(A man of venerable life who reposes in many miracles in his city of Movilla). At the time of Finnian's death in 579, Movilla was already recognised as a great monastic foundation. The Abbey survived as a place of Christian witness for over a thousand years, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1542. Teacher of Columba Finnian's most distinguished pupil at Movilla was Columba. Tradition has it that Columba's surreptitious copying of a psalter led eventually to his exile on Iona. What remains of the copy is housed in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. The casket that contained it is now in the National Museum of Ireland. It is known as the Cathach of St. Columba, Cathach, or Battler, and was customarily carried by the O'Donnells in battle. The inner case was made by Cathbar O'Donnell in 1084, but the outer is fourteenth century work. Adomnan of Iona claimed that Columba served as a deacon under Finnian, whom Adomnan claimed to be a bishop. Adomnan, in his biography of Columba, recorded a story that claimed Columba performed the miracle of turning water into wine. Finnian was performing mass on one occasion, but they had run out of wine. Columba then proceeded to a well and drew water. He called on Christ's name and blessed the water he drew from the well, whereupon the water transformed into wine and he brought the wine to the mass. This was the first miracle that Columba did in his life, according to Adomnan. Rule and code Finnian wrote a rule for his monks, also a penitential code. Notes (1) In 2001 Thomas Owen Clancy, a Celticist at the University of Glasgow, argued that St Finnian and St Ninian were one and the same person, and that the confusion is due no less than to an 8th-century scribal spelling error. References Sources Clancy, T. O. "The real St Ninian", in Innes Review, 52 (2001), pp. 1–28 MacKillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford, 1998. Medieval Irish saints 495 births 589 deaths Irish writers 6th-century Christian saints People from County Donegal 6th-century Irish abbots Irish Christian missionaries 6th-century Latin writers Irish Latinists Missionary linguists