Readings:
Wisdom 19:18-22
Psalm 111
1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Luke 10:17-20Preface of Apostles and Ordinations
[Common of a Monastic or Professed Religious]
[Common of a Missionary]
[Of the Incarnation]
[For the Mission of the Church]
O God, who by the preaching of thy servant Columba didst cause the light of the Gospel to shine in Scotland: Grant, we beseech thee, that, having his life and labors in remembrance, we may show forth our thankfulness to thee by following the example of his zeal and patience; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
PRAYER (contemporary language)
O God, who by the preaching
of your servant Columba caused the light of the Gospel to shine
in Scotland: Grant, we pray, that, remembering his life and labors,
we may follow the example of his zeal
and patience; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Lessons revised in Lesser Feasts & Fasts 2024.
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COLUMBA
ABBOT OF IONA AND MISSIONARY (9 JUNE 597)
In
the troubled and violent Dark Ages in Northern Europe, monasteries served
as inns, orphanages, centers of learning, and even as fortresses. The light
of civilization flickered dimly and might have gone out altogether if it
had not been for these convent-shelters.
Columba, a stern and strong monk from Ireland, founded three such establishments. He founded the monasteries of Derry and Durrow in his native Ireland, and the island monastery of Iona on the coast of Scotland. Iona was the center of operations for the conversion of the Scots and Picts, and became the most famous religious house in Scotland. There Columba baptized Brude, King of the Picts, and later a King of the Scots came to this Abbot of the "Holy Isle" for baptism.
[Geographic
note: If you look at a map of Scotland, you will see a huge gash across
the country from northeast to southwest. This has been slightly augmented
by artificial digging to make a shipping canal. As you emerge from the
southwest end of the gash, the large island of Mull is on your right.
At the southwest tip of Mull lies the tiny island of Iona. [56:19N 6:25W]]
The
historian Bede tells us that Columba led many to Christianity by his "preaching
and example." He was much admired for his physical as well as spiritual
prowess. He was a strict ascetic and remained physically vigorous and
unflagging in his missionary and pastoral journeys throughout his seventy-six
years of life. The memory of Columba lives on in Scotland, and Iona, though
desecrated during the Reformation, today houses a flourishing
ecumenical religious community.
by James Kiefer
A Medieval work by a successor of Columba,
Adamnan's Life
of St. Columba, is online, should you desire more information.
Some photos of Iona, taken by the web author in June
2002, are
online.