Page "Columba" Paragraph 27

Both the Vita Columbae and the Venerable Bede ( 672 / 673-735 ) record Columba's visit to Bridei.

Whereas Adomnán just tells us that Columba visited Bridei, Bede relates a later, perhaps Pictish tradition, whereby the saint actually converts the Pictish king.

Another early source is a poem in praise of Columba, most probably commissioned by Columba's kinsman, the King of the Uí Néill clan.

It was almost certainly written within three or four years of Columba's death and is the earliest vernacular poem in European history.

It consists of 25 stanzas of four verses of seven syllables each.