Today we commemorate Saint Columba, Abbot of Iona,
who died in 597. Columba, or Colmcille, was a learned monk, a missionary, a
fierce preacher, and a founder of monasteries. In the annals, he is remembered
as a big man, powerfully built, with a “loud and melodious voice,” not bad
things in a preacher. His family was not poor, and he got a good education,
studied Latin and theology, became a monk, then a deacon, and finally a priest.
He spent time in more than one Irish monastery and was imbued with the
traditions of Celtic spirituality, mostly at the famous monastery of Clonard in
Ireland’s northeast, where Columba was taught and guided by Saint Finian.
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