COM Ml', A N 



< OU MI'.IA 



367 



victory-bringing ensigns. St Columba's crosier 



Wlls ji'lsii n.-ril in thi- uay. 



St ( 'olunilia '.- rli.-invcter was very complex, but 

 ui;i lUi-il in all things by enthusiasm and earnestness. 

 Warlike ;uil a^-iv iv.- by temper and descent, 

 an well ax from tli<- -pirii of the times, he was 

 naturally nun*- im-lim-,1 to an ion than to melan- 

 choly, ami yet he had a tendency to expatiate 

 iiiuiil vi-itin-: and though his disposition was 

 prevailingly austere, he had frequent gleams of 

 tenderness and kindness. ' Angelic in appear- 

 ance,' says Adamnan, 'graceful in speech, holy in 

 work, with talents of the highest order and con 

 stimulate, prudence, he lived during thirty-four 

 years an island soldier. He never could spend 

 the space even of one hour without study, or 

 prayer, or writing, or some other holy occupation. 

 So Incessantly was he engaged night and day in 

 the unwearied exercises of fasting and watching, 

 that the burden of each of these austerities would 

 seem beyond the power of all human endurance. 

 And still in all these he was beloved by all ; for a 

 holy joy ever beaming on his face revealed the joy 

 and gladness with which the Holy Spirit filled his 

 inmost soul.' 



In the ecclesiastical system of St Cohunba as 

 in that of Ireland, the church was essentially 

 monastic with ' neither a territorial episcopacy nor 

 anything like presbyterian parity, but the same 

 anomalous position of the episcopal order. The 

 bishops were under the monastic rule, and as such 

 were in respect of jurisdiction subject to the 

 abbot, even though a presbyter, as the head of the 

 monastery ;' but while the power usually reserved 

 to the episcopate was thus transferred to the 

 abbatial office, ' the episcopal orders were fully 

 recognised as constituting a grade superior to that 

 of the presbyters," and as carrying with them the 

 functions or ordination and celebration of the 

 eucharist according to the episcopal rite. St 

 Columba himself, as well as his followers generally 

 till the year 716, kept Easter on a different day, 

 and shaved their heads after another fashion than 

 obtained in other parts of Western Christendom. 

 But with these exceptions, their creed and rites 

 appear to have been substantially the same. 



The chief authority for the life of St Columba is 

 the account written by St Adamnan (q.v. ), who was 

 abbot of lona from 679 to 704, and who incorpor- 

 ated in his work an earlier life by Cuimine ( abbot, 

 657-669). Of this Dr Reeves published an edition 

 in 1857 for the Bannatyne Club, re-issued in the 

 'Scottish Historians' series (1874); and there is 

 one by J. T. Fowler (1894). See also Smith's Life 

 of St Columba (Edin. 1798); Lanigan's Ecclesi- 

 astical History of Ireland (1822); Jather Innes's 

 History of Scotland (Spalding Club, 1853) ; Monta- 

 lembert's Monks of the West, vol. iii. ; Forbes's 

 Kalendars of Scottish Saints (Edin. 1872); and 

 Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. ii. (Edin. 1877). 



Coliimban, or COLUMBANUS, ST, one of the 

 most learned, eloquent, and devoted of the many 

 missionaries whom Ireland sent forth to the Con- 

 tinent during the Dark Ages, was l>orn in Leinster 

 in the year 543. Having studied under St Comgall, 

 in the great monastery of Bangor, on the coast of 

 Down, he passed over to France, in his fortieth year, 

 accompanied by twelve companions, and founded 

 successively the monasteries of Anegray, Luxeuil, 

 and Fontaine, in the Vosges country. His adher- 

 ence to the Irish rule for calculating Easter 

 involved him in controversy with the French 

 bishops in 602 ; and a few years later, the courage 

 with which he rebuked the vices of the Burgundian 

 court; led to his expulsion, largely at the instiga- 

 tion of the notorious Brunhilda, the king's grand- 

 mother. After various travels and adventures, 

 aad having for a year or two settled at Bregenz, 



near the Lake of Constance, he passed into Lorn- 

 hardy, and in 612 founded the famous monastery 

 of Bobbio, in the Apennines, where he died on 

 the 21st Novemlier 615. Hi.- life, written within 

 a century after his death, by Jonas, one of hi** 

 successors in the abbacy of Bohbio, ha- l.-,-n 

 repeatedly printed. The writings of St Columban, 

 which are wholly in Latin, cuii-i-i of a rule for 

 the government of his nymostery, six poems on 

 ili" vanity of life, several letters on ecclesiastical 

 affairs, seventeen short sermons, and a commen- 

 tary on the Psalms (first published at Koine 

 in 1878). The most complete edition of hi- 

 works is in Patrick Fleming's Collectanea Sacra 

 (Augsburg, 1621 ; Louvain, 1667), followed by the 

 Bibliothecce 1'atrum, and Migne's Patrologia; t'vrsu* 

 (1844). The town of San Colombano, in the pro- 

 vince of Milan, takes ii- name from the Irish monk, 

 as St Gall (q.v.), in Switzerland, perpetuates the 

 name of the most favoured of his disciples. See the 

 Vita by his* successor Jonas of Bobbio (tr. by D. C. 

 Munro, 1896), Montalembert's Monks of the West, 

 and Wright's Biographia Literaria. 



< oliiiulia riiilll (Lat.), a dovecot or pigeon- 

 house, which probably differed little in form from 

 those in modern use, but was sometimes built 

 on a much larger scale, as we read in Varro of as 

 many as five thousand birds being kept in the same 

 house. The same name was applied to the niches 

 or pigeon-holes in a particular Kind of sepulchral 

 chamber in which the urns (ollce) containing the 

 ashes of dead bodies burned were deposited. Each 

 niche usually contained two urns, and the four 

 walls of the sepulchre sometimes contained as 

 many as one hundred niches or more. The names 

 of the persons were inscribed underneath. Tombs 

 of this description Avere chiefly used by great 

 families for depositing the ashes of their slaves and 

 dependants. 



Columbia, the name of nearly thirty places in 

 the United States, of which the most important 

 are : ( 1 ) The capital of South Carolina, at the head 

 of navigation on the Congaree River, 130 miles 

 NNW. of Charleston by rail. The town is 

 regularly built, with several handsome streets, and 

 contains a fine granite state-house (3,000,000) 

 and other official buildings. It is the seat of a 

 Presbyterian theological seminary, and of the 

 university of South Carolina (1806). Pop. (1890) 

 15,353. (2) A borough of Lancaster county, Penn- 

 sylvania, on the Susquehanna, which is here 

 crossed by a railway bridge, 80 miles W. of 

 Philadelphia, with several iron-furnaces and roll- 

 ing-mills, and manufactures of machinery, flour, 

 &c. Pop. (1890) 10,597. (3) The capital of Maury 

 county, Tennessee, on the Duck River, 45 miles 

 SSW. of Nashville by rail, with manufactures _of 

 ploughs, furniture, and flour. Pop. (1890), with 

 suburbs, about 7000. (4) The capital of Boone 

 county, Missouri, 24 miles E. of Boonville, with 

 manufactures of flour, tobacco, and woollens. It is 

 the seat of the state university (1840), which is open 

 to both sexes, and has some five hundred students 

 and fifteen professors. Pop. (1890) 3985. 



Columbia, or OREGON, after the Yukon the 

 largest river on the west side of America, rises in 

 British Columbia, on the west slope of the Rocky 

 Mountains, near Mounts Brown and Hooker, in 

 about 50 N. lat., has a very irregular course, 

 generally south-west, through Washington, forms 

 the northern boundary of Oregon for about 350 

 miles, and enters the Pacific by an estuary 35 

 miles long and from 3 to 7 wide. Its estimated 

 length is 1400 miles. The area drained by this 

 stream and its affluents, of which the largest 

 are Clarke's Fork and the Snake River (with 

 very remarkable canons), has been computed at 



