| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | June 9 | | Saint Columba | | By Lionel Johnson (1867–1902) |
| | | | St. Columba, who died at Iona, Scotland, on June 9th, 597, was an Irish missionary, in Scotland. He founded the monastery of Iona. |
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DEAD is Columba; the world’s arch | |
| Gleams with a lighting of strange fires. | |
| They flash and run, they leap and march, | |
| Signs of a Saint’s fulfilled desires. | |
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| Live is Columba; golden crowned, | 5 |
| Sceptred with Mary lilies, shod | |
| With angel flames, and girded round | |
| With white of snow, he goes to God. | |
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| No more the gray eyes long to see | |
| The oakwoods of their Inisfail; | 10 |
| Where the white angels hovering be, | |
| And, ah, the birds in every vale! | |
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| No more for him thy fierce winds blow, | |
| Iona of the angry sea! | |
| Gone, the white glories of thy snow, | 15 |
| And white spray flying over thee! | |
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| Now, far from the gray sea, and far | |
| From seaworn rocks and seabird’s cries, | |
| Columba hails the morning star, | |
| That shines in never nighted skies. | 20 |
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| High in the perfect Land of Morn, | |
| He listens to the chaunting air; | |
| The Land, where music is not born, | |
| For music is eternal there. | |
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| There, bent before the burning Throne, | 25 |
| He lauds the Lover of the Gael; | |
| Sweet Christ! whom Patrick’s children own; | |
| Glory be Thine from Inisfail! | | | |
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