:''See Columba (disambiguation) and St Columb (disambiguation) for other uses.'' Columba of Cornwall (Welsh, and in Latin, translated to modern English as ''dove''), also called Columb (English), was a saint from

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

who lived in the 6th century. She was born to pagan royalty, but became a Christian after the Holy Spirit, in the form of a

dove Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

, appeared to her in a vision. Her parents arranged a marriage to a pagan prince, but she refused the marriage and they imprisoned her. She escaped to Cornwall, where she was again captured and martyred. She is the

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of two churches in Cornwall, in St Columba Major and St Columba Minor, where well-developed traditions arose about her. The traditions include a tale about a spring gushing forth along the path of her blood at the site of her execution and another about a well at the site containing water that would not boil. Various dates in November have been cited as her feast day.

Life

Columba was born in the 6th century, to pagan royals King Lodan and Queen Manigild, probably in Lothian, Scotland. According to hagiographer David Nash Ford, her parents' name may be corrupt forms of names of King Lot and Queen Morgause in the

Arthurian legends The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wes ...

. She might have had nine sisters, one of whom was named Wendon (or Wedern).Orme, p. 92 Most of what is known of Columba is due to two parishes in Cornwall that name her as their patron saint and a manuscript in the collection of the

University Library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, written by Cornish

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

activist and scholar

Nicholas Roscarrock Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the name and its ...

during the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...

and based on local tradition.Hutchison-Hall, p.145 Columba became a Christian when the Holy Spirit appeared to her in a vision, in the form of a

, promising her love and blessings. Her parents arranged a marriage for her to a pagan prince, even though she had taken a vow of

virginity Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

and had refused to attend the pagan temple with them; she rejected the marriage, and her parents, who "dissuaded her first with kindness, then with cruelty",Orme, p. 91 and imprisoned her. An angel helped her escape and led her into the desert, where she was captured again by a local king, who admired her beauty and grace, and offered to marry her to his son if she renounced her faith. She refused, so she was tortured on the

breaking wheel The breaking wheel or execution wheel, also known as the Wheel of Catherine or simply the Wheel, was a torture method used for public execution primarily in Europe from antiquity through the Middle Ages into the early modern period by breakin ...

and

gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

, but she did not die, and was again imprisoned. An angel again helped her escape, and she fled to the coast and boarded a ship that took her to Cornwall at what is now

Trevelgue Head Trevelgue Head, also known as Porth Island, is a headland north-east of Newquay, Cornwall, England, next to Porth at the eastern end of Newquay Bay. It is the site of an Iron Age promontory fort with defensive ramparts and two round barrows ...

(which is translated to English as "red dirt", which Cornish historian Nicholas Orme speculates represents the color of the soil at the site of the martyrdom and the manner in which it took place). The king found her at

Ruthvoes Ruthvoes ( kw, Rudhfos) is a village in mid Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is in the parish of St Columb Major, about two miles (3 km) south of St Columb Major town and east of Newquay. The village lies on the northwest edge of Gos ...

in central Cornwall, three km south of St Columb Major and 10.5 km east of

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

, and beheaded her. She was buried at

St Columb Major St Columb Major is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as ''St Columb'', it is approximately southwest of Wadebridge and east of Newquay Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 ''Newqua ...

Legacy and veneration

Hagiographer and historian Sabine Baring-Gold has suggested that Columba might have been a man, but there is no evidence of it and it is commonly accepted that she was a woman. She is the

of the churches of St Columba Major and St Columba Minor in Cornwall, documented in ''c.''1240 and 1284 respectively. St Columba Church Major was one of the wealthiest churches in Cornwall, so it was staffed by parish priests and seven

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area i ...

priests during the 15th and early 16th centuries, which may explain why there are well-developed traditions surrounding Columba. They were written down in Cornish by the late 16th century by a physician who worked at St Coumb Minor or a nearby town and was addressed to Roscarrock. In 1607, Roscarrock described the text as a poem to his friend, historian

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Ann ...

.Hutchinson-Hall, p. 146 Local tradition states that at the site of Columba's execution, "a spring gushed forth along the path of her fallen blood", and was marked in Roscarrock's day by a well; as of 2000 traces of the well and a cemetery remained there. Roscarrock reports the legend that the water from the well would not boil. Orme states the feast day of Colomba has "a complex history". There are differences in the date it was celebrated; at St Columba Major, the dates cited are the Thursday after 1 November, the nearest Sunday to 17 November and the Sunday after the second Thursday before 13 November. At St Columb Major, her feast day was held on about 15 November, "depending upon the full moon". Her feast day was then moveable, like at other Cornish parishes, but at some point apparently changed from Thursday to Sunday at St. Columb Major. Fairs were held at St Columba Major on 25 April and on 24 June. File:St Columb Major Church - geograph.org.uk - 1591837.jpg, St Columb Major Church File:St Columb Minor Church Tower - geograph.org.uk - 128561.jpg, St Columb Minor Church tower

References

Works cited

* Hutchison-Hall, John (Ellsworth) (2017). ''Orthodox Saints of the British Isles'', Vol. 4. St. Eadfrith Press. pp. 145–146. . * Orme, Nicholas (2000). ''The Saints of Cornwall''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 91–93. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Columba of Cornwall 6th-century deaths Medieval Cornish saints 6th-century Christian saints Female saints of medieval England