columba: excuses for a scrimmage

Literary larceny. It led to a few thousand dead. Every night Saint Columba would sneak off in the dark to indulge his secret lust: the lust for copying a rare manuscript of the Gospels that belonged to Finnian of Moville who refused to let him copy it.The fine line between the saint and the sinner…

…when two obstinate Irishmen fall out, there can be no meeting of minds. Finally the case was taken to Diarmuid, the High King, for his arbitration. Then came the famous decision that has for years so diverted historians.

—Exiled from his native Ireland, Saint Columba, founded with 12 companions a monastery on the small island of Iona in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. From there they undertook the conversion of pagan Scotland and much of northern England to Christianity. Iona’s fame as a place of learning and Christian mission spread throughout Europe. It became a major site of pilgrimage, and the burial ground of several kings of Scotland, Ireland and Norway.—Read More:http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=205

“Both manuscripts belong to Finnian,” said Diarmuid. “I follow the law. To every cow its calf and to every book its son-book.” Wild with disappointment, Columba rushed back not to his monastery but to the headquarters of his clan. “Avenge me this injustice,” he cried to the O’Neills.

Probably, since they were a lively lot, they enjoyed the excuse for a scrimmage. But what followed was not a local dustup but a genuine battle in which, says the tale, three thousand men were slain. The story goes on to describe Columba’s belated horror when he saw the bodies of the fallen and realized he was responsible for their deaths.

It was the n that he swore his eternal vow. “I have committed a crime against God and ireland. God i will pray to for the rest of my life. Also for the rest of my life I promise never again to look upon Irish shores.”

—Both St Adomnán in his Vita of St. Columba and Bede present Oswald. as a divinely assisted Christian victor over a pagan host (Adomnán has St. Columba appear to him in a vision and promise him victory; Bede has him erect a great wooden cross on the eve of battle). —Read More:http://onceiwasacleverboy.blogspot.ca/2011/08/st-oswald.html

So he embarked in his currach with twelve companions- all realtives- and sailed across the wild waters until Ireland disappeared. When even on a clear day he could no longer make out its beloved shape, he stopped at an island and there began to build a chapel.

ADDENDUM:

(see link at end)…Here, on this small island, he built a monastery, which was not an imposing structure, but a small group of huts which included a refractory, a library, a guesthouse, a kiln, a mill, two barns, and a small church. Here the monastic life was organized around Columba and consisted of three groups of residents: the seniors, who were responsible for leading in worship, preserving manuscripts, and teaching the other residents; the workers, who performed the manual labor necessary to keep the monastery functioning; and the juniors, who were responsible for miscellaneous tasks. It was a hive of activity, but was devoted especially to the training of missionaries who would be sent out to the inhabitants of what is now Scotland. Columba, in his own words, had now dedicated his life to bringing as many heathen to Christ as were killed in the battle with his cousin, the king.

—http

ww.irishcomicnews.com/2012/08/fund-it-celtic-clan-seeking-support-for-next-comic/—

Missionary work in those days was difficult. It required that the monks who were trained on Iona, and Columba himself, go to the mainland, where they were in constant peril of fierce people, wild animals, rugged terrain, an unforgiving climate, and the enmity of the Druids (the priests of pagan religion who hated with all their souls the arrival of Christianity). Here too the Picts and Scots lived, who, though Christianity had made some inroads into their land, were still basically the barbarians they were long before our Lord was born in Bethlehem.

The stories that are told of the work of Columba are, in many instances, legendary. His biographers relate how he counteracted the magic of the Druids with miracles of healing; how he drowned out the chanting voices of the Druid priests with songs of praise to God sung in his own booming voice; how he gained the respect of Brude the king of the Picts who lived in a castle on the shores of Lock Ness; how he labored with unrestrained zeal for the cause of the gospel. But, stripped of all the legendary stories, the work of Columba shines as a light in the midst of the darkness of heathendom. His missionary labors were blessed by God in Scotland so that the true gospel was proclaimed there and the church of Jesus Christ was gathered. His missionary zeal is an example to all those whom God throughout the years calls to this difficult work. Read More:http://www.prca.org/books/portraits/columba.htm

Cradle Rock for the Saint of Iona:

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