Today is the Feast Day of St. Columbkille. While his feast is not on the US liturgical calendar, it is in Ireland and Scotland. He was born in December of 521 and died on June 9, 597. He was born into a royal family and was sometimes known as St. Columba or "Columb Cille" which means "Dove of the Church." He entered religious life as a youth and started a number of monasteries in Ireland before bringing the faith to Scotland. He is considered second only to St. Patrick among Irish Saints and is the Patron Saint of Scotland. He is the patron saint of bookbinders, poets and navigators as well.
The following was taken from the Derry Diocesan Organizing Committee for the Columban Centenary Celebration 1997:
Columbkille was a man of outstanding gentleness and empathy. He was a kindly individual with a practical concern for people. He helped the unfortunate: interesting himself in the plight of a hostage; rehabilitating a reformed robber; curing a nun with a broken hip; assisting a woman in the pangs of child-birth with his prayers; providing destitute men with means of feeding themselves; and even at his death approached comforting others rather than seeking to be comforted. He had a profound sense of the worth of human beings and of the contribution they were making to society.
Above all, Columbkille was a man of prayer. Coming from a princely background with a commanding and practical personality he was bound to make an impact on his generation. His real greatness was that he was able to combine the advantages given him by temperament and birth with the ambition of sainthood.
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