Columba the Virgin

Saint Columba the Virgin is venerated in Cornwall, England, as patroness of two parishes, St Columb Major and St Columb Minor. She lived in the sixth century.

According to the tradition kept in Cornwall, she was born to pagan parents of royal rank, probably in Lothian in Scotland. The Holy Spirit appeared to her in the form of a dove and she believed in Christ. Her parents wished to marry her to a pagan prince, but she had vowed virginity, and they imprisoned her. An angel helped her escape. She was seized by a king of the region, who offered to give her to his son if she renounced her faith; she refused and was tortured on the wheel and the gallows, yet did not die. An angel again freed her from prison, and she crossed by ship to Trevelgue Head in Cornwall. The king found her at Ruthvoes and beheaded her. She was buried at St Columb Major.

The account rests on local tradition and on a manuscript at Cambridge written in the time of Queen Elizabeth I. Her day is given differently within November; the Orthodox calendar commemorates her on 13 November (New Calendar) as a saint of the undivided Church.