Columba, Saint

(born c. 521, Tyrconnell—died June 8/9, 597, Iona; feast day June 9) Irish abbot and missionary. A member of the warrior aristocracy, he was excommunicated for his part in a bloody battle. Exiled, he set out to do penance as a missionary. He founded two famous monasteries in Ireland before taking 12 disciples to the Scottish island of Iona (c. 563), where they built a church and monastery that served as a base for the conversion of the Scottish Picts, and thereby Scotland, to Christianity.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica