Is there any reason to believe the story that St. Columba confronted the Loch Ness Monster who was attempting to attack a man? Supposedly St. Columba made the Sign of the Cross and ordered the creature to leave the man alone. Sounds like legend to me, but pretty interesting just the same.
The idea that there’s a monster living in a Scottish lake is pretty clearly a legend. But if your going to accept it as true, you mind as well make the monster a man-eating monster whose been around for at least a millenia-and-a-half and once had a Saint cast a spell on him.
Actually it would be more of a blessing on the male victim; spellbinding is forbidden by the Catholic Church so St. Columba would NOT have been dabbling in sorcery.
Yes, it’s a legend (technically) and no, there is no reason to believe it’s historically factual. It’s quite specifically in the river Ness, as opposed to Loch Ness.
ETA: Hottius Maximus, have you read the Life of St. Columba? I don’t think you can exactly say that he followed the letter of Catholic Church’s canon law.
@Dr. Drake: NO I have not read the life of St. Columba, but I must admit NOW you have me curious. Is there a specific book about him?
The whole text is available here or in a Penguin edition. There’s an awful lot of people who annoy the saint only to have him predict their death in the near future. More actively, look at Book II, chapters xxiii—xxxv. That includes the Ness monster part.
Thanks Dr. Drake I will check that out.