The Life of Saint Columba, Apostle of Scotland

Frances Alice ForbesProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4

Word count: 115K words
Chapters: 12

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Life of Saint Columba, Apostle of Scotland by F. A. ForbesAuthor: Forbes, F. A. (Frances Alice), 1869-1936,Language: English, Class: BX: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Churches, Church movements, Release Date: May 9, 2011

Editor's review

This is the public-domain electronic text of F. A. Forbes's (Frances Alice Forbes, 1869–1936) life of Saint Columba, released by Project Gutenberg. Columba was a sixth-century monk who traveled from Ireland to Scotland to preach, known as the Apostle of Scotland, and he holds an important place in the Christian monastic tradition and the early history of the Scottish church. Written in English, the book takes a devotional and biographical approach and suits readers interested in hagiography, early church history, or the religious culture of Ireland and Scotland. As a public-domain text its strengths are that it is free and moderate in length, making it a basic introduction to the saint; its limitation is the absence of modern scholarly notes and maps, so readers must fill in the historical background themselves. It is best read as a biography rather than as strict historiography, and paired with basic material on early medieval Christianity for a fuller picture.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in hagiography and early Christian monastic tradition
History enthusiasts who want to understand the religious roots shared by Ireland and Scotland
Students or self-learners who need public-domain English material for reading practice in religious history
Readers who prefer biographical narrative and do not require scholarly annotation

Not a good fit for

Academic researchers expecting strict historical criticism, notes, and maps
Readers with no interest in religious subjects who want only secular history
Readers who need a Chinese translation and are not used to English public-domain texts

Reading tips

Read the whole book once to grasp the main line of the life, then go back to passages on missionary work and monastic institutions.
Keep a map of Ireland and Scotland at hand while reading to follow Columba's journeys and locations.
Pair it with basic material on early medieval Christianity to fill in the period background the book leaves out.
Summarize each chapter in a sentence or two to avoid confusion among the many people and place names.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Who was Saint Columba, and why read his biography?

Saint Columba was a sixth-century monk who traveled from Ireland to Scotland to preach and is regarded as the Apostle of Scotland. His life involves monastic institutions, missionary activity, and early church networks, making him a key figure for understanding the religious culture of Ireland and Scotland.

Is this an academic work or a popular biography?

Judging by Forbes's approach, it is closer to a saint's biography for general readers, narrating a life and deeds of faith rather than offering strict historical criticism, and it has no modern scholarly annotations.

What background knowledge is helpful before reading?

It helps to have a basic grasp of early medieval Christianity, monastic institutions, and the geography linking Ireland and Scotland. It can be read without that background, but a little period context makes the significance of the missionary activity easier to understand.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Frances Alice Forbes Author · Scottish · 1869–1936

F. A. Forbes (Frances Alice Forbes, 1869–1936) was a Scottish religious writer and a nun of the Society of the Sacred Heart. Born Alice Forbes into a Presbyterian family, she converted to Catholicism in 1900 and entered religious life. Writing under the name F. A. Forbes, she produced biographies of saints; five of her works are held in this collection, including The Life of Saint Columba, Apostle of Scotland, Life of St. Vincent de Paul, Saint Athanasius, the Father of Orthodoxy, Pope Pius the Tenth, and The Life of Saint Monica. These books, aimed at general readers, recount the lives and faith of the saints in a clear and concise style, combining historical account with devotional reading. Public information on her early education and personal life is limited; her influence rests mainly on the circulation of these biographies in the English-speaking world. She died in 1936.