09/06/2024

Today, June 9, is the feast day of St. Colm Cille. Donegal, Ireland was the birthplace of this very interesting scholar and missionary who became a significant influencer in the growth of early Christianity in Ireland and Britain. Colm, Patrick and Brigid are Ireland’s three Patron Saints, and while Patrick and Brigid are widely celebrated, Colm is arguably the most influential ~ and his early years are very specifically located in Donegal.
Each of the three saints mentioned here were at the earliest stages of Christianity in Ireland, so they were very much part of the transition from pre-Christian belief systems into a modern system that accommodated a lot of the old ways into a new framework. This means they are not just historical players, but symbols, influencers and celebrity figures in the unfolding story of the early Irish church.
We will get to Colmcille's very significant role as missionary later in our rambles, but today we are visiting his birthplace at beautiful Gartan, in our own home county, Donegal.
Overlooking Gartan lake, a large cross marks Colm’s birthplace, beside a flat slab of stone, known in Irish language as a ‘leac’ (lack). Tradition holds it that it was here that Colmcille's mother Eithne gave birth to him in 521 CE. Curiously, the same stone is part of an ancient tomb, so we are seeing a pre-Christian sacred space becoming rebranded as a very special Christian space. The stone is known as ‘Leac na Cumha’. The word 'Cumha' means a type of loneliness best described in English as homesickness, and there is a story that Colmcille left a blessing on the stone that would cure this condition. It was a bitter-sweet tradition in this area of Donegal for people to spend a night at Leac Na Cumha before emigrating; Colmcille himself would emigrate to Scotland later in his life, and of course, hundreds of thousands of Donegal people would emigrate to Scotland and beyond for centuries afterwards.
#ireland #donegal #colmcille #earlychristianity #rambles #studyabroadireland