School

Celebrating Saint Columbkille, Our Patron
Saint Columbkille (521-597), born in County Donegal, was originally known as Columba of Iona, or, in Old Irish, as
“Colm Cille” or “Columcille” (meaning “Dove of the Church”).    Columbkille was an outstanding figure among
Irish Gaelic missionary monks who introduced the light of Christianity to Scotland at the beginning of the Dark Ages (450-1000).
During the sixth century, some of the most significant names in the history of Irish Christianity studied at the monastery in Clonard founded by Saint Finnian of Clonard (470-549).    Columbkille was a pupil at the Clonard Abbey, situated on the River Boyne in modern County Meath, when the average number of scholars under instruction there was 3,000.   Twelve students of Finnian of Clonard, including Columba, were known as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.   Columbkille became a monk and was ordained a priest at Clonard.     Sometime around 560, Columbkille became involved in a quarrel with Saint Finnian of Moville (495-589) over a psalter.    Columba copied the manuscript at the scriptorium in Moville, intending to keep the copy he made.

Finnian disputed his right to take the copy and the dispute eventually led to the pitched Battle of Cúl
Dreimhne in 561, during which many men were killed. Columbkille was convicted of the first known copyright infringement with this ruling: “To each cow its calf, to each book its owner.”   A synod of clerics and scholars then threatened to excommunicate Columbkille for the deaths that resulted from his wrongdoing, but Saint Brendan of Birr (d. 573) spoke on his behalf with the result that he was allowed to go into exile instead. Columbkille suggested that he would work as a missionary in Scotland to help convert as many people as had been killed in the battle. He exiled himself from Ireland, to return only once again, several years later. In 563, Columbkille crossed the Irish Sea to Scotland with twelve companions, where according to legend he first landed at the southern tip of the Kintyre peninsula, near Southend.   However, being still in sight of his native land he moved further north up the west coast of Scotland to the island of Iona, which became the center of his evangelizing mission to the Picts.    Columbkille was never separated from his native people at Iona, because the Irish had been colonizing the west
coast of Scotland for hundreds of years.

In addition to his work there in guiding the only center of literacy in the region, Columbkille’s reputation as a holy man led to his role as a diplomat among the tribes. He was very energetic in his evangelical work, and, along with founding several churches in the Hebrides, he worked to make his monastery in Iona a school for missionaries.

Columbkille was a renowned man of letters, having written several hymns, and he is credited with having transcribed 300 books personally. One of the few times he left Scotland after his arrival was toward the end of his life, when he returned to Ireland to found the monastery at Durrow in County Laois.   He died at Iona and was buried there in the monastery he created. With Saint Patrick (387-461) and Saint Brigid (451-525), Saint Columbkille is one of Ireland’s three great and holy patrons. His feast day is June 9.

On July 1, 1871, Bishop John Williams established the Brighton Catholic community, which had been served by St. Mary’s in Brookline, as St. Columbkille Parish.   He named Father Patrick J. Rogers as the first pastor. The new parishioners, made up of a majority of Irish immigrants, set immediately to building the magnificent church that has stood on the corner of Market and Arlington Streets since the mid-1870s.    Father Rogers was so proud of the new edifice that he affixed his name to the front of the church (over the rose window) in 1875. There have been only seven pastors appointed to St. Columbkille since Father Rogers.