Columba : Missionary, Miracle Worker, Soul-Lover

Columba   521-597

I rejoiced when I discovered Columba in researching SPITITUAL LIVES in 2015

• He forsook his royal birth and position to win souls for Jesus

• God told his mother he would be a prophet before he was born

• He led kings and peoples to salvation and had Holy Ghost power to do miracles.

You may not be born into a royal family, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, (1 Peter 2:9), live your high calling today!

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Columba, banging on the gate of Bridei, son of Maelchon, king of Fortrui,

J.R. Skelton, illustrator, 1906, Scotland’s Story, 1906

Public Domain

 Columba was born in County Donegal, Ireland, about 30 years after Patrick had completed his missionary work. 

He was of Irish royalty with a chance of becoming “a high king of Ireland,” but he gave this up to serve the Lord first in his own country and later as a missionary to Scotland, which was still pagan at the time. 

From conception, his life seems to have been blessed.  His mother saw an angel before Columba was born who told her the child she was carrying would be "remembered among the Lord's prophets."

Angels announced the coming birth of John the Baptist*(5 BC-26 AD) and the Lord Jesus Chirst.* (4 BC - 30 AD). The Apostle Paul* (5-67) tells us God "separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace," Galatians 1:6 and later counts this "the high calling of God." Philippians 3:14

An asterisk* after a name means the person is in SPIRITUAL LIVES.

This is contrary to the world's opion, and I cannot find in history anyone who gave up being royal to do God's will. The exception, of course, is Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  Philippiahs 2:6-7

Yet this is what Columba did after receiving receiving the best education offered at that time.

As was the custom in wealthy families, the boy was sent away to a monastery school and later became one of the most learned of his countrymen.  

A large and somewhat outspoken young man, from an early age he loved scriptures, especially the Psalms and became a renowned man of letters. He transcribed over 300 books, most of these on the Psalms and other scriptures, and wrote several hymns which have come down to us.

However, he also felt a call to share the gospel with others, and in 563, he traveled to Scotland to evangelize the pagan Picts.  These were fierce people, considered “unconquerable” by the Romans who built Hadrian’s Wall to keep them out of the Roman British territory. 

The Picts allowed him to settle on the island of Iona, where he started a monastery to serve as a training school for missionaries.  He was an energetic missionary himself, founding several churches in the Hebrides and was largely responsible for the conversion of the Picts to Christ. 

Despite the enormous danger and risk, his trust was fixed upon the Lord Jesus;

"Alone with none but Thee, my God, I journey on my way;

 what need I fear when Thou art near, Oh King of night and day?

More safe am I within Thy hand than if a host did round me stand."  - Columba

Columba was not only a scholar and preacher, but a poet, prophet and miracle-worker.  In 563 he encountered what has become known as the “Loch Ness Monster,” and commanded the beast to go back to the depths after it had killed a Pict and tried to attack one of his companions.  His life was punctuated by other miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead, and turning water into wine. 

The most famous of these is pictured above.  He went to see Brude, (?-584)king of the Picts, who refused to see him.  The king ordered that the city gates be locked against the missionary's entrance. But when Columba prayed, the gates flew open on their own accord. King Brude was so awed that he immediately converted to Christianity.

He was also gifted prophetically and able to see the past, present and future all at the same time.  He prophesied the conversion of Britain to Christianity.  After a long and blessed life, he died in Iona, the home he loved;  “An I mo chridhe, I mo ghraidh. - In Iona that is my heart's desire, Iona that is my love.”― Saint Columba

He foresaw his own death in these words:  

This day in the Holy Scriptures is called the Sabbath, which means rest. And this day is indeed a Sabbath to me, for it is the last day of my present laborious life, and on it I rest after the fatigues of my labours; and this night at midnight, which commenceth the solemn Lord's Day, I shall, according to the sayings of Scripture, go the way of our fathers.

For already my Lord Jesus Christ deigneth to invite me; and to Him, I say, in the middle of this night shall I depart, at His invitation.  For so it hath been revealed to me by the Lord himself.

When I think of Columba, I am reminded of this song, that typifies his life;

leaveing all to follow Jesus,

turning from the world away.

Stepping out upon His promise,

All I have is His today. -- Ida M. Budd, 1859-1959

Like Moses, he was rased and educated as royalty, But God spoke to his mother and told her he was to be a prophet. And like the Apostle Paul, " I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:"- Acts 26:19

Columba won kings and peoples for Jesus and His kingdom and will no doubt hear these words from Him: Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:23

Below is a long and beautiful poem about his death..........http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/o/l/u/columba.htm

THE DEATH OF ST. COLUMBA

The last faint gleam of the sunset gold

Hath sunk in the western wave.

Over the isle the night-winds blow,

Sighing tenderly, moaning low,

Like mourners o’er a grave.

’Tis meet, ’tis meet that his life should close

Where he watched and toiled so well.

How is he keeping this last, last night,

That the taper burns so late, so bright

In his sternly simple cell?

A scribe sits there with parchment scroll—

Now haste thee, my son, and write!

Take thou no rest till the death-rest fall,

And watch thou, too, for the Master’s call,

That cometh so oft at night.

The monk wrote on, with eager hand,

None other sound was there.

For the grief in his soul might find no breath

In the presence of work—in the presence of death,

Till the bell should sound for prayer.

I would thou hadst closed the golden psalm

With the close of this passing life.

But these words are meet for my last farewell—

They will call the next brother like matin bell

To pray for the holy strife.

The words that looked from the speaking page

That had touched so deep a chord

In the old man’s heart, would thine eyes, too, see?

They were, Come, ye children, hearken to me;

I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

’Tis the midnight bell! I will enter in

Where my children kneel, once more.

And there followed one, with torch a-light,

To guard his way through the gusty night

To the lowly entrance-door.

But he passed in alone, in the dark,

For the storm had quenched the lights.

And there, as he knelt on the ground to pray,

His soul with the midnight rose, and away

To its home on the holy heights.

They found him there, with the smile of God

On the calm of his saintly face.

And when the deep hush of their pain was o’er,

And they bare him out through the lowly door,

’Twas an anthem that filled the place.

They laid him low for his quiet sleep

By the Church’s western bound—

But a few of those that had loved him best!

For the storms were out; and of all the rest

No boat could cross the Sound.

Till the days grew calm, and they bore him back

To the land of his earliest love;

And a coffin was laid in his own green isle,

For her balmy tears, and her proud, sweet smile,

Though her saint was in rest above.

Rise up and fashion a tribute meet,

If ye may, to a life like this,

Whose glorious crown was of souls that rose

From a world of graves, from the ranks of foes,

To the land where Christ gives bliss.

Alessie Bond Faus­sett

The Cairns of Io­na, and Other Po­ems, 1873