Iona, Scotland — Abbey and Church:
St. Columba
Scholar, scribe and statesman, Columba was a monk with many talents. In the course of his long life he established monasteries, and was credited with countless miracles. (Italics indicate statements from the Iona Abbey displays)
Irish origins
Columba was born in Ireland around 521. He began his monastic training as a child, taking a name meaning “dove of the church.” We don’t know why he left the Derry region of Ireland. Some say he was banished for involvement in a battle. Others think he left voluntarily to focus on his monastic life. Whatever story you believe, Columba arrived on Iona in 563, founding a monastery that would flourish for more than 1000 years.
Abbot of Iona
Columba watched over his monastery from a raised wooden hut where he wrote sacred books and composed hymns and poems. He is remembered for many miracles, from predicting far off events, to healing the sick and expelling demons, to taming wild beasts and calming the seas. As Abbot, Columba was also an important Statesman, who visited the powerful rulers of ancient kingdoms.
There were probably people living here when Columba arrived in 563. The island has long been associated with being a spiritual center. Iona has been inhabited since prehistoric times and tradition has it the island was once occupied by pagan holy men.
Columba arrived on Iona with one intention: to create the perfect monastery. He was traveling with 12 monks as an intentional connection to Jesus and his 12 disciples. Together they established the monastery, lived in Christian community, and shared the Christian faith with the local Iona residents and, eventually, the pilgrims who began to come to Iona.
More than 30 years after his arrival on Iona, Columba died in the Abbey church. His monks wrapped his body in linen and lowered it into a simple grave. As he died, he vividly described all the angels who were attending to him. Later, a shrine chapel was built on that sacred spot and the presence of Columba’s remains began drawing pilgrims to the island.
Here is a fuller version of his blessed and blissful passing from information provided at the Iona Abbey: On June 9, 597 Columba climbed a hill overlooking his monastery. Raising both arms, he blessed the Abbey. That night when the bell rang for the midnight service, Columba hurried to the church where he knelt alone in prayer. When the brothers arrived they found him lying before the altar. As he lay dying, the saint is said to have had one final vision of angels coming to take him to heaven.
Columba’s funeral lasted three days and nights. Only the monks attended, a fulfillment of the saint’s prophecy that a ‘great storm of wind and rain’ would prevent outsiders from reaching the island. However, once the skies had cleared, pilgrims began arriving on Iona to pray at the saint’s resting place. Today visitors still pause for reflection at the tiny stone chapel marking his grave, although his reliquary has long since been moved off of Iona.
Scribes and Scriptorium
A shining beacon of Christian learning, Iona had a major scriptorium where books containing the word of God were produced and meticulously copied. Creating gospel books, hymnals and magnificent manuscripts, the monks scratched inky letters carefully onto vellum (calfskin), then decorated the pages in brilliant color.
The Book of Kells
Perhaps the greatest masterpiece to ever be created by the scribes at Iona, The Book of Kells now resides at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
It’s hard to believe that scribes working in a timber hut on this ancient holy island could produce such a fine illuminated manuscript around the year 800.
Scribes worked for years to create this splendid copy of the four Gospels. Using sophisticated techniques to extract pigments from plants and minerals, they infused it’s pages with a remarkable range of colors. Overflowing with imagery, the manuscript is full of biblical figures, Christian symbols, plant and animal motifs, bordered by intricate Celtic knot designs. Reserved for occasional use, this deluxe gospel book only graced the altar on special feast days. It’s magnificent decoration must have been truly miraculous.
The book of Kells at the Iona Abby is only a replica. To protect it from brutal Viking raids, the original was taken to Kells, Ireland, where it became associated with the monastery there. Scholars used to believe the work had been finished in Ireland; however, it is now accepted that this great gospel book was completed on Iona.
Iona can feel isolated and remote. However, with boats as the main form of transport, the sea was no obstacle to travel in the area. The Abbey sat on a busy sea highway connecting it to the wider world. Iona maintain close links with other monasteries and power centers in the Gaelic speaking world and beyond. These sea roots were essential to convey travelers, traders, resources, news and ideas.
Unwelcome Visitors
In 795, these same sea roads brought the first wave of dangerous Viking Raiders to Iona. They plundered the Abbey for valuables and terrorized the monks. The most savage attack was in 806 when 68 members of the community were slaughtered.
The later Benedictine Abbey
Benedictine monks lived, worked and worship at Iona Abby from about 1200 (when the Abbey was restored) until the Protestant Reformation in 1560. Much of what we see today dates from their time here, although greatly restored.
Besides the religious buildings such as the abbey church, the sacristy, and the cloister, the monks also cared for the sick and dying in an infirmary. They also had a “bake and brew house” for the making of breads and beers for the monastery. One unique building on the property, called the Reredorter, was the communal toilet that was built over a stream of water emptying into the ocean so it was continually self cleaning.
The Protestant Reformation
Interestingly, the restorations made to the Abbey in the middle ages were paid for by the church selling indulgences. It made me think about Martin Luther in Germany during this same time period. Martin Luther criticized the Catholic church’s use of indulgences to build and restore buildings calling the practice unbiblical because no piece of paper could save someone from their sins or forgive the sins of a dead relative and transport them to heaven. Luther wrote his 95-Theses to condemn the indulgences Pope Leo X’s had issued to rebuild St. Peter’s, arguing against what he viewed as the false purchase and sale of salvation itself. Luther thought the common people should keep their money and let the Pope use his own money to build his church. The posting of Luther’s 95-Theses on the door of Wittenberg, Germany on Oct 31, 1517 sparked the Protestant Reformation as people “protested” the activities of the church. The Lutheran church was one of the very first “Protesting” churches.
Another connection to the Reformation was the closing of the monasteries and nunneries. Pictured below are the ruins of the nunnery that sits adjacent to the Abbey cemetery. Here is Nicole, Paula, Hope, Joy and Harmony standing near the ruins of the Nunnery.
The Nunnery Church was built for the Augustinian nuns soon after 1200. Although it was slightly altered in the fifteenth century, much of that early church survives. Here is Joy standing in the ruins of the Nunnery Church:
Interestingly, in another part of the world, Martin Luther helped to rescue many nuns when they escaped from nunneries in Europe. He even ended up marrying Katie Luther, a former Nun.
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