Great interest attaches to the celebrated “Cathrach” or “Battler,” so called from the circumstance that a battle was fought on account of it. It continued an heirloom in the successive generations of the saint’s family, the O’Donnells, until a comparatively recent representative, exiled as a supporter of James II. carried it with him to the Continent in the beautiful shrine prepared for it at the end of the eleventh century. In early days it used to be carried three times round the army when Cinal Conaill went to battle, in the belief that if thus carried on the breast of a cleric free from mortal sin it would get them the victory. In 1802 the precious relic was recovered from the Continent and opened. Within was found a decayed wooden box covering a mass of vellum stuck together and hardened into a single lump. By careful moistening treatment, the various leaves at length came asunder, and proved a real Psalter, written in Latin in a “neat but hurried hand.” Fifty-eight leaves remained, containing from the 31st to the 106th Psalm, and an examination of this text has shown that it is precisely a copy of the second revision of the Psalter from the Vulgate of St. Jerome, which strengthens the belief so long and tenaciously held, that this may have been the very book for which 3000 warriors fell. From very early times Columba was spoken of as a poet. That he wrote verse and befriended the bards is attested by the oldest tradition and some of the most ancient records. Many Gaelic poems are attributed to him. “Thrice fifty noble lays,” says one poet— Some in Latin which were beguiling, Some in Gaelic, fair the tale. Among his reputed Gaelic poems may be mentioned three that Colgan considered genuine, 250 years ago, and were printed by Dr. Reeves in his first edition of Adamnan’s _Life of St. Columba_: his “Farewell to Ara,” published in the _Gaelic Miscellany_ of 1808; and another on his escape from King Diarmad, reproduced in the _Miscellany of the Irish Archæological Society_. There are three verses composed as a prayer at the battle of Cooldrevna, ascribed to him in the _Chronicon Scotorum_; and there is a collection of fifteen poems in the O’Clery MSS. at Brussels. But by far the largest collection is contained in an oblong MS. of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. This document embraces everything in the shape of poem or fragment anywhere believed as his, and that could be collected about the middle of the sixteenth century.