in A.D. 521. Both father and mother were of royal race. Though
offered the crown of his native province, Columba preferred rather to
enrol himself in the monastic state. He studied in the schools of
Moville, Clonard, and Glasnevin, and in course {89} of time was
ordained priest. At twenty-five years of age he founded his first
monastery at Derry; this was to be the precursor of the hundred
foundations which Ireland owed to his zeal and energy. In these
monasteries the transcription of the Holy Scriptures formed the chief
labour of the inmates, and so much did Columba love the work that he
actually wrote three hundred manuscripts of the Gospels and Psalms
with his own hand.

But Columba was not destined to remain in Ireland. From his earliest
years he had looked forward to the time when he might devote himself
to missionary efforts for the benefit of those who knew not the
Christian faith. In the forty-second year of his age he exiled
himself voluntarily from his beloved country to preach the Gospel to
the pagan Picts. The story of his having been banished from Ireland
for using his influence to bring about a bloody conflict between
chieftains is rejected by the greatest modern historians as a fable.
Early writers speak of the saint as a man of mild and gentle nature.

On Whit Sunday, A.D. 563, St. Columba {90} landed with twelve
companions on the bleak, unsheltered island off the coast of Argyll,
known as _Hii-Coluim-Cille_ or Iona. For thirty-four years the saint
and his helpers laboured with such success, that through their
efforts churches and centres of learning sprang up everywhere, both
on the mainland and the adjacent islands. Iona became the centre
whence the Faith was diffused throughout the country north of the
Grampians. The monastic missionaries were untiring in their efforts.
They penetrated even to Orkney and Shetland.

On Sunday, June 9, A.D. 597, St. Columba was called to his reward. He
died in the church, kneeling before the altar and surrounded by his
religious brethren. His remains, first laid to rest at Iona, were
afterwards carried over to Ireland and enshrined in the Cathedral of
Down by the side of those of St. Patrick and St. Bridget. All these
relics perished when the cathedral was burned by Henry VIII's
soldiers.

St. Columba was a man of singular purity of mind, boundless love for
souls, and a gentle, winning nature which drew men irresistibly to
{91} God. His labours were furthered by D