the Pigeon, a genus of birds. See index to Ornithology.

St, a native of Ireland, in allusion to whose name one of the Hebrides received the appellation of Icolmkill, and also that of Iona—from a Hebrew word signifying a dove. In the year 565, this holy man left his native country, with the pious design of preaching the gospel to the Picts. It appears that he left Ireland with warm resentment, vowing never to settle within sight of his native land. He went first to Oronsay; but finding that place too near to Ireland, he removed to Hy, which was the name of Iona at that period.

Columba was soon distinguished for the sanctity of his manners; and a miracle which he wrought impressed so strongly the Pictish king Braedus, that the latter immediately made a present of the little island to the saint. It seems that at first this prince had not only refused Columba an audience, but had even proceeded so far as to order the palace-gates to be shut against him. The saint, however, was not to be excluded in this way, and by the power of his word instantly caused the gates to fly open. As soon as he was in possession of Iona, Columba founded a cell of monks, borrowing his institutions from a certain oriental monastic order. It is said that the first religious persons in Iona were canons regular, of whom the founder was the first abbot; and that the monks, till the year 716, differed from those of the Church of Rome, both in the observance of Easter and in the clerical tonsure. In his insular retreat Columba led an exemplary life, and was highly respected for the sanctity of his manners. He is the first on record who pretended to the faculty of second sight; for he is said to have told the victory of Aidan over the Picts and Saxons at the very instant it happened. He had the honour of burying in his island Convallius and Kinnatil, two kings of Scotland, and of crowning a third. At length the saint, worn out with age, died in Iona in the arms of his disciples, and was interred there; but, as the Irish pretend, his corpse was in after times translated to Down, where, according to the epitaph, his remains were deposited beside those of St Bridget and St Patrick. The ancient lives of Columba are full of legendary stories about his miracles and prophecies, and quite worthless in a historical point of view. See Pinkerton's Lives of the Saints, art. Columba; Johnson's Tour to the Hebrides; Campbell's Columbanus, Life of St Columba.