numerous community recruited from Ireland, with Columcille as its
Abbot, soon caused Iona to become a flourishing centre from which men
could go forth to preach Christianity. Monasteries and hermitages
rapidly sprang up in the adjacent islands and on the mainland. These,
together with the Columban foundations in Ireland, formed one great
religious federation, in which the Celtic apostles of the northern
races were formed under the influence of the holy founder.

St. Columcille recognized the need of securing permanence for his
work by obtaining the conversion of the Pictish rulers, and thus he
did not hesitate to approach King Brude in his castle on the banks of
the River Ness. St. Comgall and St. Canice were Columcille's
companions on his journey through the great glen, now famous for the
Caledonian Canal. The royal convert Brude was baptized, and by
degrees the people followed the example set them. Opposition,
however, was keen and aggressive, and it came from the official
representatives of Pictish paganism--the Druids.

Success, too, attended Columcille's ministrations among the
Dalriadans, and on the death of their king, Aidan Gabhran, who
succeeded to the throne, sought regal consecration from the hands of
Columcille. In 597 the saint died, but not before he had won a whole
kingdom to Christ and covered the land with churches and monasteries.
Today his name is held in honor not by Irishmen alone, but by the
Catholics and non-Catholics of the land of his adoption.

There are other saints who either labored in person with Columcille
or perpetuated the work he accomplished in Caledonia; and their names
add to the glory of Ireland, their birth-land. Thus St. Moluag (592)
converted the people of Lismore, and afterwards died at Rosemarkie;