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 in Irish muinter, which the abbot ruled consisted of a varying number of brethren. He brought twelve with him from Ireland, but afterwards admitted both Britons and Saxons. All property was in common, and celibacy was observed, but the rules as to silence merely applied to frivolous conversation. Hospitality like that of an Irish king was practised. The abbot and brethren went out to meet strangers, and Columba often kissed a guest on his arrival. The sick were treated and the needy relieved. The canonical hours were observed, with necessary relaxation for those brethren who tilled the ground. Columba often retired for prayer at night to solitary places, or by day into the woods. His ordinary diet and that of his community consisted of bread, milk, fish, eggs, and the flesh of seals, with beef and mutton only on great occasions. He wore a coarse cassock and hood of homespun undyed wool, and beneath it a linen shirt, and on his feet sandals. He slept on a flag of stone in his clothes. Of Columba's appearance it is known that he was tall with brilliant eyes, and with the whole front of his head shaved. His solitary habits had not made him inconsiderate of the concerns of ordinary men, and he was passionately loved by his community. He was kind to animals as well as to men. When an exhausted heron fell upon the strand, he ordered it to be fed and tended till it was able to fly again, and on the last evening of his life he caressed an old horse, which rubbed its head against him, and blessed it. He taught his followers to think that they and the great whales which now and then appeared in their seas had a common ruler : ' Ego et ilia bellua sub Dei potestate sumus.' In 593 he felt his health failing, but lived four years more. On Saturday, 8 June, he spent part of the day, as was his wont, in writing, and wrote to the verse of Psalm xxxiii. 'Inquirentes autem dominum non deficient omni bono.' The words reached to the foot of the page. 'Here,' he said in Irish, 'I make an end; what follows Baithene will write.' These words were afterwards held to be a formal nomination of his successor. He attended the first service on Sunday morning, and then went back and rested on his stone bed and stone pillow. As he lay filled with a consciousness of approaching death, and heard only by his attendant, he uttered a blessing on his monks. Soon after the bell rang for matins ; he rose and with a last effort hurried to the church. His attendant followed, and as the church was dark called out, ' Where art thou, father ? ' A moment later the brethren bearing lanterns, as was the custom, came in to service, when they saw the saint lying before the altar. Diarmait raised him up and supported his head ; all saw he was dying and began to wail. Columba opened his eyes and looked with a delighted smile to right and left. They thought he saw attendant angels. Diarmait held up Columba's right hand, and the saint moved it in benediction of those present, but could not speak ; then he passed away.

He was buried in his island, and his remains rested there for a century. They were then disinterred and enshrined, and the reliquary brought to Ireland in 878. In 1127 the Danes of Dublin carried it off, but restored it again ; but what ultimately became of the elaborately adorned shrine and its contents is unknown. A book attributed to his hand, and called ' Cathach ' (cath, battle), because it was carried into battle, was long preserved by the O'Donnells, descendants of Conall Gulban and kinsmen of the saint, was at last deposited in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, by one of them, and may there be seen. It was an object of veneration as of great antiquity in the eleventh century, when its present silver cover was made ; but though a very ancient manuscript it is stated to contain no evidence of having been written by Columba. The 'Book of Durrow,' now in Trinity College, Dublin, belonged to the Columban monastery of Durrow, and was enshrined as a venerable relic by Flann mac Maelsechnaill, king of Ireland, in 916. It was then believed to be a manuscript of the saint himself, and its original colophon, still legible, was certainly written long before 916, and may be the autograph of Columba, 'Rogo beatitudinem tuam, sancte presbiter Patrici, ut quicumque hunc libellum manu tenuerit meminerit Columbae scriptoris qui hoc scripsi met evangelium per xii dierum spatium. Several other books attributed to Columba and his personal relics are fully described by Reeves (, Vita Columbes, p. 353). Adamnan mentions no original compositions of Columba, but several works in prose and verse are in middle Irish literature attributed to him. Colgan (Trias Thaumaturga, p. 471) gives a list of several works in Latin and in Irish attributed to Columba, and has printed three Latin hymns which are perhaps the most likely of the list to be authentic. Two are on the Trinity, and are said to have been composed on the island. The third, beginning 'Noli pater indulgere,' is a prayer for protection and guidance, of extreme simplicity of thought and rudeness of expression. Columba was succeeded as abbot of Icolumcille by Baithene, whom he had nominated, and the missionary school which he had founded continued for several generations to send preachers and founders