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St. Columba of Sens
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Saints and feasts
St. Columba of Sens
Virgin and Martyr
Columba is remembered as a virgin and martyr at Sens. Butler’s short notice records the veneration of her relics and an early chapel bearing her name at Paris.
The reading
ⓘ Butler source
Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XII (December), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; December 31, “St Columba, Virgin and Martyr,” p. 501.
Columba is remembered as a virgin and martyr who suffered at Sens. Butler’s short notice follows the New Paris Breviary and leaves two possible third-century dates for her death rather than establishing one with certainty.
Her relics were preserved in a Benedictine abbey before their later dispersal. Butler also cites the life of St. Eligius written by St. Ouen for a chapel bearing her name at Paris.
Those witnesses preserve the memory of the martyr and her continuing veneration. This Columba of Sens is a woman, distinct from Columba of Iona and other monastic saints who bear the same name. The brief source does not provide a detailed account of her trial.
Historical note
An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 source. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.
Butler gives 258 or 273 as possible death dates from the New Paris Breviary. Neither is presented here as certain. This virgin and martyr is distinct from Columba of Iona.
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