Note 108 — Chapter II · THE MONASTIC CHURCH IN IRELAND.

The story of how S. Columba obtained his priest’s orders appears only in the Scholia or Annotations on the Feliré of Angus the Culdee. It is thus translated by Dr. Todd:—‘Bishop Etchen is venerated in Cluainfota-Boetain in Fera-Bile in the south of Meath, and it was to him Columcille went to have the order of a bishop conferred upon him. Columcille sat under the tree which is on the west side of the church, and asked where the cleric was; “There he is,” said a certain man, “in the field where they are ploughing below.” “I think,” said Columcille, “that it is not meet for us that a ploughman should confer orders on us; but let us test him.”... Then Columcille went up to the cleric, after having thus tested him, and told him what he came for. “It shall be done,” said the cleric. The order of a priest was then conferred upon Columcille, although it was the order of a bishop he wished to have conferred upon him,’ etc. Dr. Todd’s Life of Saint Patrick, p. 71. This tale does not appear in the old Irish Life, and is probably a mere attempt to explain why so great a saint was merely a presbyter; but his master, Finnian of Clonard, was a presbyter-abbot, and his disciples would naturally follow his example in what indeed was the main characteristic of this second order of the saints.