Colmán of Lindisfarne ( 605 – 674 AD) also known as Saint Colmán was

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...

from 661 until 664.

Life

Colmán was a native of the west of Ireland and had received his education on Iona. "History of Mayo Abbey", Mayo, Ireland
/ref> He was probably a nobleman of the Conmaicne Mara.
/ref> Colmán succeeded Aidan and Finan as bishop of Lindisfarne, being appointed in 661.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 219 Colmán resigned the Bishopric of Lindisfarne after the

Synod of Whitby The Synod of Whitby was a Christianity, Christian administrative gathering held in Northumbria in 664, wherein King Oswiu ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Roman Catholic, Ro ...

called by King

Oswiu of Northumbria Oswiu, also known as Oswy or Oswig (; c. 612 – 15 February 670), was King of Bernicia from 642 and of Northumbria from 654 until his death. He is notable for his role at the Synod of Whitby in 664, which ultimately brought the church in Northu ...

decided to calculate

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

using the method of the First Ecumenical Council instead of his preferred

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

method. The change to the Roman Method led Colmán to leave and travel back to Scotland and eventually, back to Iona. Later tradition states that between the years 665 and 667, Colmán founded several churches in Scotland before returning to Iona. However, there are no seventh-century records of such activity by him. From Iona he sailed for Ireland, settling at Inishbofin in 668 ADGrattan-Flood, William. "St. Colman." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 12 May 2013
/ref> where he founded a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

, the School of Mayo.Walsh ''A New Dictionary of Saints'' p. 127 When Colmán came to Mayo he brought with him half the relics of Lindisfarne, including the bones of St. Aidan and a part of the true cross. This was reputed to be in Mayo Abbey until its vanishment during the Reformation in 1537. Colmán was stepping into a landscape that had been decimated by the plague of 664–665. He may have been reviving an earlier church on the island or one in the area in central Connacht where Maigh Eo was founded later. On Inishbofin a rift occurred between the Irish and the English "because in summer the Irish went off to wander on their own around places they knew instead of assisting at harvest, and then, as winter approached, came back and wanted to share whatever the English monks had gathered." What was the reason for their intermittent absence? Earlier commentators suspected that the two nations came from different agricultural backgrounds and that the Irish intermittently removed themselves from the island with the monastery's livestock for the purpose of ‘booleying’, a form of

transhumance Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or Nomad, nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and low ...

. It is also possible that the Irish visited their kinsfolk on the mainland. Returning to the island in winter, they helped to consume the fruits of the Saxons' labours. This situation inevitably led to tensions within the community. Disputes arose between the Saxon and Irish monks after a short time. Colmán brought his Saxon followers onto the mainland and founded a monastery for them at " Magh Eó" - the Plain of Yew Trees, subsequently known as "Mayo of the Saxons". Colmán's last days were spent on the island of Inishbofin, where he died in 674.Brett, Joe. "The Monastic Settlement of 'Mayo of the Saxons'", ''Mayo Abbey Parish Magazine'', 1994
/ref> His feast is celebrated on 8 August and on 13 November.

Citations

References

* * Walsh, Michael ''A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West'' London: Burns & Oats 2007

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Colman Of Lindisfarne Bishops of Lindisfarne 7th-century English bishops 605 births 7th-century Irish bishops 7th-century Christian saints Medieval Irish saints Northumbrian saints Colombanian saints Christian clergy from County Galway Irish expatriates in England 674 deaths