One of the stories of St. Colmcille that I am most familiar with is the copyright issue over a psalter which St. Colmcille had copied from one of St. Finnian's text. Since St. Colmcille's family was somewhat powerful, they were set to defend his ownership of this psalter, even fighting a battle over it. The dispute was adjudicated in the favor of St Finnian (to each book its copy) with St. Colmcille accepting voluntary exile to Scotland (Iona) to stop the bloodshed. After visiting the beautiful lands of his clan in Donegal, I can imagine how heartbreaking such an exile would have been.
"To every cow its calf, and to every book its copy."
Of course, without the white exile, Columba would have never have had the first Loch Ness Monster sighting!
On my 2004, pilgrimage from Iona to King Brude’s fort outside Inverness, we traveled along Loch Ness.
The gentleman on the left is a local expert on Nessie. As local legend has it the area behind the folks pictured here is where Columba battled the monster. In his Q&A one of the group asked him if he ever saw Nessie. He replied, no. Later one on one with him, I told him I believe he had seen Nessie in his life time. Aye, he said. We left it at that.
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