Produced by David McClamrock
R. & T. WASHBOURNE, LTD.
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
AND AT MANCHESTER, BIRMINGHAM, AND GLASGOW
1919
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Nihil Obstat.
FRANCISCUS CANONICUS WYNDHAM
Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur.
+ EDM. CAN. SURMONT
Vic. Gen.
WESTMONASTERII,die 7 Octobris, 1913.
"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 haveit."—ST. AUGUSTINE
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 agreat measure also to the fact that we have his Biography or Lifewritten at great length by Adamnan, ninth abbot of Iona, who was bornonly twenty-seven years after Columba's death. Adamnan, who was veryyoung when he entered the community at Iona, could have gathered thematerials for his book from the lips of those who had personally knownthe great Apostle of Scotland, and who had been eye-witnesses of theevents recorded. We know that these friends were many, and drawn fromall classes, for Columbcille, above all the men of his time, had thegift of being loved, and many instances are related of the passionatedevotion of the monks of Iona to their great abbot, no less than thatof the multitudes with whom in his long and busy life he had come incontact. 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 wroteit could tell no lie. What he meant you cannot always find out; but itis clear that he told things as they appeared to him."
There are many interesting relics of Columba still in existence. Anancient stone chalice which he is said to have used at Mass is stillpreserved in Ireland, together with the flagstone which formed theflooring of Eithne's room the night that he was born. A pathetic customexists amongst the poor Irish emigrants of sleeping the night beforethey leave their country on this stone, in the hope that he who madehimself an exile from his country for the love of God will by hisprayers make the burden of their sorrow easier to bear. The stone whichhe used for so many years as a pillow is still to be seen amongst theruins of the cathedral of Iona, which was erected in the twelfthcentury 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 spotwhere the Saint breathed his last upon the altar steps.
But perhaps the most interesting of all the Columban relics are thethree manuscripts which are said to have been written by the Saint'sown hand. That Columbcille was an indefatigable scribe we know from thewitness of many of his contemporaries, and one of the greatest ofmodern authorities (Mr. Westwood) sees no reason for setting aside thetradition that the "Book of Kells" and the "Book of Durrow" are bothmainly, if not alt