St. Columba was born in County Donegal, Ireland, in the year 521, and was connected both on his father’s and mother’s side with the Irish royal family. He was carefully educated for the priesthood, and, after having finished his ecclesiastical studies, founded monastries in various parts of Ireland. The year of his departure from Ireland is, on good authority, ascertained to have been 563, and it is generally said that he fled to save his life, which was in jeopardy on account of a feud in which his relations were involved. His immediate objects were the instruction of the subjects of Conal, king of the British Scots, and the conversion of their neighbors the heathen Picts of the North. Columba arrived among his kindred on the shores of Argyle, and immediately set himself to fix on a suitable site for a monastery which he meant to erect, from which were to issue forth the apostolic missionaries destined to assist him in the work of conversion, and in which also the youth set apart for the office of the holy ministry were to be educated. St. Columba found a solitary island lying apart from the rest of the Hebridean group, near the south-west angle of Mull, then known by the simple name “I”, whose etymology is doubtful, afterwards changed by Bede into “Hy”, and then Latinized by the monks into “Iona.”
St. Columba died on June 9, 597, after a glorious and well-spent life, thirty-four years of which he had devoted to the instruction of the Scots whom he had converted. His influence was very great with the neigboring princes, and they often applied to him for advice, and submitted to him their differences, which he frequently settled by his authority. His memory is held in reverence by the Scots and Caledonians.