Holywood (in Latin, Sanctus Boscus) is recognised as an early ecclesiastical site with the first church built in the mid-seventh century, probably by St. Laiseran, a second-generation disciple of St. Comgall in nearby Bangor. While Holywood did not appear to have the significance of Bangor, it did merit an overnight stay by the English King John in 1210. The old Latin name is confirmed by the headstone in Paris of a mathematician Joannes de Sacro Bosco - John of Holywood - whose work included one of the earliest known on arithmetic.
Saint Columba (7 December 521 – 9 June 597), better known as Colmcille and sometimes referred to as Columba of Iona, or, in Old Irish, as Colum Cille (meaning "Dove of the church") was an outstanding figure among the Gaelic missionary monks who, some of his advocates claim, introduced Christianity to the Picts during the Early Medieval Period. He was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.
