#st. columba

[eastvillagetripster]

Haring enshrined

Keith Haring Altarpiece "The Life of Christ", Chapel of St. Columba, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City.

[portraitsofsaints]

St. Columba

521-597

Feast day: June 9

Patronage: Ireland, Scotland, Derry, bookbinders, poets, floods

Saint Columba was born in Ireland of royal descent. He studied for the priesthood under many prominent churchmen, including St. Finnian, eventually becoming abbot. In 563, he sailed to Scotland evangelizing the pagans and establishing monasteries, including the abbey on Iona. Saint Columba is considered one of Irelands 12 Apostles loved by both the Irish and Scots.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Lovers' Swans Door Handles

A set of "Lovers' Swans" door handles on a wooden door, set within a stone archway. These distinctive handles are found at St. Columba's Church in Drumcliff, County Sligo, Ireland.

The church is built on the site of a monastery founded in 575 AD by St. Colmcille (Columba).

The monastery existed until late 16th century AD and remnants of it, including a high cross and a round tower stump, are still present.

The current church building dates back to 1809, with some stones incorporated from the original monastery during restoration works. 

The churchyard is also the burial place of the renowned poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), who was re-interred there in 1948.

The Monastery in County Sligo, Ireland, is a historic building that has captivated visitors for centuries.

Among its most notable features are the unique door handles shaped like swans, an elegant and romantic detail that has earned them the nickname "lovers' swans."

These exquisite handles, which are believed to have been designed to symbolize eternal love and fidelity, are a beloved part of the building's charm.

The swan has long been a powerful symbol in Irish and Celtic mythology, representing transformation, grace and purity, as well as being a symbol of love and loyalty.

While the Monastery itself has a long and complex history, having served various purposes since its construction, the "lovers' swans" door handles stand out as a beautiful and enduring testament to the building's unique character.

They are a popular subject for photographs and a small but significant piece of the site's rich heritage, inviting visitors to appreciate the intricate details that make the Monastery such a special place.

[quixoticaxolot1]

St. Columba at Edinburgh Castle (Scotland, 2024)

[timetraveltasting]

ST. COLUMBA'S SALMON (6th c., 15th c.)

Despite most of my time being taken up by watching various Euro Cup games (since Germany is hosting, the atmosphere in my neighbourhood is electric!), I did find some time this weekend to make my next Tasting History dish, St. Columba's Salmon. This recipe is inspired by Saint Columba, who fled Ireland in the 6th century (after some literary drama) to settle on Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland. He established an abbey there, performing miracles and prophesying the deaths of people and animals in the vicinity. Seafood would have been a mainstay for Saint Columba, and because we don't have any recipes from St. Columba's life and times, this salmon dish is made up of recipes from later on in the Middle Ages which include the ingredients that would have been available in Columba’s time on Iona, the only imports being pepper and wine. I chose to make this recipe partly in honour of all the amazing Scottish football fans who have made our Euro Cup viewings memorable in the best of ways here in Germany, and also because salmon is a favourite dish of mine. See Max’s video on how to make it here or see the ingredients and process at the end of this post, sourced from his website.

My experience making it:

I made a couple changes to the modern recipe below. The big one: I pretty much disregarded the recipe for making the salmon because, to me, the idea of boiling salmon in wine is a disrespect to both the salmon and the wine. So, I pan-fried the salmon instead with a small amount of dill, as dill is my favourite way to season it. For the wine in the sauce, I used a German dry riesling, and for the bread, I used a classic French baguette.

Despite only following the sauce part of the recipe, it still took awhile to make, mostly because of the amount of chopping and pounding with the mortar and pestle for the herbs. I don't think I got quite as smooth of a paste as Max did, but fairly close. The bread soaked up the vinegar almost too well. When I added the herb paste and soaked bread bits into the white wine, I quickly realized the amount of white wine called for seemed way too much - even after mixing, the sauce seemed terribly thin. As a result, I added more soaked bread, but it was still too thin. I eventually achieved the consistency of Max's sauce by putting the mixture through a sieve, then adding back in a small amount of the liquid. The sauce finally looked like it was supposed to, so after pan-frying the salmon and adding a side of peas and leftover baguette with butter, I served it forth!

My experience tasting it:

I first tried the sauce by itself, partly in order to see how much I should put on the salmon. Honestly, the sauce tasted mostly of vinegar, with only a slight flavour of herbs at the end. So, I only put a little bit of the herb sauce on the salmon in order to not overpower the flavour of the salmon. My first bite of the sauce on the salmon was also a little too vinegary for my liking. The texture and flavour of the salmon was, as always, delicious, but the sourness of the sauce really spoiled a lot of the flavour. I think the herb notes at the end were quite delicious with the salmon, though, so if I were to make this sauce again, I would probably soak the bread in water instead of white wine vinegar. The sauce's texture was also a little bit more like a dressing than a sauce, so I could see it working well on something other than salmon. My husband and I agreed that we will not make this recipe again. For the amount of work and time it takes to make the sauce, the result overpowered the salmon and seemed like a waste of good parsley, good wine, and good French baguette. I was unpleasantly surprised regarding this, since Max seemed to really like this dish and said he would consider making St. Columba's Salmon as a modern recipe today. However, for us, it was a flop. Maybe I went wrong somewhere in preparing it; maybe by putting the sauce through a sieve, too much wine was removed, leaving only the vinegar taste behind. Oh well. If you end up making it, if you liked it, or if you changed anything from the original recipe, do let me know!

St. Columba's Salmon original recipes (15th c.)

Sourced from Registrum Coquinae, c. 1430, and Liber Cure Cocorum, c. 1430, respectively.

If you want to simmer salmon, add wine and parsley, and it will be good. For verde sawce Take parsley, thyme an ounce, and grind, Take white bread grated by kind Mix all up with vinegar or wine, Season it with powder of pepper fine.

Modern Recipe

Based on Registrum Coquinae (c. 1430), Liber Cure Cocorum (c. 1430), and Max Miller’s version in his Tasting History video.

Ingredients:

Salmon:

1 750 ml bottle of white wine

2 pounds (1 kg) wild salmon

A handful of torn parsley leaves

Water

Salt and pepper

Sauce

A large handful of flat leaf parsley

2 tablespoons fresh thyme

1 slice of bread with no crust

1/2 teaspoon pepper

A few splashes of white wine vinegar

Method:

For the salmon:

Reserve 1/2 cup (120 ml) of the wine for the sauce and pour the rest into a large pot.

Add the parsley and then enough water so that the liquid will cover the salmon.

Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat and let the temperature drop to about 175°F (80°C). A candy thermometer is helpful for this.

Add the salmon to the pot and let it cook undisturbed for 10 minutes.

For the sauce:

Chop the parsley as finely as possible. Grind the parsley and thyme in a mortar and pestle until it becomes a paste.

Soak the bread in the vinegar, then add a bit to the herbs. You’re not going to need much bread. Grind the bread with the herbs until it’s nice and smooth, then transfer it to a bowl and add in the 1/2 cup of reserved wine to make a sauce.

Add the pepper and set it aside. If you want a thicker sauce, you can grind up more of the bread and add it in.

To serve:

After 10 minutes, take the salmon out of the poaching liquid and let it cool. You can eat it warm, but Saint Columba probably would have eaten it at room temperature or even cold.

Sprinkle the salmon with salt and pepper, pour the sauce over the fish, and serve it forth.

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in Irish History | 22 August:

565 – St Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland. 1755 – Birth of General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert. He was a French soldier, a participant in the French Revolution, who led a failed invasion of Ireland to assist Irish rebels in 1798. 1791 – Theobald Wolfe Tone publishes “An argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland”. 1798 – Birth of doctor, writer, abolitionist and…

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[lilacsinthedooryard]

John Duncan (Scotland, 1866-1945)

St. Columba Bidding Farewell to His Old Horse

[oldirishmonasticsuggestions]

Bless the ground so the snakes stop biting people.