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CHRISTIANITY--THE RIVAL KINGDOMS.
To the Scots, through St Columba, who, about 563, settled in Iona, and converted the Picts as far north as Inverness, we owe the introduction of Christianity, for though the Roman Church of St Ninian (397), at Whithern in Galloway, left embers of the faith not extinct near Glasgow, St Kentigern's country, till Columba's time, the rites of Christian Scotland were partly of the Celtic Irish type, even after St Wilfrid's victory at the Synod of Whitby (664).
St Columba himself was of the royal line in Ulster, was learned, as learning was then reckoned, and, if he had previously been turbulent, he now desired to spread the Gospel.

With twelve companions he settled in Iona, established his cloister of cells, and journeyed to Inverness, the capital of Pictland.

Here his miracles overcame the magic of the King's druids; and his Majesty, Brude, came into the fold, his people following him.

Columba was no less of a diplomatist than of an evangelist.