Ossian Collection > Original collection of the poems of Ossian, Orrann, Ulin, and other bards, who flourished in the same age

ST. COLUMBA. 235
same disfaace, a sacrifice, it is probible, to the violence of his
own passions, (hout;h ascribed by the people to tht: appeal which
was made to heaven by Geninin and Columba.
IIow much Cohimb.T was loved and revered by his compa-
nions, during his stay in this place, appears from the wonder-
ful veneration with vihich he was rec« ived when he came to visit
them some time afterwards. All the people in the cathedral,
and its neighbourhaod, poured out to meet him, kissed him
with the utmost reverence and affection, and singing hymns and
psalms of praise, led hiaa to thsir church, surrounded with a rail
of wood, carried by four men, to prevent his being incommod-
ed by so immense a multitude. From some of the eastera
churches he is said to have borrowed the model of his monastic
rule; in Italy he is said to have founded a cathedral; and in
France he was solicited by King Siglbert, who made him large
promises to remain with him. But Columba, whose ambition
■was to be useful, rather than great, told him that he was so far
from coveting the wealth of others, that for Christ's sake he had
already renounced his own.
Ireland had now, for a long time, enjoyed the light of the
gospel, and abounded in saints and learned men, while the isleg
and northern parts of Scotland were still coveri'd with darkness,
and in the shackles of superstition. On thtsp dismal regions, there-
fare, Columba looked with a pitying eye, atid however forbidding
the prospect, resolved to become the apostle of the Highlands.
Accorilingly, in the year 563, he set cut with twelve of his
friends and follovfers, and landed* in the isle of Hi, or lona,
near the confines of the Scottish and Pictish territories. This
* This place where roiiinjla landtJ in TcoIiuLill, is called, i:j Gaelic,
Poyta cliuruuh; (his Was llje Older of ihe CulJet!, ia Scotland, an order of
wliicli Columba was t!ie fodiider. He and his followers were distinguished
for learning, pniity of (uitit, and sanctity of life ; tlitj preached only snch
works of tiiarity and piei_\ as tliey cauid leurn from tbe [irophttica!, trvasi-
ge!ica!j aud apujtolicu! vvr.iiifgs.