“Blaithmaic, genuit quem dives Hibernia mundo,
Martyriique sequens misit perfectio caelo.”
The poem is too long to insert here, but it is a noble tribute from the pen of a foreigner to the courageous virtue of the Columbian monk who gave his life for Christ in Iona more than one thousand years ago.
The Rule of Columba[279] required that his monks should be ready for martyrdom whenever God’s honour required it. Their mind was to be always fortified and steadfast for ‘the white martyrdom’ of patient endurance; but they were also bound to have the mind if occasion arose prepared for ‘red martyrdom.’ Blaithmac found the opportunity and was unwilling to lose his crown.
CHAPTER XV.
THE LATER COLUMBIAN SCHOOLS IN IRELAND.
| “A voice from the ocean waves, And a voice from the forest glooms, And a voice from old temples and kingly graves, And a voice from the catacombs.” —Aubrey de Vere. |
I.—Kells Head of the Columbian Houses.
During the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries Kells became the Head of the Columbian Monasteries, and produced several distinguished men. Its professors are frequently referred to during this period in our Annals, especially during the eleventh century. Two of them bore the name of Ua h Uchtain, of whom one was unhappily “drowned coming from Alba, with the bed of Columcille—it was a stone—and three of Patrick’s relics, and thirty persons along with him.” In A.D. 1050 died Maelan of Ceanannus, a distinguished sage; and eleven years later the death of Ciaran is noticed, another distinguished sage of the same school.