COLTON
135
COLUMBA
tion. White is the colour proper to Trinity Sunday,
the feasts of Our Lord, except those of His Passion,
the feasts of the Blessecl Virgin, angels, confessors.vir-
gins and women, who are not martyrs, the Nativity of
St. John the Baptist, the chief feast of St. John the
Evangelist, the feast of the Chains and of the Chair of
St. Peter, the Conversion of St. Paul, .\1I Saints, to the
consecration of churches iu\d altars, the anniversaries
'of tlif election and coronation of the pope and of the
iKrtion and consecration of bishops; also for the oc-
tiiM's of these feasts and the Offices de tempore from
Holy Saturday to the vigil of Pentecost; it is used for
\ I It i\o Masses when the feasts have white, and for the
iiui'tial Mass; also in services in connexion with the
I'.lrssed Sacrament, at the burial of children, in the ad-
iii II list ration of baptism, Holy Viaticimi, and matri-
Mi'iiiy.
K'hI is used the week of Pentecost, on the feasts of • liii^t's Passion and His Precious Blood, the Finding .iihl l-^levation of the Cross, the feasts of Apostles and 111 iityrs; and in votive Masses of these feasts. It is ii-ril nn Holy Innocents if the feast occur on Sunday nnl always on its octave.
I .rcen is employed in Offices '/< tiHijinir from the M i:i\(- of the lijiiphany to Septii:ii;c'~iiiKi, and from
I III' ni-tave of Pentecost to Advent, cxrcpi nn ember- l,i\ - and vigils during that time, and on Sundays oc- i, :iii!> within an octave. \ inlet is used during Advent and from Septuages- irii I to Easter, on vigils that are fast days, and on i'iiil)cr-days, except the vigil of Pentecost and the ■ml iiT-days during the octave of Pentecost. Violet is iNi . used for Mass on rogation-days, for votive Masses 4 the Passion and of penitential character, at the
- )li-^ing of candles and of holy water. The stole used
111 t III' administration of penance and of extreme uno- II 111 and in the first part of the baptismal ceremonies iiu-l be violet.
Black is used in offices for the dead, and on Good f-nday.
I I —The drapery and vestments affected by the I \\ I if liturgical colours are (a) the antependium of the
ill M'. and as a matter of appropriateness, the taber- irliveil; (b) the bur.se and chalice veil ; (c) maniple, -toll', chasuble, cope, and humeral veil; (d) maniple, ■ lull', tunic, and dalmatic of the .sacred ministers, and 1 1 -I I the broad stole and folded chasuble when em- ilnyi-il. All these must correspond with the rules n -nibing the use of each colour. The rubrical pre- nifitions regard the main or con.stitutive portion of ,11 h vestment, so that the borders or other orna- III iiial accessories do not determine the quality of I ill iiir. Neither does the lining, but the Roman prac- iri is to have it in harmony with the vestment itself, ,cilii\v however being generally adopted instead of II no white.
III Oblig.\tion. — The obligation of using any par- ii iilar colour begins with the First Vespers of the Mhio of which it is characteristic, or with the Matins I I hr ( )frice has no First Vespers, and ceases as soon as ]>•■ fi iUowing Office begins. Vestments made of pure ■111 li of gold may be employed for red, white, and green 111 ins (Decret. Authent.' nn. .3145, 3646, ed. 1900); ■111 li of silver may be u.sed instead of white. Multi- I 1 iired vestments caimot be used except for the pre- I luiint colour.
I\. .-Vntiquity. — Benedict XIV (De Sacro Sacri-
i(i.) MLssa? I, VIII, n. 16) says that up to thefourth
■ciiiury white was the only liturgical colour in use.
>tlicr colours were introduced soon afterwards. In-
11" int III (d. 1216) is among the first to emphasize a
li-iinction. He mentions four principal colours,
\liiio, red, green, black (DeSac. Alt. Mys.. I, Ixv) as of
^( III ral use, and one, viz. \-iolet, as occasionally em-
I. This latter was regularly used from the thir-
'i century. An "Ordo Romanus" of the four-
I century enumerates five. Between the twelfth
and sixteenth centuries blue and yellow were common
but they may not be used without very special authori-
zation (Cong, of Rites, Sept., 18:^7).
V. Symbolism. — Outside of Rome uniformity of observance was effected in the second quarter of the nineteenth century by the abrogation of other uses. In the Western Church only the Ambrosian Rite (q. v.) retains its peculiar colours. Most of the Ori- ental rites have no prescribed liturgical colours. The Greek Rite (q. v.) alone has a fixed usage but even among them it is not of strict obligation. The Ruthe- nians follow the Roman regulation since 1S91. The variety of liturgical colours in the Cluirch arose from the mystical meaning attached to them. Thus white, the symbol of light, typifies innocence and purity, joy and glory; red, the language of fire and blood, indi- cates burning charity and the martyrs' generous sacri- fice; green, the hue of plants and trees, bespeaks the hope of life eternal; violet, the gloomy cast of the mortified, denotes affliction and melancholy; while black, the universal emblem of mourning, signifies the sorrow of death and the sombreness of the tomb.
Legg, Notes on History of Lilimjira! Colours (London, 1882); Van der Stappen, De Celebm'-n,,,- 1/,»,-,r (Mechlin, 1902), 120- 133; Macalister. Ecclcsiaslufil I' 'iii, , ' i Ijondon, 1896); pp,
223-28); Bk.kvu. Die tilur,,,, .' i..:r / ,»,; (Freiburg im Br.
1907), pp. 728-00; Gihr, Th. ILJ , .^,., ,;„, ojthe Mass (tr., St. Louis, 1902), 297-312; Kook, <7,i,,, /, „/ Our Fathers (2nd edition, London, 1904), II, 213 .sq.; Wilpert, Gcxoandung der Christen (Freiburg, 1898).
Patrick Mourisroe. Colton, Charles H. See Buffalo, Diocese of.
Columba, Saint, of Terryglass, son of Crinthainn and a disciple of St. Finnian of Clonard. When the latter was in extremis, from the plague, Columba admin- istered Holy Viaticum. Having completed his stud- ies, he took charge of Caemhan, Fintan, and Mocumin, w'ho are numbered among the saints. He founded the celebrated monastery of Tirdaglas, or Terryglass, 548. It is said that he visited Tours and brought thence rehcs of St.' Martin. He died of the plague, 13 De- cember, 552, and was buried ■svithin the precincts of his own monastery at Terrj-glass. Some fifteen other saints of Ireland, bearing the name Columba, are men- tioned in the Martyrologj' of Cionnan.
Butler, Lives of Saints. XII; Lanigan. Ecclesiastical History of Ireland (Dublin. 1829). II, 71: Henry Br.idshaw See. Mar- tyrology of Gorman (1895). p. 345; Ussher, Works (Dublin, 1847), VI, 533.
Columba Edmonds.
Columba, Saint. — There are two saints of this name, virgins aiul martjTS.
(1) St. Columba of Sens, who suffered towards the end of the third century, probably under the Em- peror Aurelian. She is said to have been beheaded near a fountain called d'Azon; and the tradition is that her body was left by her murderers on the ground, until it was buried by a man called Aubertus, in thanksgiving for his restoration to sight on his in- voking her. A chapel was afterwards built over her relics; and, later on, rose the Abbey of Sens, which at one time was a place of pilgrimage in her honour. She is also said to have been patroness of the parish church of Chcvilly in the Diocese of Paris, but her whole his- tory is somewhat legendary.
Butler. Lives of the Saints, IV, 592; Brdll^e, Hisloire de I'Abbayr royale de Sens (1852), containing a rhymed life of the martyr published at Paris in 1660. This book wa.s written partly in the hope of restoring popular devotion to St. Columba.
(2) St. Columba, a Spanish nun, of whom it is re- lated that she was beheaded by the Moors at the mon- astcrj' of Tabanos in 853. Her body is said to have been thrown into the Guadalquivir, but was rescued by the Christians. Her relics were kept and vener- ated in Old Castile at two churches, the priorj' of St. Columba and the royal Abbey of Our Lady at Nagara.
Butler, Lives of Ihe'Saints, III. 491; Sutsken in Acta SS., Sept., V, 618 sqq.; BOiL hagiogr. lal. (1899), 283 sq.
F. M. Capes.
