Columba - Colum Cille

The Life of Columba - the ‘Vita S. Columbae’ - was written by Adomnán, ninth Abbot of Iona, about a hundred years after the death of Colum Cille.

Colum Cille means ‘dove of the church’. Columba was an Irish prince and warrior from Gartan, Donegal -a descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages. It is said that Columba’s copying of a book without permission led to a bloody battle. To atone for the lives that were lost, Columba went into exile, following in Ninian’s footsteps to spread Christianity in Scotland.

In AD 563, Columba and twelve followers set up a church and monastery on Iona. This was not a small, out-of-the-way island retreat - sea routes between Scotland and Ireland were well established at that time. Two years later Columba travelled to Inverness, capital of the Pictish King Brude’s realm, where he tried to convert the pagan king and his subjects to Christianity. 

Columba died at Iona, where his grave is marked by the stone he is said to have used as a pillow. Iona grew as a centre for learning and pilgrimage, helping to re-establish Christianity in western Scotland.

As Columba was considered a saint, his bones became sacred relics. Some of Columba’s remains were kept in the Monymusk Reliquary – a richly decorated casket that became a powerful symbol of nationhood, carried by Robert the Bruce’s Scots army at the Battle of Bannockburn. The Monymusk Reliquary is now one of the most important pieces in the Museum of Scotland’s collection in Edinburgh.

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Listen to Salve Splendor, a piece of medieval church music adapted to be played on a solo clàrsach, or small harp. This piece was written in the 14th century in praise of St Columba.