The Cathach of St. Columba.

QUADAM die Baitheneus, ad Sanctum accedens, ait, “Necesse habeo ut aliquis de fratribus mecum Psalterium quod scripsi percurrens emendet.”  Quo audito, Sanctus sic profatur, “Cur hanc super nos infers sine causa molestiam? nam in tuo hoc, de quo dicis, Psalterio nec una superflua reperietur litera, nec alia deesse, excepta I vocali, quae sola deest.”  Et sic, toto perlecto Psalterio, sicuti Sanctus praedixerat repertum exploratum est.

– St. Adomnán’s Vita Columbæ, Chapter XVII.

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This little story is an attestation to the fidelity with which the Ionan monks hand-copied manuscripts, often Psalters.  In the course of St. Adomnán’s Vita, St. Columba is often found writing, obviously a very central part of the monastic life on Iona.  St. Baithéne was successor to the abbacy of Iona after Columba.