St Columba Quotes

“On the way back, Columba made a little detour. From a mound above the monastery he blessed it and all the people who would in the future come to the island [Iona] for his sake. Then he returned to his cell, not to rest but to go on with his daily stint of copying the scriptures. He was working on the thirty-fourth psalm. He wrote steadily for a while, but when he got to the verse that says, They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing, he put down his pen. It seemed a perfect place to stop.
"I think I can write no more," he said.”
― Eileen Dunlop, Tales of st Columba

“See, the violent cursed host came rushing through the open buildings, threatening cruel perils to the blessed men; and after slaying with mad savagery the rest of the associates, they approached the holy father, to compel him to give up the precious metals wherein lie the holy bones of St. Columba; but the monks had lifted the shrine from its pediments. and had placed it in the earth, in a hollowed barrow, under a thick layer of turf, because they knew then of the wicked destruction to come.”
― Walafrid Strabo