Suibne (d. 657) of the moccu Urthri was 6th abbot of Iona in succession to Ségéne (qv). Although his tribal affiliation is indicated by his family name, nothing is otherwise known of his genealogy, and he was apparently the first abbot of Iona who was not a kinsman of Colum Cille (qv). It was during his abbacy that Oswiu of Northumbria consolidated his control over the Picts and Scots to the north, and the Northumbrian church became increasingly antipathetic to the Celtic liturgy and Easter term. This antipathy would reach a head with the eviction of the Irish monastic colony from Northumbria after the synod of Whitby (May/June 664). His feast-day in the Irish martyrologies is 11 January.
Sources
W. Reeves (ed.), The Life of St Columba (1857), 375, 386; A. Smyth, Kings, warlords and holy men (1984), Kenney, Sources, 545; A. O. Anderson and M. O. Anderson (ed.), Adomnan's Life of Columba (2nd ed., 1991), 91; 167–8; ODNB (Iona, abbots of)