Colomba, Saint (1)

a Christian virgin, called the first martyr of Celtic Gaul, suffered at Sens under Marcus Aurelius, according to one authority, but according to other and more probable accounts, under the emperor Aurelian, about 273. In the 7th century she was an object of great veneration at Paris, and Dagobert caused a magnificent shrine to be placed in the Benedictine church at Sens, in honor of her. This was destroyed when the church was pillaged by the. Calvinists. She is commemorated as St. Columba on December 31. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.