Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/119

 COLUMBA fled to his monastery for asylum having been taken thence by the king's officers and exe- cuted, Columba vowed revenge. He hastened into his native province of Tyrconnell, roused all his kinsfolk to arms, and led them against the king, who was defeated at Cool-Drewny. Excommunicated in a synod for this bloodshed, Columba wandered from monastery to monas- tery, until his confessor as an expiation of his guilt commanded him to leave Ireland for ever. With 12 companion monks he landed on lona (then- called I or Hy, afterward named from him I-Columb-Kill or Icolmkill), where they built cells and devoted themselves to the bod- ily and spiritual wants of the inhabitants of this and the neighboring isles and the main- land, lona being in the territory of an Irish colony of Dalriadians, their prince Connal, a kinsman of Columba, bestowed the island on him in 563. His biographer and contemporary Adamnan describes the moral transformation which took place in him. Subdued by re- morse for the blood he had caused to be shed, he sought out guilt and suffering that he might purge away the one and alleviate the other. His reputation grew with his community, and the churches and monasteries which they founded on every side. The Dalriadian colony was renovated in 574. Aidan, Connal's suc- cessor, sought Columba on his island to con- fess his sins, and was there blessed and crowned king by the abbot, the first instance of such a ceremony in the history of the West, and the stone which served Aidan for a seat is now in Westminster abbey. From the territory of the Irish-Scots, Columba and his monks had pushed their missionary excursions into the adjoining districts inhabited by the heathen Picts. The opposition of their king was overcome by a miracle ; while miracles of patience and- devo- tion overcame the long resistance of the druids, until all Scotland was Christian, and the mon- astery of Deir (or " Tears " ) arose on the re- motest shore of Buchan, where it flourished 1,000 years. Ancient traditions attribute to Columba the foundation of 300 monasteries or churches. Modern learning has discovered and registered the existence of 90 churches whose origin goes back to him. King Aidan was still held tributary to Ireland ; and at his urgent solicitation and that of the Irish com- munities which had never ceased to regard Columba as their superior, he consented to visit Ireland, A parliament was held in Drum- keath, the king of Ireland and Aidan presi- ding ; princes, nobles, bishops, and abbots dis- cussed for a whole year the interests of church and state. The tribute was remitted to the Dalriadian prince, and his thorough inde- pendence acknowledged ; the institution of the bards was saved from outlawry, old feuds were healed, a solid basis for future concord was es- tablished, and salutary laws were enacted. Columba maintained exact discipline in all his houses. The time not given to missionary la- bors, prayer, and chanting the divine office, COLUMBANUS 115 was devoted to manual and intellectual labor. Agriculture was a prime necessity for the monks, and they taught it to the people. Out of doors they labored in the fields, built or repaired churches and monasteries, and con- structed wicker boats covered with hides, in which the missionaries ventured to the Faroe isles and to Iceland. Indoors they transcribed the classics, and copied and illuminated the Bible. In all these duties Columba was foremost to the very last ; his cell in lona remaining until his 76th year what it had been at first, made of willow rods and hay, with the bare ground for a bed and a stone for pillow. He died sud- denly, having before predicted the hour, while celebrating the midnight office. His life and the fragments of his poems are in Montalem- bert's "Monks of the West." lOLOIBAjYlS, a saint of the Roman Catholic church, born in Leinster, Ireland, in 543, died at Bobbio, Italy, Nov. 21, 615. Educated with great care from childhood, he fled from his native place to avoid the dangers to which his personal beauty exposed him, became a monk in the great monastic school of Bangor, and finally in 575 with 12 companions passed over into Brittany, and thence into Gaul. After sojourning for a time in various provinces, where his preaching, charity, and the pure life led by himself and his companions did much to revive religion, he was invited by King Gontran to fix his abode in Burgundy. He chose the ancient Roman castle of Annegray, near Fau- cogney, in the present department of Haute- Sa6ne. It was in a forest, where after great hardships a monastery was built, the ground cleared and cultivated, and a large community sprung up. Soon their increasing number forced him to beg another residence from the royal favor, and he chose in 590 Luxeuil, the site of another Roman castle, at the foot qf the Vosges, and on the confines of Austrasia and Burgundy, and another at Fontaines. Noble- men flocked to Columbanus in such numbers that he was able to establish the laus perennis, or perpetual praise, successive choirs of monks singing unceasingly night and day the praise of God. At length a double storm burst upon him : from the bishops, who desired him and his monks to abandon their manner of celebra- ting Easter; and from Queen Brunehaut and her grandson Thierry, whom Columbanus re- proved openly, the king for his licentious life, and the queen for pandering to the king's vices in order to rule in his stead. Banished from Burgundy with all his Irish monks, Columbanus embarked for Ireland, but was cast by a tempest on the shores of Brittany. Thence he proceeded to Laon, where the king of Neustria, Clotaire II., held his court; he re- proved him and his mother Fredegonda for their disorders, but was favored and encouraged by both. Having made up his mind to pass over into Italy with his companions, he set out from Laon to Metz, the capital of Theodebert, king of Austrasia. On his way through Cham-