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Columcille, Apostle of Scotland
north of the island and Ireland and Scotland gleamed
thereby. The silvery moon went on till it stayed by the
Shannon and Ireland at her center gleamed. That, we
are told, "was Columcille with the grace of his noble kin
and his wisdom, and Ciaran with the refulgence of his
virtues and good deeds."
From Clonard Columcille passed on to the school of
Mobhi at Glasnevin, near Dublin, whither he seems to
have been accompanied by Ciaran, Comgall and Cain-
nech. There on one occasion, the Book of Lismore life
tells us, the clerics were considering what each of them
would like to have in the great church which Mobhi had
"
built. 'I should like,' saith Ciaran, 'its full of church
children to attend the canonical hours.' 'I should like/
saith Cainnech, 'to have its full of books to serve the
sons of Life.' 'I should like,' saith Comgall, 'its full of
affliction and disease to
me and to repress me!'"
be in my own body to subdue
Then Columcille chose its full
of gold and silver to cover relics and shrines withal.
"Mobhi," the story goes on, "said it should not be so,
but that Columcille's community would be wealthier than
any community in Ireland or Scotland."
The plague of 544 visited Ireland while Columcille
on the
was at Mobhi's foundation and it fell heavily
members. Co-
community, which numbered about fifty
lumcille as a precautionary measure went northward and
shortly after received from his cousin, Prince of Aileach
and later monarch of Ireland, the site of a monastery
on the coast covering some 300 acres and clad by a splen-
did forest of oak trees which gave to that beauty spot
the name of Daire, or Derry. Here in 546, when he
was twenty-five years old, Columcille founded the famous
church and school which remained so dear to him in
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