The Culdees

We first notice the early Christians of Great Britain who were not connected with Rome before the mission of Augustine in AD. 596. These were a pious, humble class of people, and were in an eminent degree Bible Christians.ChSa 140.2

“An Irish presbyter, Columba, feeling himself stirred with missionary zeal, and doubtless knowing the wretched condition of the savage Scots and Picts, in the year 565 took with him twelve other missionaries and passed over to Scotland!”-M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia, Vol. II, p. 601.ChSa 140.3

They were called Culdees, and settled and made their headquarters on the little isle of Iona. They had, for the most part, “a simple and primitive form of Christianity” very different from the pomp of Romanism.ChSa 140.4

Two eminent Catholic authors speak of Columba as follows:ChSa 140.5

“Having continued his labors in Scotland thirty-four years, he clearly and openly foretold his death, and on Saturday, the ninth of June, said to his disciple Diermit, ‘This day is called the Sabbath, that is, the day of rest, and such will it truly be to me. For it will put an end to my labors.’”-Butler’s Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints, art. St. Columba, AD. 597.ChSa 140.6

“Today is Saturday, the day which the Holy Scriptures call the Sabbath, or rest. And it will truly be my day of rest, for it shall be the last of my laborious life.”-The Monks of the West, Vol. II, Page 104.ChSa 140.7

This language proves that Columba believed that Saturday was the true Bible Sabbath. It also shows his satisfaction in the fact, in view of his immediate death. We have never known an observer of Sunday to have any feelings of pleasure on his death bed in view of the fact that Saturday was the Bible Sabbath. Hence we conclude that this man of God, the leader of these missionaries, was an observer of the ancient Sabbath.ChSa 141.1