Saint Columba of Cornwall

Columba of Cornwall (Welsh, and in Latin, translated to modern English as dove), also called Columb (English), was a saint from Cornwall who lived in the 6th century. She was born to pagan royalty, but became a Christian after the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, appeared to her in a vision. Her parents arranged a marriage to a pagan prince, but she refused the marriage and they imprisoned her. She escaped to Cornwall, where she was again captured and martyred. She is the patron of two churches in Cornwall, in St Columb Major and St Columb Minor, where well-developed traditions arose about her. The traditions include a tale about a spring gushing forth along the path of her blood at the site of her execution and another about a well at the site containing water that would not boil. Various dates in November have been cited as her feast day. Columba was born in the 6th century, to pagan royals King Lodan and Queen Manigild, probably in Lothian, Scotland. According to hagiographer David Nash Ford, her parents' name may be corrupt forms of names of King Lot and Queen Morgause in the Arthurian legends. She might have had nine sisters, one of whom was named Wendon (or Wedern). Most of what is known of Columba is due to two parishes in Cornwall that name her as their patron saint and a manuscript in the collection of the University Library of Cambridge, written by Cornish Roman Catholic activist and scholar Nicholas Roscarrock during the reign of Elizabeth I and based on local tradition. Columba became a Christian when the Holy Spirit appeared to her in a vision, in the form of a dove, promising her love and blessings. Her parents arranged a marriage for her to a pagan prince, even though she had taken a vow of virginity and had refused to attend the pagan temple with them; she rejected the marriage, and her parents, who "dissuaded her first with kindness, then with cruelty", imprisoned her.