Columba

Saint Columba (Irish: Colm Cille, 'church dove'; 7 December 521 – 9 June 597) was an Irish abbot and missionary 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 Christian saint and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.

Columba reportedly studied under some of Ireland's most prominent church figures and founded several monasteries in the country. Around 563 he and his twelve companions crossed to Dunaverty near Southend, Argyll in Kintyre before settling in Iona in Scotland, then part of the Irish kingdom of Dál Riata, where they founded a new abbey as a base for spreading Christianity among the northern Pictish kingdoms who were pagan. He remained active in Irish politics, though he spent most of the remainder of his life in Scotland. Three surviving early medieval Latin hymns may be attributed to him.

Columba (given name)

Columba is a given name which may refer to:

Religious figures

  • Columba (521–597), Irish prince who evangelised the Picts, and one of Scotland's patron saints
  • Columba of Rieti (1467-1501), Dominican beatified mystic
  • Columba of Sens (c. 257-273), saint and martyr
  • Columba of Spain (died c. 853), nun, saint and martyr
  • Columba of Terryglass (died 553), saint and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland
  • Columba the Virgin, Christian saint who probably lived in the 6th century
  • Columba Cary-Elwes (1903-1994), English priest, missionary and author
  • Columba de Dunbar (c. 1386-1435), Bishop of Moray
  • Columba Marmion (1858-1923), beatified Irish monk and third abbot of Maredsous Abbey
  • Columba Murphy (fl. 1835), Irish Roman Catholic priest
  • Columba Ryan (1916-2009), Dominican priest and philosophy teacher
  • Columba Stewart (born 1957) of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
  • Other

  • Columba Bush (born 1953), wife of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and sister-in-law of President George W. Bush
  • Columba (constellation)

    Columba is a small, faint constellation created in the late sixteenth century. Its name is Latin for dove. It is located just south of Canis Major and Lepus.

    History

    Columba was created by Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius in 1592 in order to differentiate the 'unformed stars' of the large constellation Canis Major. Plancius first depicted Columba on the small celestial planispheres of his large wall map of 1592. It is also shown on his smaller world map of 1594 and on early Dutch celestial globes.

    Plancius originally named the constellation Columba Noachi ("Noah's Dove"), referring to the dove that gave Noah the information that the Great Flood was receding. This name is found on early 17th-century celestial globes and star atlases (such as Bayer's Uranometria of 1603). Columba may also represent the dove released by Jason and the Argonauts at the Black Sea's mouth; it helped them navigate the dangerous Symplegades.

    Although the Plancius is credited with the creation of Columba, the existence of a "dove" constellation was attested to by Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215), although it is not known whether the same group of stars was contemplated. In addition, given the mythological linkage of Columba with Jason and the Argonauts, the celestial location of Columba over Puppis, part of the larger constellation once known as Argo Navis (the ship of the Argonauts), supports an ancient derivation of this constellation, despite its notable omission by Ptolemy.

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