Death of St. Colm Cille (Columba), 9 June [592 / 597?]
Columba, Colmcille, or Colm Cille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission He founded the important abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries. 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. (Wikipedia) For more information on Colm Cille see Dictionary of Irish Biography
This month’s Document of the Month is taken from the Annals of the Four Masters and recounts the death of Colm Cille, recorded as having taken place on the 9 June 592. This differs from the accepted historical record which puts his year of death as 597.
"The Annals are a chronicle of Irish history from A.M. 2242 to A.D. 1616 and contain records under successive years of the deaths of kings and other prominent persons, both ecclesiastical and lay, along with accounts of battles, plagues, etc. They end with the death of Hugh O’Neill, earl of Tyrone, in 1616. The compilation was largely derived from older manuscripts, many of which have not survived.
Two complete autograph copies were made: one for Fearghal Ó Gadhra, Lord of Coolavin and Member of Parliament for Sligo in 1634, and one for the Franciscans at the Irish College of St Anthony, Louvain. The autograph manuscripts are all now in Dublin, in three separate archives:
- M. 2242-A.D. 1169: University College Dublin UCD-OFM A 13.
- M. 2242-A.D. 1171: Royal Irish Academy C iii 3.
- D. 1170-1499: Royal Irish Academy 23 P 6.
- D. 1500-1616: Royal Irish Academy 23 P 7.
- D. 1334-1605 (and 1616 fragment): Trinity College Dublin 1301.
The volume in UCD (UCD-OFM MS A 13) and two in the Academy (RIA 23 P 6-7) are considered to constitute the Louvain set."
Text from RIA blog: Annals of the Four Masters.
Annals of the Four Masters, UCD-OFM MS A13 | C17th | Paper | 28cm × 19 cm | f257r. Reproduced by kind permission of UCD-OFM Partnership. (Manuscript online ISOS.)
Image: ISOS
Irish Text
Aois Criost, cuig céd nochat a dó.
A cúig fichęt d'Aodh.
Colum Cille, mac Feaidhlimidh, apstal Alban, ceann crabhaidh ermhoir Ereann, ⁊ Alban iar b-Pattraicc, d'écc ina ecclais fęin in h-I i nd-Albain, iarsan c-cúicceadh bliadhain triochad a oilithre, oidhce domhnaigh do shundradh an 9 lá Iunii. Seacht m-bliadhna seachtmoghatt a aois uile an tan ro faoidh a spiorait dochum nimhe, amhail as-bęrar isin rann:
Teora bliadhna bai gan lés
Colum ina Duibhreglés,
Luidh go h-aingli asa chacht
iar seacht m-bliadhna seachtmoghat.
Dallán Forgaill dixit hoc do bhás Choluim Cille:
Is leighes legha gan les
is dedhail smera re smuais
Is abhran re cruit gan chéis
sinde d'éis ar n-argain uais.
Aodh Dubh, mac Suibhne, rí Uladh, do mharbhadh la Fiacha, mac Baettain. As lasan Aodh n-Dubh-sin torchair Diarmaitt mac Cearbhaill.
Annals of the Four Masters CELT Project
English Translation
The Age of Christ, 592.
The twenty fifth year of Aedh.
Colum Cille, son of Feidhlimidh, apostle of Alba Scotland, head of the piety of the most part of Ireland and Alba, next after Patrick, died in his own church in Hy, in Alba, after the thirty fifth year of his pilgrimage, on Sunday night precisely, the 9th day of June. Seventy seven years was his whole age when he resigned his spirit to heaven, as is said in this quatrain:
Three years without light
was Colum in his Duibh-regles;
He went to the angels from his body,
after seven years and seventy.
Dallan Forgaill composed this on the death of Colum Cille:
Like the cure of a physician without light,
like the separation of marrow from the bone,
Like a song to a harp without the ceis,
are we after being deprived of our noble.
Aedh Dubh, son of Suibhne, King of Ulidia, was slain by Fiachna, son of Baedan. It was by this Aedh Dubh Diarmaid Mac Cearbhaill had been slain.
Annals of the Four Masters CELT Project