Like the majority of Cornish Churches the Parish Church of St Columb
is dedicated in the name of a Celtic Saint-Columba the Virgin. She was
a holy women who probably came from Ireland to preach the Gospel to
fellow Celts in Cornwall and in Brittany. According to tradition
Columba was pursued up the river by a heathen tyrant who wished her to
marry his son, and was martyred at Ruthvoes, about 2 1/2 miles from St
Columb Town. (Columba in Latin means a Dove- the emblem of tenderness
and purity.)
The church occupies a splendid position at the head of the Vale of
Lanherne. The site was quite possibly a large tumulus or burying place
in pre-Christian times. but we know that a church has occupied it for
at least 1000 years.
From
http://homepages.tesco.net/~k.wasley/St_columb_church.htm