Columcille
A.D. 597
Feast Day: June 9

 Columba, the latinized version of his name by which he is best known, may well be the archetype of the Celtic saint. He is a mass of contradictions, spending his life for the Iona mission to  Scotland, yet with his heart secure in Derry. He was a bringer of reconciling Gospel to the Irish of the Dalriada colony and the Picts, but his pride and arrogance caused a bloody battle in his native Ireland. He was gentle to  the weak and hospitable to the stranger, but his discipline was hard on himself and his community. He foreswore his own noble heritage to become a wanderer for Christ, but continually involved himself in the politics of  Scotland and Ireland. From his community of Iona the Gospel traveled to the pagan Angles of the south and across the disintegrated remains of the Roman Empire.

 Columba, in an odd fashion, may be the patron saint of countless small churches which flagrantly violate copyright laws in copying music and documents. The story of Columbas exile (or at least  one version of the story) has its roots in a conflict between Columba and Finnian of Clonard, his master. The conflict centered on one of the most precious items in Ireland at the time -- a book. As books were inscribed on  animal skins (papyrus not being suitable to the damp Irish climate), and as cattle was the basic form of currency (the value of a person in the social order was not infrequently reckoned in cattle), a book was a symbol of  wealth as well as prestige. Further, book of Holy Scripture had particular value. Finnian owned a psalter, the Book of Psalms. Columba snuck into Finnians study each night to copy Finnians treasured possession. When Columba was  discovered he was brought before the local high king, unfortunately a rival to Columbas own powerful clan. King Diarmit, hearing the case, pronounced the judgement that still echoes in our litigious times: To every cow its  calf, to every book its copy. Columba was humiliated and when Diarmit violated the law of monastic sanctuary in order to arrest and execute a kinsman of Columba, the saint took the opportunity to rouse his own clan, the Ui  Neill, to battle. Columbas clan won the day -- and by chance the psalter as well, but three thousand men lost their lives in the process.

 Columba was excommunicated for a time - the normal penance for a monk who takes up arms, and was sent into exile. It wasnt a particularly effective exile as Columba did return to Ireland several  times, once to defend the bards when the nobles, tired of the bards political satire, sought to have the order suppressed. However, Columbas exile had enormous repercussions for the Church in England and Europe, for the result  of the exile was the founding of the Iona community. From that community Celtic monks traveled through the remains of the old empire and beyond, living and sharing the life of the Gospel. From that community, less than forty  years after Columbas death, an Irish monk named Aidan was sent to the kingdom of Northumbria to bring the Gospel of the people of King Oswald.

 While Columba created a vibrant Christian community, and served as a sort of patron saint of the Celtic tradition in England, the year of his death also saw the arrival of one whose values would  ultimately triumph over the Celtic style, Augustine of Canterbury. The continental pattern of Church, based more on structure and order than on passion and relationships, found its foothold in the southeast of England. In less  than a century after Augustines landing, the way of Columba and Aidan was rejected by the Anglo-Saxon kings in favor of the way of Augustine and the old imperial church. Yet Augustines mission needed the vitality and community  orientation of Celtic Christianity, the tradition of Columba, to penetrate and convert the Saxon kingdoms.

 The institutional breakdown of the current era creates a climate where passion and relationships speak more powerfully to the contemporary soul than order and structure. Columbas foundation at  Iona has been restored in this century. God grant his style of discipleship with return to the Church as well.