E06056: Adomnán's Life of *Columba (abbot of Iona, ob. 597, S02167), is set in Britain and Ireland and records in three books the saint's prophecies, miracles, angelic encounters, and death. Written in Latin at Iona, 696/704. Overview entry
Creators: name: Bsavill
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2018
Subjects: History

description: Adomnán, Life of Columba (BHL 1886)<br><br>Summary:<br><br>Prefaces<br>(1.) Adomnán states that he will describe the saint's life, 'in response to the entreaties of the brethren'. <br><br>(2.) On the significance of Columba's name; the prophecy of his birth by Mochta, a disciple of Patrick (see $E06058); the author's plan for the Life and the trustworthiness of his sources; the saint's lineage and his decision to leave Ireland and become a 'pilgrim for Christ' in Britain after the battle of Cúl Drebene; and the saint's boyhood and way of life.<br><br><br>Book one, 'Concerning prophetic revelations'<br>(1.) A summary of Columba's miracles in life and after death, in both Ireland and Britain, in particular his posthumous intervention securing the victory of King Oswald in England, and his reception of the gift of prophecy as a young man.<br> <br>(2.) Columba's prophecies concerning: Fintan mac Tulcháin (see $E06059); (3.) Ernéne mac Craséni; (4.) Cainnech (see $E06059); (5.) Colmán Elo (see $E06059); (6.) Cormac Ua Liatháin (see $E06059); (7.) the battle of Móin Daire Lothair; (8.) the battle of King Áedán with the Miathi; (9.) King Áedán's sons; (10.) Domnall mac Áedo; (11.) Scandlán mac Colmáin; (12.) Báetán mac Maic Ercae and Eochaid mac Domnaill; (13.) Óengus mac Áedo Commain; (14.) King Diarmait's son Áed Sláine; (15.) Rhydderch ap Tudwal (16.) the deaths of two sons of a layman; (17.) Colgu mac Áedo Draigniche; (18.) Lasrén moccu Moie; (19.) a whale; (20.) Báetán, who was buried in Derry; (21.) Neman mac Cathir; (22.) an unnamed man who slept with his own mother; (23.) a missing letter in a psalter copied by a monk; (24.) a book that fell into water; (25.) spilt ink; (26.) Áedán mac Fergnai; (27.) a man who shouted across the Sound; (28.) a fire in Italy; (29.) Lasrén mac Feradaig; (30.) the scholar (sapiens) Fiachnae; (31.) the monk Caitlan; (32.) two pilgrims who took monastic vows; (33.) the pagan Artbranan, who died after receiving baptism; (34.) the burning of certain houses; (35.) Gallán mac Fachtnai; (36.) and the priest Findchán and Áed Dub. <br><br>(37.) How Columba's spirit refreshed his monks when they were away from the monastery; and how his voice could be heard from far away when singing psalms. <br><br>(38.) Further prophecies of Columba, concerning: Luigad the Lame; (39.) Neman mac Grutriche; (40.) an unclean priest; (41.) Erc moccu Druidi, a thief; (42.) Crónán the poet; (43.) two chieftains who killed each other; (44.) Bishop Crónan, who came to Columba as a pilgrim in disguise; (45.) the priest Ernán, his uncle; (46.) a robbery; (47.) Guaire mac Áedáin; (48.) a heron; (49.) the battle at Dún Cethirn, which he told to Comgall (see $E06059); (50.) the sins of men who had offered gifts to him.<br><br><br>Book two, 'Dealing with miracles of power which are often also prophetically foreknown'<br>(1.) How as a young man Columba turned water into wine, but ascribed the miracle to his teacher Bishop Uinniau (see $E06059).<br> <br>(2.) How he made the fruit of a tree taste sweet. <br><br>(3.) How a crop sown in June was harvested in August.<br> <br>(4.) How bread and water he had blessed cured both people and animals from a disease that he had prophesied.<br> <br>(5.) How he sent a 'pinewood box with a blessing inside it' to a holy virgin and cured her broken hip, and prophesied how long she would live. <br><br>(6.) How he cured many sick people at Druim Cett. <br><br>(7.) How a block of salt blessed by him could not be destroyed by fire. <br><br>(8-9.) How pages of books written by him could not be destroyed by water. (10.) How he caused water to spring from a rock for a baptism. <br><br>(11.) How he blessed a well worshipped by pagans and drove the demons from it. <br><br>(12.) How, at sea, he calmed a storm by prayer. <br><br>(13.) How, again at sea in a storm, he knew that Cainnech, many miles away, would calm the storm by prayer (see $E06059). <br><br>(14.) How Cainnech's staff was miraculously transported from Iona to Islay (see $E06059). <br><br>(15.) How Columba prayed for a fair wind for the priests Baithéne and Colmán Elo (see $E06059). <br><br>(16.) How he drove out a devil hiding in a milk pail. <br><br>(17.) How he revealed that milk which a sorcerer had drawn from a bull was in fact blood. <br><br>(18.) How he cured a nosebleed. <br><br>(19.) Two fishing miracles. <br><br>(20.) How Columba blessed a generous poor man so that he became rich, and prophesied that a rich miser would become poor. <br><br>(21.) How he blessed another poor man and prophesied that he would become rich in cattle. <br><br>(22.) How he prayed and prophesied that a band of robbers would drown at sea. <br><br>(23.) How he prophesied the death of the murderer Feradach. <br><br>(24.) How a monk, who had protected him from an assassin, was miraculously unharmed, and how he prophesied the assassin's death exactly one year later. <br><br>(25.) How, when a young deacon, he pronounced a sentence on a murderer, who died on the spot. <br><br>(26.) How he caused a boar to die. <br><br>(27.) How he drove off a sea monster at the River Ness by making the sign of the cross. <br><br>(28.) How he freed Iona of snakes. <br><br>(29.) How a knife blessed by him could harm no flesh. <br><br>(30.) How he healed his servant Diarmait. <br><br>(31.) How he healed the monk Fintan mac Áedo. <br><br>(32.) How he brought a dead child back to life, proving that he was equal in power with the prophets Elijah and Elisha and saints Peter, Paul and John (see $E06060). <br><br>(33.) How he healed the wizard Broichan with a blessed stone (see $E06061). <br><br>(34.) How he resisted a storm sent by the wizard Broichnan through the power of devils, as Germanus had once done. [= *Germanus, bishop of Auxerre (S00455): cf. E06024]<br><br>(35.) How he caused the doors of King Bridei's fortress to open. <br><br>(36.) How he caused the doors of the church at Terryglass to open. <br><br>(37.) How he blessed a stake with which a beggar caught wild animals, but which the beggar's wife later chopped up. <br><br>(38.) How he prophesied that a man would lose his milk-skin in the sea, and that the tide would bring it back. <br><br>(39.) How he prophesied the future of Librán, a penitent. <br><br>(40.) How, in Iona, he prayed for a girl in the pains of childbirth in Ireland. <br><br>(41.) How, through prayers and fasting, he made a wife sleep with her ugly husband.<br><br>(42.) How he knew of the turbulent sea voyage of Cormac Ua Liatháin, and saved him by prayer (see $E06059). <br><br>(43.) How he rode in a chariot without linchpins.<br><br>(44.) Posthumous miracles: how, seventeen years ago, the monks of Iona were saved from drought when they went out to the fields with Columba's tunic and books (see $E06597).<br><br>(45.) How on different occasions a favourable wind was achieved by laying Columba's vestments and books on the altar, or through Adomnán's own chiding of the saint. <br><br>(46.) How the Picts and the Irish in Britain were saved from the plague. <br><br><br>Book three, 'Concerning visions of angels'<br>(1.) How an angel visited Columba's mother after he was conceived. <br><br>(2.) How his foster-father Cruithnechán saw a fiery ball of light over the face of Columba when he was a child. <br><br>(3.) How Brendan of Birr saw angels and a fiery light around Columba when the latter was under a sentence of excommunication (see $E06059). <br><br>(4.) How Uinniau saw an angel walking by his side (see $E06059). <br><br>(5.) How an angel appeared to Columba in a vision with a 'glass book' and struck him with a whip, telling him to ordain Áedán as king [this is followed in some MSS of the Life by an excerpt from Cumméne's lost book on Columba: see $E06057]. <br><br>(6-7.) His visions of angels carrying the souls of monks to heaven. <br><br>(8.) How he did battle with demons, with the help of angels. <br><br>(9-10.) His visions of angels carrying the souls of lay-people to heaven. <br><br>(11.) His vision of angels coming to meet the souls of Brendan of Birr (see $E06059); (12.) of Bishop Colmán moccu Loígse, whom Columba ordered to be commemorated in the liturgy alongside Martin (see $E06062); (13.) of some drowned monks of Comgall (see $E06059); (14.) and of the pagan Emchath, whom Columba first had to baptise. <br><br>(15.) How he sent an angel to rescue a monk falling from the roof of a house. <br><br>(16.) How he was seen conferring with a host of angels. <br><br>(17.) How the saints Comgall, Cainnech, Brendan and Cormac Ua Liatháin visited Columba and saw light shine from his head as he celebrated the Eucharist (see $E06059). <br><br>(18.) How Columba spent three days filled with the Holy Spirit and surrounded by heavenly light, during which he engaged in scriptural interpretation. <br><br>(19-21.) How three different people saw a brilliant light shine upon Columba in the night. <br><br>(22.) How, thirty years after he left Ireland and began his 'pilgrimage in Britain', he saw angels coming to take his soul, although this was to be delayed by four years. <br><br>(23.) His death, which was accompanied by angelic visions and phenomena of heavenly light, and his burial: 'the place where his bones rest is still visited by the light of heaven and by numbers of angels.' Adomnán concludes by noting that Columba's fame has gone beyond Ireland and Britain, to Spain, Gaul and Italy.<br><br>Text: Anderson and Anderson 1991. Translation: Sharpe 1995. Summary: B. Savill.