Columba Founds Iona

Columba, called Colum Cille in Irish, was a priest and abbot who had already founded the monastery of Durrow in Ireland (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 3.4). About two years after the battle of Cúl Dreimne, which the annals say was won through his prayers, he sailed from Ireland to Britain (Adomnán, Life of Columba 1.7) (Annals of Ulster 561). The Irish annals put the voyage in 563, when he was in his forty-second year (Annals of Ulster 563).

He settled on Iona, a small island off the west coast of what is now Scotland. The sources disagree about who gave it to him. Bede says that Columba came to preach to the northern Picts, converted them, and received the island from them (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 3.4). The Annals of Ulster say that it was granted by Conall son of Comgall (Annals of Ulster 574), and Adomnán shows Columba staying in Britain with this King Conall soon after he arrived (Adomnán, Life of Columba 1.7).

Adomnán, ninth abbot of Iona, wrote Columba’s Life about a century later. He tells of Columba’s first journey to the fortress of the Pictish king Bridei, where the barred gates opened at the sign of the cross (Adomnán, Life of Columba 2.36), and of Columba ordaining Áedán as king on Iona at the command of an angel (Adomnán, Life of Columba 3.6). The Life closes with Columba’s last day: he copied a psalter until he reached the end of a page, went to the church at midnight, and died before the altar while raising his hand to bless his monks (Adomnán, Life of Columba 3.24).

Bede notes what made Iona unusual. It was ruled by an abbot who was a priest and not a bishop, and the bishops of the whole province were subject to him; and its monks reckoned the date of Easter differently from the Roman church (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 3.4). In the next century King Oswald of Northumbria, who had been baptised among the Irish, asked their elders for a bishop and received Aidan, a monk of Iona (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 3.3). The difference over Easter came to a head at the Synod of Whitby.

How this is dated

Estimated date. A scholarly estimate from primary evidence, with a margin of years.

The Annals of Ulster enter Columba’s voyage to Iona under 563, in the forty-second year of his age (Annals of Ulster 563), and the battle of Cúl Dreimne under 561 (Annals of Ulster 561); Adomnán says that he sailed about two years after that battle (Adomnán, Life of Columba 1.7). Bede, writing in 731, gives 565 and the ninth year of the Pictish king Bridei (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 3.4). The timeline follows the annals.

The same sources bear on his death. Adomnán gives him thirty-four years in Britain (Adomnán, Life of Columba 3.23) and says that he died at midnight as Sunday began (Adomnán, Life of Columba 3.24); the annals give the day as 9 June but enter it under 595 (Annals of Ulster 595). Counting thirty-four years from 563 gives 597, and 9 June fell on a Sunday in that year, which is why 597 is the date usually given.

Columba Founds Iona

How this is dated

Primary sources

Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Life of Saint Columba

The Annals of Ulster

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