Iona & Staffa, Scotland
We awoke to an overcast sky with a slight mist in the air. Clouds hung low over the island lending to it an almost mystical appearance. The Zodiac cruise was short and we landed on the ferry pier warm and dry. The island of Iona contains the monastic site of the great Irish prince and monk Columba. Columba, or to use his Irish name Colum (often expanded to Column Cille, “Dove of the Church”) was a prince of the powerful O’Neill family of Connaught. Colum was born in Donegal and was exiled to Iona due to a political dispute with members of his clan and founded the monastery on Pentecost Day in 563. Colum was able to negotiate the purchase of the island from the Pictish King Bridei. Once having established his monastery he and his missionaries began to evangelize the neighboring Picts as well as the Dal Riada Irish who had emigrated to this part of Scotland.
The community’s reputation for good works and piety grew and they became enormously successful in making converts. As they grew they sent missionaries ever further a-field and began the first monastic establishments in England at Lindisfarne in the middle of the 7th century. Eventually the Irish monks from Iona went as far as Switzerland and Germany and laid the foundations for important centers in St. Gallen, Bamberg and Bobbio. Among other things the Irish monks were famous for their learning and during the period from the 7th through the 12th centuries were the only monastic’s who could read and write Greek. Greek was “lost” to the Latin west due to Islam’s control of the Mediterranean from the early 8th century.
The abbey church on the island is a Benedictine abbey and was founded in the 12th century by Reginald Lord of the Isles. He was also responsible for the building of the beautiful Augustinian convent: the first and only convent for religious women in western Scotland. As one approaches the abbey one sees the great standing crosses of Saint Martin and the replica of the Saint Matthew’s cross which has stood in this location since the 8th century. Today the abbey houses the non-denominational Iona Community – funded by rev. George MacLeod in 1938 – a wonderful group dedicated to world peace.
After a nice lunch we visited the wonderful island of Staffa. Today Staffa is uninhabited and it is principally famous as it is the site of Fingal’s Cave which was the inspiration for Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebridian Overture. We explored via Zodiacs around the island and as a high point actually rode the Zodiac into the very heart of Fingal’s Cave. Exhilarating!
We awoke to an overcast sky with a slight mist in the air. Clouds hung low over the island lending to it an almost mystical appearance. The Zodiac cruise was short and we landed on the ferry pier warm and dry. The island of Iona contains the monastic site of the great Irish prince and monk Columba. Columba, or to use his Irish name Colum (often expanded to Column Cille, “Dove of the Church”) was a prince of the powerful O’Neill family of Connaught. Colum was born in Donegal and was exiled to Iona due to a political dispute with members of his clan and founded the monastery on Pentecost Day in 563. Colum was able to negotiate the purchase of the island from the Pictish King Bridei. Once having established his monastery he and his missionaries began to evangelize the neighboring Picts as well as the Dal Riada Irish who had emigrated to this part of Scotland.
The community’s reputation for good works and piety grew and they became enormously successful in making converts. As they grew they sent missionaries ever further a-field and began the first monastic establishments in England at Lindisfarne in the middle of the 7th century. Eventually the Irish monks from Iona went as far as Switzerland and Germany and laid the foundations for important centers in St. Gallen, Bamberg and Bobbio. Among other things the Irish monks were famous for their learning and during the period from the 7th through the 12th centuries were the only monastic’s who could read and write Greek. Greek was “lost” to the Latin west due to Islam’s control of the Mediterranean from the early 8th century.
The abbey church on the island is a Benedictine abbey and was founded in the 12th century by Reginald Lord of the Isles. He was also responsible for the building of the beautiful Augustinian convent: the first and only convent for religious women in western Scotland. As one approaches the abbey one sees the great standing crosses of Saint Martin and the replica of the Saint Matthew’s cross which has stood in this location since the 8th century. Today the abbey houses the non-denominational Iona Community – funded by rev. George MacLeod in 1938 – a wonderful group dedicated to world peace.
After a nice lunch we visited the wonderful island of Staffa. Today Staffa is uninhabited and it is principally famous as it is the site of Fingal’s Cave which was the inspiration for Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebridian Overture. We explored via Zodiacs around the island and as a high point actually rode the Zodiac into the very heart of Fingal’s Cave. Exhilarating!
