The Great Rood Screen
St. Columba, the Dove of the Church
Dcn. Seraphim tells us the story of Saint Columba of Iona — the aristocrat-monk whose name means "dove" but whose life was shaped as much by penance as by prayer. Born of royal blood in Donegal, foretold by saints from the age of Patrick onward, Columba trains under Finnian at Clonard before a catastrophic quarrel over a copied psalter leads to the Battle of Cooldrevny and his exile from Ireland. Drawing on Adomnán's Vita Columbae, Dcn. Seraphim follows Columba from the green shores of Ireland across the sea to the windswept island of Iona, where the Dove of the Church founds the monastery that will become the spiritual heart of Scotland, faces down the beast of Loch Ness, and spends thirty-four years in unceasing prayer. The Life of St. Oran, and Poem Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0o3O4Kgylk Music Used: Across the Fields of Gold - Yagull Music Licensed through Storyblocks
Thursday, April 16, 2026 59 mins
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About
The Great Rood Screen is a podcast hosted by Deacon Seraphim Richard Rohlin about the Orthodox Catholic Saints and Faith of Britain and Ireland, told as those early faithful Christians told it, with piety and reverence. Join us for a year, along with other Orthodox scholars and clergy, as we walk through the calendar of the Insular Saints day by day, story by story, and discover the great cloud of witnesses who still adorn the rood screen of history and hagiography.