16 March 2025

The life of Columba is well-documented. The oldest source contains one of the earliest dateable Celtic poems. It’s called ‘Amra Chluimb Chille’ or ‘The Elegy of Colum Cille’ and it was written shortly after Columba’s death. It is a celebration of his virtuous life rather than a biography of dates and events.

He was holy, he was chaste,

He was charitable, a famous stone in victory.

He was a full light.

He was an ample fort for the stranger.

He was obedient, he was noble,

his death was dignified.

He was pleasant, he was a physician

in every sage’s heart.

The second most important document is ‘Vita Columbae’ which was written by Adomnan. It incorporates an earlier ‘Life of Columba’ by another Abbot of Iona, Cuimine the Fair. It includes the testimonies of surviving contemporaries.

Adomnan divides his biography into three books – the first concerning his prophetic revelations, the second concerning his miraculous powers and the third concerning the visions of angels.  Columba seems to have been endowed with second sight.

He could defend a monk from the jaws of an aquatic monster in Loch Ness with the sign of a cross. He communed regularly with angels. On the day of his death, Diormit, his attendant, ‘sees from a distance the whole church filled within with angelic light round about the saint’.