HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHY: FOUNDATION TO MATURITY 153participation in the same grace that Benedict was heir. In this mannerit is typologically similar to the attribution to Jesus of the versefrom Psalm 21. The historiography is a thoroughly religious one. 93The longest episode in the three books of the VC is Adomnán’spresentation of Columba’s death. The passage is indebted to theJohannine depiction of Christ’s death. Columba has just returned tohis lodging after vespers. He turned to his companion of many years,Diarmait, and said “I commend to you, my little children, these, mylast words: Love one another unfeignedly. Peace. . . .” 94 His last wordsare a direct quotation of Jesus’s farewell remarks to his disciples afterthe celebration of Passover ( John 13:33). Like the miracle of thetunic shared between Columba and Eutychius/Benedict, the repetitionof Christ’s remarks confers authority on the moment and likewiseplaces the abbot in an unimpeachable place, the bosom of hisLord. Such deathbed farewells follow the Antonian model. Imbeddedallusions to the gospels and other saints are common and designedto shroud the penitent in the grace and power of Christ and hissaints. For example, in his Life of St. Cuthbert Bede appears to havemodeled Cuthbert’s last moments on that of Columba and placesColumba’s final words concerning mutual fellowship in the mouthof Cuthbert. 95 Such deliberate rhetorical association is rich with theologicaland political purpose, as I have been arguing throughout.Adomnán required that Columba’s sanctity have an unimpeachablepedigree. The community of Iona had suffered a loss of prestige eversince the Roman position on the dating of Easter and the appropriatetonsure had been decided at Whitby (664) a generation earlier.This quotation from John serves a number of purposes: it showsthe intimacy of Christ and Columba; it underlines Adomnán’s effortsat illustrating the orthodoxy of Columba and Iona; and, lastly, itprovides a basis for reconciling those at Iona and their dependencies,who still did not adopt the Roman position, with Rome, whilereminding the world of the importance of Iona.The tradition of Christian sacred biography would continue todelight and educate medieval audiences. The depiction of Christ inthe gospels continued to provide the model (mediated, of course,93O’Reilly (1997), 90–94.94Adomnán, Life of Columba, 224.95Two Lives of Cuthbert, trans. B. Colgrave (Cambridge, 1940), 282–83.