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Death of Columcille
the rise of Kells in Ireland caused a diversion in the
administration of the Columbian brotherhood, and when
soon after the Pictish nation yielded to Irish rule and
Kenneth mac Alpin, c. 847, transferred the sovereignty
to the eastern side of Scotland, Dunkeld became the
spiritual and political capital of the united kingdom of
the Irish and the Picts. From that time lona continued
to decline 1
and Dunkeld, which is numbered among the
fifty-three known foundations of Columcille and his disciples
in Scotland, took its place as the capital and center
of the national life.
Of the multitude of other men missionaries and kings,
soldiers, statesmen and scholars who aided, supplemented
and succeeded Columcille in the work not merely
of Christianizing but of colonizing and Hibernicizing
Scotland, little can here be said. There were noble figures
among them Modan in Stirling; Drostan in Aberdour;
Molurg in Lismore; Ciaran in Kintyre; Mun in Argyle;
Buite in Pictland; Moohar on the eastern coasts; Fergus
in Caithness and Buchan with Maelrubha of Skye and
the other apostles of the Western Isles these are but
leading names in a great host that Ireland gave to Scot-
land. There were none of them that were not wholly
Irish. The missionaries of civilization in other countries
have been of diverse nationalities. In England they were
Irish, Roman, and Greek. In France they were Greek,
Roman, Hebrew, and Irish. Scotland had no saint, no
i It remained the favored burial place of the kings of Scotland, as Shakespeare
evidences:
"Ross: Where's Duncan's body?
"Macduff: Carried to Colmekill (lona)
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors
And guardian of their bones."
"Ross: That now
Sweno, the Norway's king, craves composition;
Nor would we deign him burial of his men
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's Inch
Ten thousand dollars to our general use." (Macbeth, Acts I and II.)
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