Feast of St Columba
“One day, when Columba was visiting a graveyard in Iona, he saw an old woman cutting nettles.
‘Why are you cutting nettles?’ asked Columba.
‘Dear father,’ she replied; ‘I have only one cow, and it has not yet borne a calf. So in the meantime I am living on soup made from nettles.’
As he walked on, Columba decided that he too should eat only nettle soup. ‘If this woman eats nettles in expectation of a calf,’ he thought, ‘then I too must surely eat nettle soup in expectation of God’s kingdom.’ So when he returned to the monastery, he ordered the monk who prepared the food to give him nettle soup in future.
The monk was anxious that such a meagre diet might kill their beloved abbot. So he made a special stick, hollow in the middle, for stirring the soup. And as he stirred Columba’s soup he secretly poured milk through the stick.
Far from becoming ill, Columba thrived on nettle soup, little knowing it was laced with milk. Soon he was urging the other monks to follow his example; and, seeing how healthy Columba looked, many were eager to try his strange diet. The poor monk in the kitchen now had to make a huge cauldron of nettle soup, pouring milk secretly through his stick.
After a few days the monastery ran out of milk, and the monk had no choice but to confess his trick to Columba. For a moment Columba’s face went red with anger, then he broke into uproarious laughter.
‘It is God’s joke against me,’ Columba said. ‘It was only pride that made me tell others of my diet – so I deserve to be tricked.’
And he ordered that from then onwards all the monks on Iona should eat proper, nutritious meals.”
From Celtic Fire: An Anthology of Celtic Christian Literature by Robert van der Weyer
Chorlton Unitarians 