Beccán mac Luigdech was a 7th-century Irish poet and monk of Iona

Iona Abbey

Iona Abbey is located on the Isle of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest and most important religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianity throughout Scotland and marks the foundation of a monastic...

. He is known for having composed two vernacular poems, Fo réir Choluimb ("Bound to Colum") and Tiugraind Beccáin ("The last verses of Beccán"), which were written c. 640 in praise of St Columba

Columba

Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...

, the founder of Iona. Along with Amra Choluim Cille, the fragment of the Life of St Cumméne

Cummian

Cumméne Fota or Cummian was an Irish bishop.-Biography:Cummian was an Irish Bishop and fer léignid of Cluain Ferta Brénainn , was an important theological writer in the early to mid 7th century. He is famous for a Paschal letter which displays his high level of learning...

 (Cummian) and Adomnán's Life of Columba, the poems offer a contemporary glimpse of the monastic familia of Iona in the 7th century. Beccán has been identified with the Beccán solitarius ("hermit, anchorite") who along with Ségéne, abbot of Iona, was addressed in a letter written by Cumméne in c. 632-3 concerning the Easter controversy

Easter controversy

The Easter controversy is a series of controversies about the proper date to celebrate the Christian holiday of Easter. To date, there are four distinct historical phases of the dispute and the dispute has yet to be resolved...

. He may also be the Beccán of Rùm

Rùm

Rùm , a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum) is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, in the district of Lochaber, Scotland...

, whose death is recorded in the entry for 677 in the Annals of Ulster

Annals of Ulster

The Annals of Ulster are annals of medieval Ireland. The entries span the years between AD 431 to AD 1540. The entries up to AD 1489 were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín, under his patron Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne in the...

.

Secondary sources

• Charles-Edwards, T.M.. Early Christian Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí. Early medieval Ireland, 400-1200. London: Longman, 1995.

Further reading

• Fo réir Choluimb, ed. and tr. Fergus Kelly in "A Poem in Praise of Columb Cille." Ériu
  Ériu (journal)
  Ériu is an academic journal of Irish language studies. It was launched in 1904 as the journal of the School of Irish Learning in Dublin. When the School was incorporated into the Royal Irish Academy in 1926, the Academy continued publication of the journal, in the same format and with the same title...
  
  24 (1973). pp. 1–34.
• Tiugraind Beccáin, ed. and tr. Fergus Kelly, "Tiughraind Bhécáin." Ériu 26 (1975). pp. 66–98.
• Clancy, Thomas Owen and Gilbert Márkus. Iona. The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Monastery. Edinburgh, 1994. pp. 129–34.
• Walsh, M. and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, (ed. and tr.). Cummian's Letter de Controversia Paschali and the De Ratione Conputandi. Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Studies and Texts 86. Toronto, 1988. pp. 7–15.
• Herbert, Máire. Iona, Kells and Derry: the history and hagiography of the monastic Familia of Columba. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.