Measuring just 5km in length, Iona is one of Scotland’s smallest inhabited islands. But, during the Early Medieval period, this speck in the Inner Hebrides had an influence belying its size. Its monastery, founded in c.AD 563 by a high-born Irish monk known as Columba, became a beacon of Christian learning and artistic endeavour renowned across Western Europe.
Since then, Iona’s story has been inextricably intertwined with that of Columba – its Gaelic name is Ì Chaluim Chille, ‘the Island of Columba’ – and after the saint’s death, pilgrims flocked to the shrine that housed his remains. Donations from wealthy visitors were a key source of income for the early monastery, and promotion of the ‘Columban experience’ quickly gathered momentum.
In the 7th century, Iona’s ninth abbot, Adomnán, wrote his biography, the Vita Columbae, informed by first-hand accounts of the saint. This lively account attributes prophetic powers to his predecessor, as well as miracles including healing the sick, calming storms, casting out evil spirits, and raising the dead – as well as including an episode where Columba rescues a swimmer from the Loch Ness Monster. Even in 1428, over 200 years after the Benedictine Rule had supplanted Iona’s links with the Irish church, the enterprising Abbot Dominic was petitioning the Pope to grant indulgences of three years off a pilgrim’s stay in Purgatory if they visited Iona on Columba’s feast day, 9 June.
