Another visitor of St. Columba's was Aidan, a very religious man, who had lived twelve years with St. Brendan of Clonfert. On the day before his arrival, the saint said to the brethren, "We intend to fast to-morrow as usual, because it will be Wednesday; but, in consequence of the arrival of a stranger, the fast will be broken." The event verified the prediction. Aidan did arrive; and St. Columba's dispensation with so holy an ordinance, observed even by the whole Irish Church, establishes his claim to great prudence and discretion. [4] We shall mention but one more of those visitors, Cronan, a Munster bishop, who, on the occasion, through humility, did all that he could to prevent its being known that he belonged to the episcopal order. Not having yet understood that he did, Columba desired him on the Sunday to celebrate Mass, "_Christi corpus ex more, conficere_." He did so; and when he came to the division of the consecrated host, he called upon Columba to join him as a priest in breaking the Lord's bread, "_Ut simul quasi duo presbyteri, Dominicum panem frangerent_." Coming up to the altar, and looking him in the face, the saint said, "Christ bless you brother; do you alone break it, according to the episcopal rite, for now we know you are a bishop. Why have you hitherto endeavored to conceal yourself, so as not to let us pay you that veneration which we owe to you?" [5] That Columba was held in the highest veneration, as well by the clergy and people as by the monarchs of his time, both in Ireland and Britain, is too well known to require proof. A very remarkable instance of it occurs in his having been the person applied to for inaugurating, or, as his biographers express it, _ordaining_, Aidan, king of the British Scots, after the death of Conall; with which request, by the way, he complied not, until after being commanded by an angel, preferring much that Eugene, Aidan's brother, should sway the sceptre. He subsequently became very friendly towards the latter; and for his sake chiefly it was that he assisted at the assembly of Drumceat in Ireland, some differences between him and Aidus, the supreme monarch of the green isle, being to be adjusted therein. This was the last of the several visits with which our saint favored the land of his birth, and it is referred to the year 590. He was accompanied by some of his monks, together with his royal friend; and having, after a stormy passage, entered Lough Foyle, and landed near the mouth of the river Roe, they proceeded to Drumceat, to meet the states-general of the kingdom. Aidus, at first rather insolent and disrespectful towards St. Columba, changed his tone altogether when he found that he came only to establish peace between him and the king of the British Scots. The respective claims of the royal opponents were simply these: Aidan, the Scottish monarch, asserting a hereditary right to the sovereignty of Dalrieda in Antrim, demanded that the