Editing Columba (section)

==Sources==
The main source of information about Columba's life is the ''[[Life of Columba]]'' ({{langx|la|Vita Columbae}}), a [[hagiography]] written by [[Adomnán]], one of Columba's successors at Iona, in the style of "saints' lives" narratives that had become widespread throughout medieval Europe. Both the ''Life of Columba'' and [[Bede]] (672/673–735) record Columba's visit to [[Bridei I of the Picts|Bridei]]. Whereas Adomnán just tells us that Columba visited Bridei, Bede relates a later, perhaps Pictish tradition, whereby Columba actually converts the Pictish king. Another early source is a poem in praise of Columba, most probably commissioned by Columba's kinsman, the King of the [[Uí Néill]] clan. It was almost certainly written within three or four years of Columba's death and is the earliest vernacular poem in European history. It consists of twenty-five [[stanza]]s of four verses of seven syllables each, called the [[Amra]] Coluim Chille.

Through the reputation of its venerable founder and its position as a major European centre of learning, Columba's Iona became a place of [[pilgrimage]]. Columba is historically revered as a warrior saint and was often invoked for victory in battle. Some of his relics were removed in 849 and divided between [[Alba]] and Ireland. Relics of Columba were carried before Scottish armies in the reliquary made at Iona in the mid-8th century called the Brecbennoch. Legend has it that the Brecbennoch was carried to the [[Battle of Bannockburn]] (24 June 1314) by the vastly outnumbered Scots army and the intercession of Columba helped them to victory. Since the 19th century the "Brecbennoch of St. Columba" has been identified with the [[Monymusk Reliquary]], although this is now doubted by scholars.<ref>[http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_collections/highlights/monymusk_reliquary.aspx The Monymusk Reliquary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714183019/http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_collections/highlights/monymusk_reliquary.aspx |date=2014-07-14 }} at the National Museum of Scotland</ref>

In the [[Antiphoner]] of [[Inchcolm Abbey]], the "Iona of the East" (situated on an island in the [[Firth of Forth]]), a 14th-century prayer begins ''O Columba spes Scotorum...'' "O Columba, hope of the Scots".{{sfn|Gillespie|2016|p=133}}