Columba
✓ Source-basedstable6th‑century Gaelic Irish missionary monk, Christian saint, pioneer of Celtic Christianity in Scotland and “Apostle of the Picts”
An Irish monk who turned a tiny Hebridean island into the engine room of medieval Scottish Christianity. Iona Abbey, which he founded in 563 AD, became the dominant religious and political force in the region for centuries - and Columba himself is still venerated as a patron saint on both sides of the Irish Sea.
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Photos 7
Ruins of Colmcille's Chapel at Gartan Lough
Stained-glass window of Colmcille founding Derry
Nineteenth century illustration of Columba's meeting with King Bridei, by William Hole
"Saint Columba Rescuing a Captive", 19th-century painting by Robert Herdman
Stained-glass window of St Columba, St Patrick's Church of Ireland, Armagh
Stained-glass window of St Columba, St Margaret's Chapel, EdinburghIn their orbit 2
About this person
Born in Tyrconnell in 521, Columba studied under Ireland's leading church figures and founded several monasteries before crossing to Kintyre with twelve companions around 563. They settled on Iona in the Hebrides, then part of the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata, and built an abbey that became the base for missions to the pagan Pictish kingdoms to the north. He stayed involved in Irish politics but spent most of his remaining years in what became Scotland, bridging the Gaelic and Pictish worlds. Three early-medieval Latin hymns survive in his name. He died on 9 June 597, remembered as one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland and venerated by Gaels and Picts alike.
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