Editing Columba (section)

{{Short description|Irish missionary monk, one of Ireland's three patron saints}}
{{hatnote group|
{{other uses}}
{{distinguish|Columbanus}}
{{redirect|Saint Columba}}
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix= [[Saint]] 
|name= Columba
|image=Columba at Bridei's fort.jpg
|caption=Saint Columba, Apostle to the [[Picts]]
|titles=Apostle of the [[Picts]]
|birth_date=7 December 521 AD
|birth_place=[[Gartan]], [[Tyrconnell]], [[Gaelic Ireland]]
|death_date=9 June 597 AD (aged 75)
|death_place=[[Iona]], [[Dál Riata]]
|feast_day=9 June
|venerated_in=[[Catholic Church]]<br/>[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<br/>[[Anglicanism]]<br/>
[[Lutheranism]]
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|major_shrine=[[Iona]], Scotland
|attributes=Monk's robes, Celtic tonsure and crosier
|patronage=[[Derry]], [[floods]], [[bookbinder]]s, [[poet]]s, Ireland and Scotland
|issues=
|suppressed_date=
}}

'''Columba''' ({{IPAc-en|k|ə|ˈ|l||ʌ|m|b|ə|,|_|ˈ|k|ɒ|l|ʌ|m|b|ə}}) or '''Colmcille'''{{efn|{{langx|ga|Colm Cille|lit=church dove}}; {{langx|gd|Calum Cille}}; {{langx|gv|Colum Keeilley}}; {{langx|non|Kolban}} or at least partly reinterpreted as {{lang|non|Kolbjørn}}<ref>{{Citation | last = Kenyon | first = Sherrilyn | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=y6mYHORNa5IC&pg=PA358 | title = The Writer's Digest character naming sourcebook | series = Writer's Digest Books | year = 2005 | page = 358 | isbn = 9781582976495 | access-date = 16 October 2015 | archive-date = 30 April 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160430224800/https://books.google.com/books?id=y6mYHORNa5IC&pg=PA358 | url-status = live }}.</ref><ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.keltiskfromhet.no/ressurser/helligsky/pdf-filer/HlSky23_Columba.pdf | publisher = Keltiskfromhet | title = Columba | place = [[Norway|NO]] | language = no | access-date = 30 August 2009 | archive-date = 19 October 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131019113050/http://www.keltiskfromhet.no/ressurser/helligsky/pdf-filer/HlSky23_Columba.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref>}} (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an [[Gaelic Ireland|Irish]] [[abbot]] and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today [[Scotland]] at the start of the [[Hiberno-Scottish mission]].<ref>{{cite CE1913|wstitle= St. Columba, Abbot of Iona |volume= 4 |page= |last= Edmonds |first= Columba |author-link= |year=1913|short=1}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> He founded the important [[Iona Abbey|abbey]] on [[Iona]], which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries.<ref>MacDonald, Aidan D. S. (2013) Iona and the Shrine of Columba, c.800-1200, CORA, University College Cork: Cork Open Research Archive, https://hdl.handle.net/10468/15058</ref> He is the patron saint of [[Derry]]. He was highly regarded by both the [[Gaels]] of [[Dál Riata]] and the [[Picts]], and is remembered today as a Catholic [[saint]] and one of the [[Twelve Apostles of Ireland]].<ref name="Gratton-Flood1">{{cite CE1913|first=W.H. |last=Gratton-Flood |author-link= W. H. Grattan Flood|wstitle=  Twelve Apostles of Erin|volume=1|short=1}}</ref>

Columba studied under some of Ireland's most prominent church figures and founded several monasteries in the country. Around 563 AD he and his twelve companions crossed to Dunaverty near [[Southend, Argyll]], in [[Kintyre]] before settling in Iona in Scotland, then part of the [[Ulster]] kingdom of Dál Riata, where they founded a new abbey as a base for spreading [[Celtic Christianity]] among the pagan [[Fortriu|Northern Pictish kingdoms]].{{sfn|Charles-Edwards|2000|p=303}}{{sfn|Wagner|Konstam|2012|p=14|ps=: states the Northern Pictish nations were still pagan while the southern Pictish kingdoms were Catholic}} He remained active in Irish politics, though he spent most of the remainder of his life in Scotland. Three surviving [[Early Middle Ages|early-medieval]] [[Latin]] [[hymn]]s are attributed to him.<ref name=":0">{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Columba, Saint|volume=6|page=737|first=Edmund Crosby |last=Quiggin|authorlink = Edmund Crosby Quiggin}}</ref>