arewell
blessing. Returning to his cell he continued a labour in which he had
been engaged, the transcription of the Psalter. Having finished the
verse of the 34th Psalm where it is written, "They who seek the Lord
shall want no manner of thing that is good," he said, "Here I must
stop:--what follows let Baithen write"; indicating, as was believed, his
wish that his cousin Baithen should succeed him as abbot. He was present
at evening in the church, and when the midnight bell sounded for the
nocturnal office early on Sunday morning he again went thither
unsupported, but sank down before the altar and passed away as in a
gentle sleep.

Several Irish poems are ascribed to Columba, but they are manifestly
compositions of a later age. Three Latin hymns may, however, be
attributed to the saint with some degree of certainty.

The original materials for a life of St Columba are unusually full.
The earliest biography was written by one of his successors, Cuminius,
who became abbot of Iona in 657. Much more important is the
enlargement of that work by Adamnan, who became abbot of Iona in 679.
These narratives are supplemented by the brief but most valuable
notices given by the Venerable Bede. See W. Reeves, _Life of St
Columba, written by Adamnan_ (Dublin, 1857); W. F. Skene, _Celtic
Scotland_, vol. ii. "Church and Culture" (Edinburgh, 1877).
(E. C. Q.)

COLUMBAN (543-615), Irish saint and writer, was born in Leinster in 543,
and was educated in the monastery of Bangor, Co. Down. About the year
585 he left Ireland together with twelve other monks, and established
himself in the Vosges, among the ruins of an ancient fortification
called Anagrates, the present Anegray in the department of Haute-Saone.
His enemies accused him before a synod of French bishops (602) for
keeping Easter according to the old British and now unorthodox way, and
a more powerful conspiracy was organized against him at the court of
Burgundy for boldly rebuking the crimes of King Theuderich II. and the
queen-mother Brunhilda. He was banished and forcibly removed from his
monastery, and with St Gall and others of the monks he withdrew into
Switzerland, where he preached with no great success to the Suebi and
Alamanni. Being again compelled to flee, he retired to Italy, and
founded the monastery of Bobbio in the Apennines, where he remained till
his death, which took place on the 21st of November 615. His writings,
which includ