E06597: Adomnán, in his Life of *Columba (abbot of Iona, ob. 597, S02167), recounts how 'about seventeen years ago' the monks of Iona were saved from drought when they went out to the fields with Columba's tunic and books. Written in Latin at Iona, 696/704.

Adomnán, Life of Columba 2.44

For an overview of this work, see E06056.

De pluia post aliquot siccitatis menses beati ob honorem uiri super sitientem domino donante terram effussa

[In the 'B' text the title is followed by: Miraculum quod nunc deo propitio describere incipimus, nostris temporibus factum propriis inspeximus oculis.] Ante annos namque ferme xuii. in his toprentibus terris ualde grandis uerno tempore facta est siccitas iugis et dura, in tantum ut illa domini in leuitico libro transgresoribus coaptata populis comminatio uideretur inminere, qua dicit: 'Dabo caelum uobis desuper sicut ferrum, et terram eneam. Consummetur incassum labor uester, nec proferet terra germen nec arbores poma praebebunt,' et cetera.

Nos itaque haec legentes, et inminentem plagam pertimescentes, hoc inito consilio fieri consiliati sumus, ut aliqui ex nostris senioribus nuper aratum et seminatum campum cum sancti Columbae candida circumirent tunica, et libris stilo ipsius discriptis, leuarentque in aere et excuterent eandem per ter tunicam qua etiam hora exitus eius de carne indutus erat, et eius aperirent libros et legerent in colliculo angelorum, ubi aliquando caelestis patriae ciues ad beati uiri condictum uisi sunt discendere.

Quae postquam omnia iusta initum sunt peracta consilium, mirum dictu, eadem die caelum in praeteritis mensibus, martio uidelicet et apreli, nudatum nubibus mira sub celeritate ipsis de ponto ascendentibus ilico opertum est, et pluia facta est magna die noctuque discendes. Et sitiens prius terra satis satiata oportune germina produxit sua, et ualde laetas eodem anno segites. Vnius itaque beati commemmoratio nominis uiri, in tunica et libris commemorata, multis regionibus eadem uice et populis salubri subuenit oportunitate.


'How in honour of St Columba the Lord brought rain to ground parched by months of drought

[The miracle which by God's favour we are now about to recount took place in our own time and we witnessed it with our own eyes]. It happened about seventeen years ago. Right through the spring a severe drought lasted unrelieved so that our fields were baked dry. It was so bad that we thought our people were threatened by the curse which the Lord imposed on those who transgressed, where it says in Leviticus: "I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass. And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit," and so forth. As we read this and thought with fear of the blow that threatened, we debated what should be done, and decided on this. Some of our elders should walk around the fields that had lately been ploughed and sown, carrying with them St Columba's white tunic and books which the saint had himself copied. They should hold aloft the tunic, which was the one he wore at the hour of his departure from the flesh, and shake it three times. They should open his books and read aloud from them at the Hill of Angels, where from time to time the citizens of heaven used to be seen coming down to converse with the saint.

When all these things had been done as we had decided, on the same day – wonderful to tell – the sky, which has been cloudless through the whole of March and April, was at once covered, extraordinarily quickly, with clouds rising from the sea, and heavy rain fell day and night. The thirsty ground was quenched in time, the seed germinated and in due course there was a particularly good harvest. In this way the commemoration of St Columba's name, using his tunic and his books, on that occasion, brought help to many district and peoples in time to save their crops.'

Text: Anderson and Anderson 1991, 172. Translation: Sharpe 1995, 199-200.