At length, after many wanderings in contrition and mortification, "he found the light which he sought from a holy monk, St. Molaise, famed for his studies of Holy Scripture, and who had already been his confessor.
"This severe hermit confirmed the decision of the synod; but, to the obligation of converting to the Christian faith an equal number of pagans as there were of Christians killed in the civil war, he added a new condition, which bore cruelly upon a soul so passionately attached to country and kindred. The confessor condemned his penitent to _perpetual exile from Ireland_!"
This was more hard than to bare his breast to the piercing sword; less welcome than to walk in constant punishment and suffering, so long as his feet pressed the soil of his worshipped Erin!
But it was even so. Thus ran the sentence of Molaise: "_Perpetual exile from Ireland!_"
Staggered, stunned, struck to the heart, Columba could not speak for a moment. But God gave him in that great crisis of his life the supreme grace to bear the blow and embrace the cross presented to him. At last he spoke, and in a voice choked by emotion he answered: "Be it so; what you have commanded shall be done." From that instant his life was one long penitential sacrifice. For thirty years he lived and laboured in the distant Iona, and the fame of his sanctity and devotion filled the world.
As a farewell gift to some Irish visitors at Iona, Columba presented the following verses, deservedly classed among the world's beautiful poetic compositions. The literal translation into English doubtless loses much of the original beauty, but enough, at least, is left to indicate the charm of the original Gaelic thought and sentiment.
"What joy to fly upon the white-crested sea; and watch the waves break upon the Irish shore!
"My foot is in my little boat; but my sad heart ever bleeds!
"_There is a gray eye which ever turns to Erin; but never in this life shall it see Erin, nor her sons, nor her daughters!_
"From the high prow I look over the sea; and great tears are in my eyes when I turn to Erin--
"To Erin, where the songs of the birds are so sweet, and where the clerks sing like the birds;
"Where the young are so gentle, and the old are so wise; where the great men are so noble to look at, and the women so fair to wed!