SAINT OF THE WEEK: 9 June - Saint Columba
St Columba was just one of those effortlessly brilliant and holy Irish saints. He was born Colmcille – Columba is simply the Latin form of his name – in Tyrconnell in north-western Ireland in AD 521. As a young boy from an illustrious noble background, Columba studied under St Finnian of Movilla and St Finnian of Clonard. Given this monastic education, it was unsurprising that he entered religious life.
Columba’s virtues were recognised quickly and his ascent was swift. He had a unique talent for founding monasteries, around which towns often grew, and in the 540s was responsible for founding abbeys at Derry, Kells in what is now County Meath and Swords in County Dublin. Like many great men, however, he also had his flaws. Greatest of these was a dispute with St Finnian of Movilla over a copied manuscript which, when elevated to the disputed judgements of local warlords, caused the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne around AD 560 – possibly the earliest known fight over copyright in history.
