Here were thirteen in number. Their outward appearance was
strange. They were clothed in garments of coarse texture, made of wool
and of the natural color. Under this were white tunics. They were also
tonsured in a manner different from Gaulish ecclesiastics. They each had
a pilgrim's staff, a leathern water bottle and a wallet. When asked who
they were and whence they came, they replied, "We are Irish, dwelling
at the very ends of the earth. We be men who receive naught but the
doctrines of the Apostles and Evangelists.''

Their leader also said of himself: "I am an Irish pilgrim, and my
speech and action correspond to my name, which is in Hebrew, Jonah ;
in Greek, Peristera ; in Latin, Columba, a dove." This almost seems an
instance of self-deception as to his own real character, for there was more
of the lion than the dove in Columban. * *' If we judge from the biograph-



*I>r. Beeves in " Eooleeiaatioal Antiquity."



cal records that have descended to us, primitive Irish ecclesiastics, and
specially the superior class commonly known as Saints, were very
mpatient of contradiction and very resentful of injury/*

Here are Irish missionaries in new surroundings.
