Saint Colmán of Lindisfarne

Colmán of Lindisfarne (c. 605 – 674 AD) also known as Saint Colmán was Bishop of Lindisfarne from 661 until 664. Colmán was a native of the west of Ireland and had received his education on Iona. He was probably a nobleman of the Conmaicne Mara. Colmán succeeded Aidan and Finan as bishop of Lindisfarne, being appointed in 661. Colmán resigned the Bishopric of Lindisfarne after the Synod of Whitby called by King Oswiu of Northumbria decided to calculate Easter using the method of the First Ecumenical Council instead of his preferred Celtic method. The change to the Roman Method led Colmán to leave and travel back to Scotland and eventually, back to Iona. Later tradition states that between the years 665 and 667, Colmán founded several churches in Scotland before returning to Iona. However, there are no seventh-century records of such activity by him. From Iona he sailed for Ireland, settling at Inishbofin in 668 AD where he founded a monastery, the School of Mayo. When Colmán came to Mayo he brought with him half the relics of Lindisfarne, including the bones of St. Aidan and a part of the true cross. This was reputed to be in Mayo Abbey until its vanishment during the Reformation in 1537. Colmán was stepping into a landscape that had been decimated by the plague of 664–665. He may have been reviving an earlier church on the island or one in the area in central Connacht where Maigh Eo was founded later.