ST/JD/11

Columba of Iona

Gender

Male

Floruit (period)

None

Floruit date range

521 - 09/06/597

Description

Founding abbot of the monastery of Iona in 563×573. Founder also of Derry and Durrow. Our principal source is the Life (Vita S. Columbae) written c. 697 by Adomnán, abbot of Iona. Columba is also mentioned in Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, and is the subject of a number of other hagiographical works. Columba was born in Ireland, son of Fedelmid mac Ferguso and Eithne. He was of the line of Cenél Conaill, and therefore belonged to the northern branch of the Uí Néill. In 574, Áedán mac Gabráin is said to have come to Columba for consecration as king of Dalriada. A special relationship therefore appears to have existed between Columba and the ruling dynasty of Dalriada, the Cenél nGabráin. During Columba’s lifetime, more than one of his close kin became the supreme Uí Néill overlord; many of Columba’s successors belonged to the lineage of Cenél Conaill; so, for at least a century after Columba’s death, Iona may have been the principal church for both Dalriada and the Northern Uí Néill. Columba acted as intermediary between the kings of Dalriada and the Northern Uí Néill at Druim Cett, c. 590. Columba is also credited with the conversion of the Picts, though the historicity of his mission is not certain. [See R. Sharpe, Adomnan of Iona. Life of St Columba (Harmondsworth, 1995).]