Yakki dha greetings. The most famous apostle of christianity to the picts was saint Columba. He is favoured by the Roman Catholic church and the Orthodox churches which is as damming as it gets. He seems to have started off as an Irish Prince known as the dove. Then he became a monk and killed a saint.... "He was born to Fedlimid and Eithne of the Uí Néill clan in Gartan, near Lough Gartan, County Donegal. On his father's side he was great-great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish king of the 5th century. He became a monk and was ordained as a priest. Tradition asserts that, sometime around 560, he became involved in a dispute with Saint Finnian over a psalter. Columba copied the manuscript at the scriptorium under Saint Finnian, intending to keep the copy. Saint Finnian disputed his right to keep the copy. The dispute eventually led to the pitched Battle of Cúl Dreimhne in 561, during which many men were killed. (Columba's copy of the psalter has been traditionally associated with the Cathach of St. Columba.) As penance for these deaths, Columba suggested that he work as a missionary in Scotland to help convert as many people as had been killed in the battle. He exiled himself from Ireland," presumably before he was assassinated. He established a base with 9 companions at Iona island. "At Bridei's stronghold, an undoubted Iron Age fort, situated on top of Craig Phadraig, legend has it, Columba was rudely confronted by a locked gate, but its bolts could not resist the sign of the cross. They sprang open to allow the visitor to enter, to the king's amazement and alarm. From that moment onward Bridei treated Columba with "growing deference and honour"." This is haled by some as a miracle and others as the guards opening the door to the gesticulating psycho monk visitor. Still, the door opening greatly impressed Columba who was still probably shell shocked from his homocidal antics. "A chance to show the efficacy of his faith to an alien audience (as at the king's locked gate) came one day when he was visiting Lochend, near where the River Ness begins. He met a party of Picts who had just buried a companion; they told Columba that the poor fellow had been mauled to death by a water monster. Touched by compassion but properly aware of his own value to the Church, he instructed a companion named Mocumin to swim the river and commandeer a boat moored on the opposite bank. Mocumin did so. Inevitably the Beast, having tasted blood, broke the surface and made for him, and was within snapping distance when the saint raised an admonitory hand and told it to stop. The beast swam off, with undulating humps and bellowing most frightfully, while Mocumin trembling with fear and cold, returned to his master. It was indeed a famous miracle" So that is Columba meeting and sending away Nessie. It is said he was in the pay of the Roman Church. " Columba is credited as being a leading figure in the revitalization of monasticism,"





dha wellee (see ya)