200 Mr. TurnbuU o?i Saint Batha?h 



" Listen to me good Baithen" 



and towards the end occur these stanzas — 



" Mandar of the great ships shall come 

 And shall carry off my body from my people, 

 It was the Tailgum that foretold this, 

 beloved Baithen put on record. 



Patrick foretold of a truth, 

 And Bn'dget the evil deedless foretold 

 That their bodies shall be in stainless Dun 

 And my body Baithen record. "a 



On the day on which he died, Columba had been transcribing 

 the psalms, and at the foot of a page had written that verse 

 of (Adamnan says) the 33rd psalm. " Inquirentes autem 

 " Dominum non deficient omni bono." This is in reality the 

 34th psalm and 10th verse, " they that seek the Lord shall 

 " not want any good thing." "Here," he said, "I must stop 

 '* at the bottom of the page, what follows let Baithen write.""* 

 " That" says Adamnan "may well be the last verse Columba 

 " wrote, for he will not want any good thing for ever." And 

 the next verse suited well Baithen. " Come ye children 

 hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord." The 

 same night Columba attended the nocturnal vigil, and just 

 after midnight, between Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 

 9th of June, in the year 597, while on his knees at the altar, 

 without ache or struggle, his spirit gently took its flight. 



" Thirty years without dispute was 

 " Columba in his dark church, 

 " He passed with angels out of the body 

 " After seven years and seventy."c 



He was succeeded as Abbot of lona by Baithen, whom he 

 had himself nominated to that office.'^ A worthy successor 

 he proved to the great apostle of Scotland, and attracted fol- 

 loAvers from Ireland and elsewhere. St. Fintan in his youth 

 entertained a strong desire to go from Ireland to lona, and 

 become a disciple of Columba. On the propriety of doing so, 

 he consulted a priest, prudent and respected in his generation, 

 named Columb Crag. While he was with him there arrived 

 at Columb Crag's monastery two monks of lona. " Columba, 

 your holy father, is he well?" says Columb Crag. The monks 

 bursting into tears answered " He is indeed well, our father, 

 " for he has lately gone to Christ," whereupon all present wept 



a Reeves's Preface, p. 80. 

 b Acta S. S. Adam iii. 25. 



c Tighernac. lona Club Trans, p. 217. A somewhat difierent version is 

 given in Reeves's Adam. p. 277. 

 d Adam. i. 2. 



