For my third consecutive post about favorite saints I’m writing
about a saint I associate with a place I visited on my travels
in Ireland and Britain in 1998 (see Bede and Kevin). This time
the saint is Columba (also known as Colmcille and numerous other
variations) and the place is Derry (also known as Londonderry)
in Northern Ireland. Saint Columba (521-597) is attributed with
founding Derry by placing a monastery there in the 6th century.
Doire as it is spelled in Irish means “oak grove” and Columba
wrote fondly “Derry mine! my small oak grove/Little cell, my
home, my love!” Colm Cille means “dove of the Church” and this
imagery of doves and oak groves gives a sense of a pastoral
history to a city ravaged by sectarian violence the past four
centuries. Columba was born in County Donegal in Ireland of
royal descent and was ordained as a priest by the age of 25.
Possibly as the result of a conflict with Saint Finnian over a
psalter (which led to a family feud and many deaths), Columba
exiled himself to Scotla