of an eye, raised him up, and he who fell could feel no fracture or hurt. How stupendous is this swiftest and most timely help, which, quicker than speech, could be accomplished so swiftly across so many intervening spaces of sea and land!” Now the monastery of Roboretum, which in the Scots’ tongue is Armach, that is, “the field of oaks”, is in Ireland; but Columba was then in Britain.

³⁰ On a certain day the holy man began to pray on the top of a mountain, with hands and eyes raised to heaven; and look, suddenly a wondrous thing appeared, which a certain man, secretly watching, not without God’s permission, was found worthy to see with his bodily eyes. For holy angels, citizens of the heavenly country, flying through the air with wondrous speed, stood around the holy man as he prayed, clothed in white garments; and after some delay with the blessed man, that heavenly host, as though feeling itself observed, hastened its return to the heights of heaven as quickly as it could. Columba, returning to the monastery, forbade that brother with a great threat to reveal to anyone what he had seen while he himself lived.

³¹ While St Columba was intent on the sacred mysteries, a certain man saw a fiery and very luminous globe from the crown of the saint’s head as he stood before the altar and consecrated the sacred offering, burning and ascending upward like a column until the holy solemnities of the mass were completed.

³² At another time, when the saint was on the island of Iona, the grace of the Holy Spirit remained abundantly poured out upon him for three days, so that for three days and nights he remained within a locked house filled with heavenly brightness, permitting no one to approach him, neither eating nor drinking. From that house, rays of immense brightness breaking through the chinks of the doors and the keyholes could be seen by night. He sang certain spiritual songs unheard before, and saw many hidden things, as he afterwards related, from the beginning of the world, and secrets; and the obscure and difficult places of the sacred scriptures lay open plainly and more clearly than light to the eyes of his heart.

³³ And it came to pass on the island of Iona that the face of St Columba blossomed with a sudden and wondrous gladness, and lifting his eyes to heaven, he was gladdened, filled with incomparable joy. And after a little interval that delightful and sweet joy was turned into great sadness. And when two brethren with difficulty wrung from him the cause of such great gladness, he said: “Until this present day thirty years of my pilgrimage in Britain have been completed; meanwhile many days ago I devoutly asked my Lord that at the end of this present thirtieth year he would release me from my sojourn and call me to the heavenly country. This indeed was the cause of my gladness: for I saw holy angels sent from the high throne to meet my soul, to bring it out of the flesh. But look, now suddenly delayed, they stand on a rock beyond the strait of our island, wishing to draw near to call me out of the body, but are not permitted to come closer, soon returning to the heights of heaven. But the Lord, hearing rather the prayers of many churches for me, has suddenly changed what he granted me when I asked with all my strength that I might pass from the world to him on this day: by whose begging churches it is so granted by the Lord that, though against my will, four years are added to me from this day to remain in the flesh. Such a delay is grievous to me, and not undeservedly the cause of today’s sadness.” For when the four years were completed, with a sudden departure, no bodily sickness preceding, he joyfully departed to the Lord with the holy angels.

³⁴ When the hour of his departure drew near, rising about midnight he went to the church and knelt in prayer beside the altar. But Diarmait his minister, following more slowly, saw the whole church within filled with angelic light around the saint. As he approached, the same light quickly receded, and when lamps had been brought, the brethren found the saint lying before the altar, and in their presence he at once breathed out his spirit.

³⁵ At the same hour a certain monk in Ireland saw the island of Iona, which he had never seen in the body, irradiated in spirit with the brightness of angels, and the whole spaces of the air illumined with the light of angels, and heard sweet songs at the hour of the going out of St Columba’s soul as it ascended to the heavens among the angels. Another brother, giving attention to catching fish, suddenly saw the whole space of the air illumined with ineffable brightness. And look, as it were a very great fiery column appeared, which, ascending upward in that midnight, seemed to illume the whole world like the midday sun. Now the venerable Abbot Columba died on the island of Iona on the ninth of June, and was buried with honour in the monastery of the brethren.

³⁶ And it is to be known that Ireland is properly the country of the Scots: for in ancient times “Scotia” is often written for Ireland, as appears here in the life of St Columba to those looking carefully; and also the venerable Bede, wishing to express Ireland in many places of his “Deeds of the English”, wrote Scotia.

A Further Story #

¹ [Added in the Tiberius manuscript.] A certain clerk at Lyons saw in a vision of the night a certain valley under a mountain, upon which a most beautiful city was situated, such that he who saw it could not be sated with looking upon it. He saw a river flowing at the foot of the mountain, and on the bank twelve poor men washing their garments in the river. Among them was a certain man clothed in a whitest garment, much unlike the others, who helped them in the washing of their tunics, and after he had helped one, went to help another. Then the clerk, approaching him, said: “What people are you?” He said: “These poor men are doing penance and washing themselves from their sins, and I am the son of God, Jesus Christ, without whose help neither these nor others can do good. This city which you see is paradise; and when anyone shall have washed his tunic, that is, shall have completed his penance, he shall enter it.” And when, waking, he came to Cîteaux, he found the place uncultivated and deserted, and brethren dwelling among beasts; and having seen the abbot and the convent, he recognised that he had seen them all washing their tunics; and being received as a monk, he was made prior not long after.