Colum Cille's Travels and Miracles
By Manus O'Donnell

Once when Colum Cille was coming from Gartan, past the eastern end of Lough Veagh, he saw a certain man called Crimthann Ó Coinneannta running past him.
'That youth is running towards the sod of his death,' said Colum Cille. 'Seize him and prevent him from reaching that sod.'
Colm Cille's people immediately grabbed the youth and because they would not let him proceed, they saw the sod running towards them. It came under the feet of the boy and no sooner had it done so that he died.
Then Colum Cille said, 'Let you know, people, that it was as an example that God did this to demonstrate that no one who takes a human body can avoid the sod of death.'
'Know,' said Colum Cille, 'there are three sods that no one can escape: the sod of birth, the sod of death and the sod of burial.'
Then he said this verse:

They speak in proverb of three little sods,
Impossible from which, anyone to save;
The sod of his birth, the sod of his death,
And lastly, of course, the sod of his grave.

After that Colum Cille prayed to God to restore life to the youth so that he could do penance for his sins and be a good warrior for God and himself from that time on. What was asked was given, and there is an altar at the place where he did that as a sign of the miracle of God and Colum Cille. And he restored another man to life in the same place; Beglaech O'Beclaidh was his name.

Then Colum Cille went to the tribes of Tory; for an angel had come to him and told him to go to the island called Tory, and to bless and found a noble church there. He went willingly to a high hill known today as Bealach an Adhraid, from where he could see Tory. And the other saints that were with him were saying that it was they that should bless Tory and that they would have it for themselves.

'It is well for us to do that,' said Colum. 'but let us throw our staves towards it and, whoever's staff reaches it by the will of God, the island will be his and it will be named after him.'

They did this immediately. Colum Cille threw his staff and it became a spear or dart, speeding away from him until it reached the island, so that Lag an Foghe is the name now of the place that it struck. It is certain that Tory was as far as the eye could see from that place where he threw the staff; and the staves of the other saints only reached the islands between Tory and the mainland.

Then Colum Cille went to Tory and recovered, in the aforementioned place, his staff which had become a 'dart.' He took it in his hand and, as soon as he held it, it made back into a staff again, just as it had been before. The lord who owned the island at that time, Oilill son of Baedan, would not let Colum Cille bless it or make a residence there, Colum Cille asked him to give him a piece of the island the six of the width of his cloak because he knew that he'd got more than that from him. I'll give it,' said Oilill, 'for it is not harm to me to give you that.'

Colum Cille removed his cloak and stretched it on the ground, but the cloak spread over the whole island. A great anger filled Oilill when he saw that he set a venomous dog he had (from whom neither man nor beast that she was set-upon would escape without death) on Colum Cille. And he incited her against Colum Cille. When Colum Cille saw this he made the sign of the cross between him and the hound, and he ordered it to stand obediently before him and to come nearer to him, and to die on the spot. The venomous dog died straight away at the word of Colum Cille and, as a reminder of that great miracle, he commanded that no hound or dog should be brought to the island ever again. Seeing that marvel, Oilill fell on his knees and, believing in God and Colum Cille, he gave the whole island to him. Then Colum Cille blessed the island and built an honourable church there, and left a cleric of his own community to succeed him in that place. That was Ernan of Tory.

There is a stone on Tory called An Glacach. It was Colum Cille's pillow while he was in that place. This is how he held it: sitting with it on his knees and his two hand around it and his brow resting on it. And he got no sleep except that way. The mark of his fingers are on it to this day and it works many miracles and marvels, and water in which it is steeped helps women in labour no matter how little of it they drink.

Another time when Colum Cille was on the same island the fame of his wisdom and knowledge and faith and piety went all over the world. And what they heard about him caused the holy children of the king of India, six sons and their one sister, to have an enormous love from him. They prepared to come on a visit to him, to obtain discipline and a good example from him and to spend some time in his company improving their lives. They set out by ship then, but nothing is told about them until they reached the land west of Tory, in the place now called Port an Moirsheisir. On coming ashore, they died of exhaustion from the sea and the ocean. That was made known to Colum Cille who went to them, crying and lamenting them, and he told everyone that these were the children of the king of India. Then he fell on his knees and raised his eyes, and he made a sweet and fervent prayer to Jesus Christ to revive them. When Colum Cille had finished the prayer, the children... stood up in the sight of all, like people who had not previously died. They related how they came to be there and all that had happened to them, and the reason they came. Then Colum Cille told them and told everyone that they could not escape death again, but he would give them absolution and he would strengthen them with the judgment of the church. All this happened as Colum Cille had said, for he gave them absolution on the spot and they died immediately. He ordered that they be buried very honourable and a little chapel be built over them, so that Teampull an Moirsheisir is its name since then. And each time they buried the daughter of the king of India with her brothers they would find her body on the top of the ground again. When Colum Cille saw this, he blessed and consecrated a special place outside the church, a little distant to the west of it. She was buried there and her corpse never rose above the ground from then on. Many are the wonders and miracles worked by the clay of the grave she was buried in since then. And Colum Cille revealed to all the reason why the corpse of that holy woman would stay in the same grave as the bodies of her brothers was that she had an aversion for associating with men while she was alive.

From Manus O'Donnell, The Life of Columcille (1994, edn)

Back