Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Life of St. Columba (Author: [unknown])

Chapter 30

Of the knife which the Saint blessed by signing it with the Lord's Cross

AT another time, a certain brother named Molua, grandson of Brian, came to the saint whilst he was writing, and said to him, ‘ This knife which I hold in my hand I beseech thee to bless.’ The saint, without turning his face from the book out of which he was writing, extended his holy hand a little, with the pen in it, and blessed the knife by signing it. But when the foresaid brother had departed with the knife thus blessed, the saint asked, ‘What sort of a knife have I blessed for that brother?’ Diormit, the saint's faithful attendant, replied, ‘Thou hast blessed a knife for killing bulls or oxen.’ The saint then, on the contrary, said, ‘I trust in my Lord that the knife I have blessed will never wound men or cattle.’ This word of the holy man received the strongest confirmation the same hour; for the same brother went beyond the enclosure of the monastery and attempted to kill an ox, but, although he made three strong efforts with all his strength, yet he could not even cut the skin. When this came to the knowledge of the monks, they skillfully melted down the iron of the knife and applied a thin coating of it to all the iron tools used in the monastery. And such was the abiding virtue of the saint's blessing, that these tools could never afterwards inflict a wound on flesh.