The Life of Saint Columba, Apostle of Scotland

								


Produced by David McClamrock

THE LIFE OF SAINT COLUMBA
APOSTLE OF SCOTLAND
BY
F.A. FORBES
SECOND EDITION
R. & T. WASHBOURNE, LTD.
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
AND AT MANCHESTER, BIRMINGHAM, AND GLASGOW
1919
All rights reserved
Nihil Obstat.
FRANCISCUS CANONICUS WYNDHAM
Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur.
+ EDM. CAN. SURMONT
Vic. Gen.
WESTMONASTERII,
die 7 Octobris, 1913.

STANDARD-BEARERS OF THE FAITH
A SERIES OF LIVES OF THE SAINTS FOR YOUNG AND OLD
SAINT COLUMBA
"The Kingdom of Heaven, O man, requireth no other price than thyself:
the value of it is thyself: give thyself for it and thou shalt have
it."--ST. AUGUSTINE

AUTHOR'S PREFACE
THOUGH more than 1300 years have gone by since the death of St.
Columba, there are few saints whose memory is so living and so strong.
This is partly due to his vivid and attractive personality, but in a
great measure also to the fact that we have his Biography or Life
written at great length by Adamnan, ninth abbot of Iona, who was born
only twenty-seven years after Columba's death. Adamnan, who was very
young when he entered the community at Iona, could have gathered the
materials for his book from the lips of those who had personally known
the great Apostle of Scotland, and who had been eye-witnesses of the
events recorded. We know that these friends were many, and drawn from
all classes, for Columbcille, above all the men of his time, had the
gift of being loved, and many instances are related of the passionate
devotion of the monks of Iona to their great abbot, no less than that
of the multitudes with whom in his long and busy life he had come in
contact. Adamnan is considered to be a sober and trustworthy author,
and has not exaggerated, as many of the later writers undoubtedly have,
the miraculous element in the life of the Saint.
Carlyle, who cannot be considered as an advocate of the supernatural,
remarks of the Life of St. Columba: "You can see that the man who wrote
it could tell no lie. What he meant you cannot always find out; but it
is clear that he told things as they appeared to him."
There are many interesting relics of Columba still in existence. An
ancient stone chalice which he is said to have used at Mass is still
preserved in Ireland, together with the flagstone which formed the
flooring of Eithne's room the night that he was born. A pathetic custom
exists amongst the poor Irish emigrants of sleeping the night before
they leave their country on this stone, in the hope that he who made
himself an exile from his country for the love of God will by his
prayers make the burden of their sorrow easier to bear. The stone which
he used for so many years as a pillow is still to be seen amongst the
ruins of the cathedral of Iona, which was erected in the twelfth
century near the site of the old abbey church of Columba's building,
while the ruins of St. Oran's chapel near at hand enclose the very spot