Benedict Biscop

Feast day: January 12 Abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, Abbot of Wearmouth,Abbot of Jarrow.Died: 12th January AD 689 at Wearmouth, Co Durham. Biscop Baducing was born in Northumbria in AD 628, of a noble English family. When quite a young man, he stood high in the Royal favour and was rewarded for his services to King Oswiu by the gift of a possession in land suitable to his rank... But, it would seem, to the astonishment of King and courtiers alike, when he was only twenty-five, and had all bright prospects opening out before him, "he lightly esteemed this transitory inheritance in order that he might obtain that which is eternal; he despised the warfare of this World, with its corruptible rewards, that he might be the soldier of the true King, and be thought worthy to possess an everlasting kingdom in the heavenly city. He forsook home, kindred and country for the sake of Christ and his gospel, that he might receive an hundredfold and possess the life which is eternal." This was in AD 653, just at the time that St. Wilfred (the Elder) had determined to leave his country for his first visit to Rome and, as his close friend, Biscop hailed with joy the opportunity to accompany him. Thus, the two friends started off together; but when Wilfred was detained at Lyons, Biscop hastened onwards without him, "being anxious personally to visit and worship at the places in which were deposited even the bodies of the blessed Apostles, towards whom it had always been his wont to feel an ardent devotion." After no long time, Biscop returned to his own country, full of fervour and enthusiasm, inspired by all he had heard and seen in his travels, and from this time onward his life was filled with perpetual journeys backwards and forwards between England and Rome; journeys not lightly or idly undertaken, but each with its definite purpose and each taken for the good of the English Church. Twelve years after his first visit, Biscop returned again, accompanied by Prince Alchfrith, and "on this," says Bede, "as on the former occasion, he imbibed the sweets of no small amount of salutary learning." After a stay of some few months, he started on his homeward journey, but stopped short at Lerins, an island off the south coast of France, where there stood the far-famed monastery of St. Honorat. Here Biscop went through a course of instruction and took upon him the vows of a monastic life. Two years were spent in seclusion and then once more, this time under the name of Benedict, he set out for Rome and paid his third visit to the Papal see. It was just at this time that Pope Vitalian, in compliance with a request of the two chief English kings, was in the process of sending the great Archbishop Theodore to Britain. Being a Greek however, he was in need of someone who might act as his interpreter and explain to him the customs of the English nation. And who so well suited for this as Benedict, most fortunately just at that time in Rome? Accordingly, the Pope, "observing that the venerable Benedict was a man of a mind fraught with wisdom, perseverance, religion and nobleness, entrusted to his care the bishop whom he had ordained, together with all his party; and enjoined him to abandon the pilgrimage which he had undertaken for Christ's sake, and out of regard to a higher advantage, to return homewards to introduce into England that teacher of the truth whom it had so earnestly sought after; to whom he might become both a guide on the journey, and an interpreter in his teaching after his arrival." Benedict, we are told, did as he was commanded and, together, the two arrived in Kent, where they were most cordially received. Theodore ascended the throne of the archiepiscopal see, while Benedict, at his request, undertook the government of the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul (St. Augustine's) in the same city. Here Benedict laboured for two years, at the end of which the indefatigable traveller paid a fourth visit to Rome, "with his usual good success," says Bede. England was at that time behind the countries of the continent, both in arts and in literature, and Benedict had probably felt the lack of books from which to teach the scholars whom he gathered around him at Canterbury. He undertook this journey for the purpose of supplying the want he had experienced. Nor was his journey in vain, "he brought back with him no inconsiderable number of books on every branch of sacred literature, which he had either bought at a price or received as presents from his friends." On his return to England he bent his steps northward, being anxious to revisit his own people and the region in which he had been born: and so came to the kingdom of Northumbria. Here, he was well received by King Egfrith, to whom he gave a glowing account of the foreign monasteries and schools of learning and displayed the treasures that he had secured on his journey. The King caught Benedict's enthusiasm and, in AD 674, gave him a tract of land where he might found a monastery; and here, in a short time, rose the walls of the monastery of St. Peter at Wearmouth, on the left bank of the river from which the spot takes its name. Benedict must have been a good sailor, for he had to go far and cross the sea before he could find men capable of building a church of stone in the Romanesque style; but nothing daunted, he crossed over to France and brought back with him masons ready and able to do the work he wanted. If a stone church was a rarity in those days, glazed windows were positively unknown in this country; but Benedict was determined that nothing should be wanting to his new church, and so sent messengers again to France. Bede's account of this is curious and interesting. "He sent messengers," he tells us, "to bring over glass-makers (a kind of workman hitherto unknown in Britain) to glaze the windows of the church, and its aisles and chancels. And so it happened that when they came they not only accomplished that particular work which was required of them, but from this time they caused the English nation to understand and learn this kind of handicraft, which was of no inconsiderable utility for the enclosing of the lamps of the church, or for various uses to which vessels are put." Great was the astonishment of the good folk of Northumbria at this innovation introduced first in the church of Monkwearmouth, and shortly afterwards, in Jarrow. So much so that a tradition sprang up, which was handed down for many generations, that, because of its glazed windows, it never was dark in old Jarrow church. Once the building was finished and Benedict had ransacked the treasures of France to provide "whatever related to the ministry of the altar and the church and holy vessels and vestments." But there were still some things that he wanted, which he could not discover even in France, and so, in AD 679, he set out for a fifth time for Rome. Here he obtained all that he could desire and returned literally laden with spoil. In the first place, says Bede, he imported a numberless collection of all kinds of books; secondly, he introduced some relics of the saints, which were highly esteemed in those days; thirdly, he brought in to his own monastery the order of chanting, singing and ministering in the church, according to the Roman manner - bringing back with him a precentor, John by name, who was to become the future master of his own monastery, and of the English nation; fourthly, he obtained, from the Pope, with the express permission of the King, a grant of certain privileges to his monastery; and lastly, he carried home with him paintings of holy subjects for the ornamentation of the church. There were paintings of the Blessed Virgin and of the Apostles at the east end; along the south side ran a series of figures of the Gospel history, while the north wall was filled with the sublime images of the Visions of St. John the Divine in the Revelation. We are told his reason for thus decorating his church was "to the intent that all who entered the church, even if ignorant of letters, might be able to contemplate, in what direction so ever they looked, the ever gracious countenance of Christ and his saints, even though it were in a representation; or, with a more wakeful mind, might be reminded of the grace of our Lord's incarnation or, having as it were, the strictness of the last judgment before their eyes, should thereby be cautioned to examine themselves with more narrow scrutiny." And so his great work was finished, and the monastery which he founded rapidly grew and flourished, so that, in the short space of a year (AD 682), he sent out from it a colony of twenty-two monks, under St. Ceolfrith, and founded a sister monastery of St. Paul at Jarrow, with the hope "that mutual peace and concord, mutual and perpetual affection and kindness should be continued between the two places." Scarcely ten miles apart, the two monasteries were to all intents and purposes but one. Benedict was now growing old; but his new church at Jarrow was to be no less glorious than that at Wearmouth, and so, in spite of age and infirmities, in AD 685, he crossed the sea once more, and for the sixth and last time repaired to Rome; "returning, as was his custom, enriched with countless gifts for ecclesiastical purposes, with a large supply of sacred volumes and no less an abundance of paintings than on previous occasions. Some of these were scenes from the life of our Lord, which he placed in the old church; while, for the church of Jarrow, he brought back an excellent series of paintings showing the harmony between the Old and the New Testaments. For instance, side by side, the paintings represented such subjects as Isaac bearing the wood on which he was to be slain and our Lord carrying the cross on which he was to suffer; or the serpent raised up by Moses in the wilderness, and the Son of Man exalted upon the cross." Thus he lived long enough to see both monasteries fairly at work and their buildings completed, and then his work was over. Shortly after his return from Rome, he was seized with a creeping paralysis. For three years, the disease gradually gained upon him, yet he never lost his cheerfulness, nor ceased to praise God and exhort the brethren. He was often troubled by sleepless nights, when, to alleviate his weariness, he would call one of his monks and desire to have read to him the story of the patience of Job, or some other passage of scripture by which a sick man might be comforted, or one bent down by infirmities might be more spiritually raised to heavenly things. Nor did he neglect the regular hours of prayer, but as he was unable to rise from his bed to prayer and could scarcely raise his voice in praise, he would call some of the brethren to him that they might sing the psalms in two choirs, he himself joining with them to the best of his ability. Eventually, the end came. On 12th January AD 689, he died as he had lived, surrounded by the brethren of the monasteries of his own creation, and was buried in the stone church that he had reared at Wearmouth, in the midst of the treasures that he had collected.

St Aebbe and Coldingham

 

Sep15by Tim

Coldingham Priory. Photo © B Keeling

St Aebbe, daughter of King Aethelfrith of Bernicia, founded a monastery on the Berwickshire coast sometime around the middle of the 7th century. The site she selected was a fortified settlement on top of a hill overlooking the sea. Its name, in Latin, was Urbs Coludi, ‘Colud’s Fort’. Although we don’t know anything about Colud his name appears to be Celtic so he was probably a native Briton or a local god. Aebbe established a community of monks and nuns on the summit of the hill, no doubt utilising the ramparts of Colud’s Fort as a boundary. Nothing can be seen of her monastery today but the site is still known as Kirk Hill and is part of a dramatic coastal feature called St Abbs Head. Among the impressive cliffs and deep-cloven bays a large number of seabirds make their nests, hence the designation of the entire headland as a nature reserve.

St Abbs Head: Kirk Hill (in the distance). Photo © B Keeling

In the early 680s the monastery was accidentally destroyed by fire. By then, Aebbe was already dead and her community had acquired a reputation for sleaze and scandal. After the fire the monks and nuns abandoned Urbs Coludi to join other religious houses where, we may assume, their behaviour improved. At some point in the next two hundred years a new monastery was established slightly inland, at nearby Coldingham, eventually becoming the centre of a cult devoted to St Aebbe. Little is known of its history and it possibly didn’t survive the perils of the Viking period. Whatever its fate, the religious settlement at Coldingham was re-founded in 1098 as a priory of the Benedictine Order to whom the Scottish king Edgar granted the site and surrounding district. In the 14th century a small church, an offshoot from Coldingham, was built on Kirk Hill, on the seaward side of the summit, but it almost certainly fell into disuse when the priory itself was dissolved in the 1600s.

Coldingham Priory: foundation of tower, c.1100. Photo © B Keeling

The parish church of Coldingham now occupies part of the Priory site and is still used as a place of worship. Next to it a medieval arch has been reconstructed in the style of the 13th century, partly from old stonework and probably on its original base. On one side of the arch lie the visible foundations of a tower built c.1100, with the inscribed grave-slabs of two priors from the early 1200s placed in the centre. On the other side stands the ‘Lapidarium’, a wall erected in Victorian times using sculptured blocks and other objects unearthed at the site. Among the various interesting items in the Lapidarium are several piscinae or stone basins for washing vessels and vestments used in the Mass. One of these is thought to be a genuine 7th-century relic from St Aebbe’s original monastery on Kirk Hill.

The presumed 7th-century piscina. Photo © B Keeling

Notes
* More about St Aebbe can be found inthis post by Michelle of Heavenfield
* I haven’t yet looked for detailed information on the ancient piscina so if anyone knows something about it please feel free to add a comment below
* Two useful links: one for the Coldingham village website, the other for the Priory
* Bede wrote about St Aebbe, her monastery at Urbs Coludi and the lax morals of its inhabitants in Book 4, Chapter 25 of his Ecclesiastical History

Coldingham Priory: modern memorial to St Aebbe. Photo © B Keeling

Saint Æbbe the Elder (c. 615 – 683) founded monasteries at Ebchester and St Abb's Head nearColdingham in Scotland.

Life

Æbbe was a princess, the daughter of King Æthelfrith of Bernicia and Acha of Deira. Æthelfrith had invaded the neighbouring kingdom of Deira in 604. Assuming the throne, he united Deira with Berniciathus becoming the first king of Northumbria. To cement this claim upon Deira he took the princess Acha of the royal house of Deira as his wife. However, when Æhelfirth had invaded Deira, he deposed prince Edwin, heir to the throne and brother of Acha, who fled into exile.

Edwin took refuge in the court of King Raedwald of East Anglia, and with his support in 616, raised an army against Æthelfrith. In the subsequent battle, Æthelfrith was defeated and killed. Edwin then gained the throne of Northumbria. Edwin on the throne meant Northumbria, was no longer safe for the children of Æthelfrith as they had a potential rival claim to the throne. Therefore when Æbbe was still young she, her mother and brothers fled north to exile in the court of King Domnall Brecc of Dál Riata. It was during this time of exile in western Scotland that she and her brothers were converted to Christianity.

[edit]Abbess

While the sons of Æthelfrith always represented a threat to Edwin, he was finally deposed by an alliance of the Mercian King Penda and the Welsh King Cadwallon. They raised an army againstEdwin and killed him in battle in 633. Eanfrith, eldest son of Æthelfrith, and Æbbe's half-brother, returned as King of Bernicia, however he was double-crossed and murdered by Cadwallon. The year following Æthelfrith's son Oswald returned and drove the invaders from both Bernicia and Deira, thus establishing himself on the throne of Northumbria. He was however defeated and killed in battle, in 642, by Penda of Mercia, and was succeeded as King by his brother Oswiu.

With her brothers on the throne of Northumbria, Æbbe could return from exile and with their support established a monastery at Ebchester and later at urbs Coludi, now known as Kirk Hill at St Abb's Head, latterly evolving into Coldingham Priory. This religious house lasted for about 40 years and was a double separate monastery of both monks and nuns governed by Æbbe. Legend says she became a nun to avoid the attentions of a certain Prince Aidan. However, he refused to give up his suit and it is said that due to her prayers the tide stayed high around Kirk Hill for three days and protected her.

Æbbe was a great teacher and politician, bringing Christianity to the then pagan Angles who had been settling along the east coast of Britain since the 5th century. She educated the ex-queen Ætheldredafirst wife of Ecgfrith, who later after graduating from Æbbe's tutelage established a religious site on which now stands Ely Cathedral.

Her political prowess also proved important in rectifying a dispute between the then King ofNorthumbria, her nephew Ecgfrith, who had succeeded his father Oswui in 670, and the Bishop Wilfrid. The dispute started with Wilfrid's support for Queen Ætheldreda, who wished despite her marriage to preserve her virginity, and to enter a monastery. With his support she had become a nun at Æbbes monastery. The ill feeling in court against Wilfrid continued with Ecgfrith's second wife, Iurmenburh, who became hostile to Wilfrid on account of the vast estates which he had acquired and the way he travelled about with a large armed retinue, like that of a king. This culminated in Wilfrid being imprisoned at Dunbar at Ecgfrith's whim. Thanks to Æbbe's political skills, on a visit by Ecgfrith to the monastery on Kirk hill, she managed to persuade her nephew to release the bishop.

The reality of life in the early Christian establishment was not always strict on sexual piety. Due to the noble background of members of the religious community, the monastery would also have been a place for eating, drinking and entertainment. While Æbbe, herself was noted for her own piety, she had trouble enforcing discipline at the monastery. The monks and nuns thus became very lax and worldly. This leads to one of the most famous miracles surrounding the patron saint of southeast Scotland and northeast England, St. Cuthbert who visited Æbbe's monastery to instruct the community. At nightCuthbert would disappear to bathe and pray in the sea, to stop himself succumbing to temptations of the flesh. Very early one morning, a monk from the monastery spied him praying and singing psalms in the sea and as Cuthbert came ashore, he saw or imagined he saw two otters bound out of the sea and join Cuthbert. The most likely location for this event is Horse Castle bay at the base of the Kirk Hill.

Death

Shortly after the death of Æbbe, and as foretold in prophesy by the monk Adamnan, in 683 the monastery burned down. The monastic site was abandoned, and by the first half of the 8th century, asBede confirms, the site was deserted. The early work of Æbbe in establishing the Christian religion in south east Scotland was not forgotten, and in a book written about c.1200 by the monks of Coldingham, they tell of many pilgrims visiting the Kirk Hill and the spring at Well Mouth, located at the top of the beach now called Horse Castle Bay. St. Æbbes feast day is celebrated on 25 August.

References

• Bede. History of the English Church and People.
• Bede. Life of Cuthbert.
• Eddius. Life of Wilfrid.
• External links

St Ebbe's Church, Oxford-Æbbe of Oxford

St Ebbe's Church, Oxford

The church stands on the site of one dedicated to St Æbbe before 1005. Most sources suggest that this was the Northumbrian St Æbbe of Coldingham,[1] but it has been suggested that Æbbe of Oxford was a different saint. The name was first recorded in about 1005, when the church was granted to Eynsham Abbey.[2]
The present church was built in 1814–16. It was enlarged and improved in 1866 and 1904. A fine Norman doorway of the 12th century has been restored and placed at the west end.[3] The church is a parish church for the parish of St Ebbes, a portion of which was demolished to make way for the nearby Westgate shopping centre in the 1970s. The church has a ministry amongst the remaining part of the parish, although most of its members live outside the parish.
Former rectors include Thomas Valpy French, John Arkell, Maurice Wood, John Stansfeld, Basil Gough, Keith Weston and David Fletcher.

Æbbe of Oxford

Æbbe was a saint venerated in medieval Oxfordshire. St Ebbe's church in the southern English city ofOxford had been verifiably dedicated to the saint by 1091.^[1] It is believed that she represents a rare southern expression of the cult of the Northumbrian abbess and saint, Æbbe of Coldingham, to whom the church at Shelswell, also in Oxfordshire, was dedicated.^[2][3]

It has also been argued by several historians that Æbbe of Oxford is the same Æbbe as the conjectured abbess-saint who gave her name to nearby Abingdon ("hill of Æbbe").^[4]

Notes

1. ^ Bartlett, Miracles, pp. xiv–xv
2. ^ Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, 4, 1979, pp. 369–412
3. ^ Bartlett, Miracles, p. xv, n. 15
4. ^ Blair, "Handlist", pp. 502–03
5. References

• Bartlett, Robert, ed. (2003), The Miracles of Saint Æbbe of Coldingham and Saint Margaret of Scotland, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 0-19-925922-4
• Blair, John (2002), "A Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints", in Thacker, Alan; Sharpe, Richard, Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 495–565, ISBN 0-19-820394-2

Acca of Hexham

Acca
Abbot & Bishop
Born	c. 660
Died	20 October 740 or 742
Honored in	Roman Catholicism; Anglicanism;Eastern Orthodoxy
Majorshrine	Hexham Abbey, Northumberland(part of cross survives)
Feast	20 October

Remnant of cross that stood at the head of Acca's grave. On display at Hexham Abbey.

Acca (b c. 660 – 740 or 742), Bishop of Hexham.

Born in Northumbria, Acca first served in the household ofBosa, the future Bishop of York, but later attached himself to Saint Wilfrid, possibly as early as 678, and accompanied him on his travels. On the return from their second journey to Rome in 692, Wilfrid was reinstated at Hexham and made Acca abbot of St Andrew's monasterythere. After Wilfrid's death in 709 Acca succeeded him as bishop.

Acca tackled his duties with much energy, in ruling the diocese and in conducting the services of the church. He also carried on the work of church building and decorating started by Wilfrid. He once brought to the North a famous cantor named Maban, who had learned in Kent the Roman traditions of psalmodyhanded down from Gregory the Great through Saint Augustine.

He was also famous for his theological learning; his theological library was praised by Bede. He was known also for his encouragement of students by every means in his power. It was Acca who persuadedStephen of Ripon (Eddius) to take on the Life of St. Wilfrid, and he lent many materials for the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum to Bede, who dedicated several of his most important works, especially those dealing with Holy Scripture, to him.

For reasons now unknown Acca either withdrew, or was driven from, his diocese in 732. Some sources say he became bishop of Whithorn in Galloway, while others claim he founded a see on the site of St. Andrews, bringing with him relics collected on his Roman tour. He was nevertheless still buried at Hexham. Two finely carved crosses, fragments of one of which still remain, were erected at the head and foot of his grave.

He was revered as a saint immediately after his death. His body was translated at least three times: in the early 11th century, by Alfred of Westow, sacrist of Durham; in 1154, when the relics of all the Hexham saints were put together in a single shrine; and again in 1240. His feast day was 20 October. The translation of his relics was commemorated on 19 February.

The only surviving writing of Acca's is a letter addressed to Bede and printed in his works (see also Raine below). 

References

• Raine, J., Priory of Hexham (Surtees Society, London 1864), containing the text of Acca's letter to Bede and other relevant material on his life
• Stanton, Richard, A Menology of England and Wales (London, 1892), 507
• Simeon of Durham, and Ælred's On the Saints of Hexham, both in the Rolls Series
• Eddius, Life of Wilfrid (ed Raine, J.,Historians of the Church of York, London 1879–94; ed Levison, W., in Mon. Germ. Hist., Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, vol. 6 (1913); or ed B. Colgrave, Cambridge 1927)
• Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People (many editions)
• Hunter Blair, P., The World of Bede (1970)
• Kirby, D. P. (ed), St Wilfrid at Hexham (1974)
• 
  
• External links

• Hexham Abbey webpage
• Prosopography of Anglo Saxon England entry for Acca
• Catholic Online entry for St Acca
• Catholic Encyclopedia entry for St Acca

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Acca". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.

IONA ORTHODOX RETREATS

under the Patronage of
 His Eminence Archbishop Gregorios of Thyateira     and the
 Chairmanship of  His Excellency Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia.
_____________________________________________________________________

GLORY TO GOD!

There  will  be  a  temporary                 IONA ORTHODOX CENTRE         at  CLACHANACH

for   a  fortnight  in  both 

Spring and Autumn 2012

The dates are: 

Saturday 28th April - Saturday 5th May
Saturday 5th May - Saturday 12th May

and

Saturday 15th September - Saturday 22nd September
Saturday 22nd September - Saturday 29th September

You   are  invited  to  make  your   individual  Pilgrimage/Retreat   during  any  of   these  weeks.

It is expected that there will be an Orthodox Priest resident for much of this time.

5  minutes  from  the  Abbey  and  from  St.  Oran's  Chapel.

The 12th Century ST. ORAN'S CHAPEL; oldest building on Iona.

THE   ISLE   OF   IONA   -  a  beautiful and  sacred  place

Colum Cille - St. Columba - came to Iona from his native Ireland about 563 A.D.
From Iona, Columba and his monks spread Celtic Christianity through North Britain.

They were in communion with all Orthodox Christians.

If  you  would  like  to  become  part  of  a temporary  Orthodox  Community  on  Iona
for  a  week;
to  make  a  private  retreat  or  an  individual  pilgrimage,
or  simply  to  enjoy  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  Iona

...   where  the  veil  between  Heaven  and  Earth  grows  very  thin ...

      then please contact   as  soon  as  possible:

	- if interested in April-May Retreats -  Reader Ignatios Bacon, Oratory  of  the Theotokos  and  St.  Cumein, Kilchuimen/Fort Augustus,  Scotland   PH32 4DG Telephone:   01320 366457 Email: ionaorthodox@gmail.com

If your interest is in a September Retreat - Fr. Mark McBeth, 35 Buchanan Drive, Burnside, Glasgow G73 3PF Tel. 0141 647 2728 and 0787 2536 105

The September retreats will be led by Fr. David Gill

_____________________________________________________________________

THREE  RECENT  EXPERIENCES  OF  IONA

Long journey, rough sea crossing, arrival exhausted on a beautiful atmospheric island. The welcoming house with good food and regular morning and evening worship in the local old chapel.
The beauty of the island when the sun shone was breathtaking, and even mystical in the rain. 
A wonderful visit for reflection, renewal, rest and company. I long to go again. 

Margaret Handley
Mar 16 2012



I had waited many years to fulfil my ambition of going to Iona but when Iona Orthodox retreats offered me the opportunity of doing so, it did not disappoint. There is a painting by John Duncan, 'Saint Columba Bidding Farewell to the White Horse', where the horse, sensing the Saint's impending death, comes to see him for the last time. For me, this captures precisely the spirit of Iona: the oneness of spirituality and nature.

At Matins and Vespers in Saint Oran's Chapel, the prayers are accompanied by House Martins darting in and out of the chapel door to their nest in the rafters.

Having walked to Saint Columba's Bay, the tranquillity was broken by a sense that I was being watched. Looking out to sea I found I was being observed by a sealwhich had surfaced just offshore. It dived and surfaced to stare at me , dived and surfaced before it returned to the sea and I turned to retrace my steps. 

I found Iona to be a place with a unique form of peacefulness which invites and encourages contemplation and prayer. I returned to the mainland, with its bustle and distractions, with a host of memories but also physically revitalised and spiritually refreshed.

Martin Stone



I spent a few days on Iona last Autumn.  I found it to be a very peaceful place.  It was really getting one to one with nature with the grass and the sheep and the cows, which were all really laid back.  On the way over, I had never seen so many rainbows in my life.  I met some lovely people in the Orthodox retreat house and St. Orans Chapel was a good setting for the prayer services. 

Charlotte Anna

Our Patron

OUR VENERABLE AND GOD-BEARING FATHER COLUMBA OF IONA, ENLIGHTENER OF SCOTLAND (521-597)

Saint Columba (the Latinized name for Colum, meaning dove) was born at Garten in Donegall to a noble family. He entered the monastic school of Moville under Saint Finnian, who had studied at Saint Ninnian’s great monastery. Here Columba received the diaconate and entered monastic life. Tradition tells us that it is there that his sanctity is first attested to by the performance of miracles. Having completed his training he travelled to Leinster and then later to the monastery of Clonard. Here he was probably ordained priest before leaving for Glansnevin and the monastery there. When a pestilence devastated the country in 543, the monks dispersed and Columba spent 15 years traversing in Ireland founding several important monasteries, including Derry in 546. Sometime around 560, he became involved in a dispute with Saint Finnian over a psalter. Columba had copied a psalter and believed he had the right to keep it, Saint Finnian did not.

In 563 Columba, with twelve companions, left for Scotland. The reasons given for this departure vary but it is probable that he was involved in encouraging clan warfare against King Diarmait in 561, with some connection to the psalter dispute. On the Island of Iona he founded the famous Abbey, a centre for Celtic Christianity. Iona became a base for missionary work amongst the Northern Picts. Columba visited King Bridei, near Inverness, and won his respect. The royal residence had been bolted closed but, at the sign of the cross, the doors flew open and thus struck by such a miracle, the King listened and was baptised. Many of the people soon followed. This respect he found subsequently led him into a political role and he helped greatly in shaping the political landscape of that time, with some opposition remaining from the Druids.

Columba spent the rest of his life preaching and travelling in Scotland. The ‘Book of Deer’ (a tenth century illuminated manuscript, providing a unique insight into cultural, social and ecclesiastical life of the East of Scotland.) attests to Columba’s work and miracles in the East of the country. On another journey to the West he met with Saint Mungo, the apostle of Strathclyde. He returned to Iona, when not engaged in missionary work, and there many came to seek his counsel. From here, Columba governed the many communities he had founded. In the Celtic tradition the Abbot, although perhaps only in priest’s orders, was at times considered to govern above that of the position of a bishop, the bishop thus being subject to the Abbot’s jurisdiction.

On the afternoon of 8th June, 597, Columba climbed the hill behind his monastery and gave his final blessing to the place he loved so much. At vespers, that night, he collapsed before the altar and found home with his heavenly Father, surrounded by his monks. He was seventy six years of age. He was buried in the monastery but, one hundred years later, his bones were disinterred and revered. They were taken to Ireland when the threat of Vikings became apparent but they vanished in time. Books and garments remained at Iona Abbey and were the focus for miraculous works.

Saint Adamnan, a future Abbot of Iona, said of Columba

“He was angelic in appearance, graceful in speech, holy in work”.

It is without doubt that Columba stands as one of the greatest of the Celtic Saints. A man of incredible industry, of missionary work, of creating communities and not least a man of humility and deep charity.