Background
According to tradition, after two quarrels with King Diarmuid, overlord of Ireland, Columba started a war between his own clan and the King's followers. In expiation for the moral guilt he felt, he exiled himself from Ireland. In 563 he landed on the island of Hi or Iona, off Scotland, where he spent the rest of his life. There he started the evangelization of the Scottish Picts. The monastic rule of Columba, based on the rule of St. Basil, was followed in many monasteries of Western Europe until superseded by that of St. Benedict. Columba's feast is celebrated on June 9.