Columba

Missionary to the Scots · 521–597

Columba was an Irish monk of the Celtic church that Patrick had planted. In 563 he established a mission community on the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, and from there he became the great missionary to the Scots and the peoples of northern Britain.1

He made a lasting impact on Scotland and on the whole Celtic Christian world, and he was remembered for his kindness and his missionary zeal. Iona became a center of learning, worship, and evangelism, sending monks out to found new communities in Scotland and northern England.2

The Celtic churches kept their own customs, governed more by abbots than by bishops, and they did not depend on Rome. At the Synod of Whitby in Northumbria the English church chose the Roman way, and Christian History judges that the synod “decisively aligns the English church with Rome for the next nine centuries.”3

His Legacy

Columba’s mission shows a Christianity in Britain that grew without direction from Rome. Whitby brought that church under Roman order, and it remained so until the Reformation.4

Medieval Theologians

Notes

  1. “The 100 Most Important Events in Church History,” Christian History 28 (1990), “Timeline.”; Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, eds., 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000), “Patrick.” Summarized. ↩
  2. Michael J. Vlach, “Historical Theology I: A.D. 100–1600” (course notes, TH 507, The Master’s Seminary, Fall 2007), “Columba.” Summarized. ↩
  3. Galli and Olsen, 131 Christians, “Venerable Bede.,” on Whitby; “100 Most Important Events,” “Timeline.” ↩
  4. Vlach, “Historical Theology I,” “Saint Patrick.” Summarized. ↩