St Columba was travelling across Scotland when, in 565, he found himself by the River Ness. There, the hagiographer Adomnán reported in his Life of St Columba , he found the Picts ‘burying a poor unfortunate little fellow, whom, as those who were burying him themselves reported, some water monster had a little before snatched at as he was swimming, and bitten with a most savage bite’.

Upon hearing this, one of the saint’s companions took to the water and, sure enough, the ‘aquatic beast’ rose from the depths ‘with a great roar and open mouth’. At this, St Columba ‘formed the saving sign of the cross in the empty air, invoked the Name of God, and commanded the fierce monster, saying: ‘Think not to go further, nor touch thou the man. Quick! Go back!’ Nessie did — and became a legend that

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