The Sacred Isle of Iona: A Beacon of Light to Pilgrims
Seachd bliadhna 'n bir'ath
Thig muir air Eirinn re aon tr'ath
S thar Ile ghuirm ghlais
Ach sn'amhaidh I Choluim Chl'eirich
THE SACRED ISLE OF IONA - Sanctuary for pilgrims around the world, this small island in the outer Hebredies of Scotland was where St. Columba arrived with 12 companions in 563 AD.
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The above prophecy tells that seven years
before the day of judgment, the ocean
will sweep over both Ireland and Islay.
Yet the Isle of St. Columba will swim above the waves.
The Sacred Isle of Iona in the outer Hebrides of Scotland is a beacon of light to pilgrims throughout the world. Each year thousands make the journey to visit the remote island, where St. Columba arrived in 563 A.D. with 12 companions to establish a monastery.
The island is tiny – about one mile wide and two miles long with sheep everywhere, but from this first settlement eventually evolved the heart of Celtic Christianity and was one of the strongest influences in the conversion of the Picts, Scots and Northern English.
Today, the Iona community continues to flourish but with a population dispersed throughout the world. They represent an ecumenical organization which is international in nature and concerned with peace and social justice. The community stands at the meeting point of politics and Christianity, a notion that has been held to be true to the nature of the saint himself.
A VIEW of the interior of the Abbey.
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St. Columba was born in Gartan, County Donegal, in Ireland, and was in fact of royal lineage. At an early age, he was given in fosterage to a priest, where he studied at Moville under St. Finnian. He surrendered his princely claims, became a monk and was ordained.
He has been described as the Apostle of Scotland, an Irish prince who became a monk and abbot, a counsellor to kings and converser with angels. St. Adamnan in his description of St. Columba said, “He had the face of an angel; he was of an excellent nature, polished in speech, holy in deed, great in counsel...loving unto all.”
Columba was also a poet and an artist who did illuminations, perhaps some of those in the Book of Kells. He prophesied his own death, and climbing the hill behind the monastery, the Saint looked down upon the island of Iona, blessed it, and prophesying that, small though it were, it would forever be held in honour by kings and people, by Scots and by those of other churches far beyond the sea.
Many churches all across Scotland have been dedicated to St. Columba and in the Twentieth Century, Iona became the centre of the Iona Community, founded by Lord George MacLeod of Fuinary.
Richard Sharples is the Warden at the Iona Community, and he explained the nature of the Community. He said, “the Iona Community is a dispersed community. In fact, there are only three or four members of the actual community that live on Iona at any one time. Most of the Iona Community members live in Scotland, quite a large number live in England, and the rest are scattered across the world.
“There are about 250 full members of the Community, and we are bound together by a five-fold rule, which comprises a daily discipline of prayer and bible study. A commitment to meet together, which in the context of a dispersed community is quite a serious commitment actually.
“A commitment to account to one another for our use of time and a commitment for our use of money. And that’s not just a matter of how much we give away and who we give it to, but rather the totality of how we use our money. And the fifth part of the rule, is a commitment to peace and justice and the integrity of creation.”
To join the Community, there is a demanding two-year period when members are committed to travelling to Iona, each of the two years and other times when they are meeting together.
“The members come together or as many as can come together, once a year for what we call Community Week,” said Sharples. “And the work of the Iona Community has both a mainland dimension, as we would call it.
“There is a Glasgow head office, and a youth development team and worship resource people, who in a sense carry the flag of the Community, because people know the Community through the songs, prayers and liturgies, and we also have administrative support staff. But, a very large part of what the Community does, is still what happens on Iona.
“We have three centres, two on Iona, the Abbey, which everyone knows about, the MacLeod centre, which is really a twin centre with the Abbey, and the third is on the island of Mull, which is more of an outdoor environmental centre.
“Each of these centres take guests on a weekly basis throughout the season, which runs from March to October. We don’t take large groups, but rather smaller groups and individuals.
“So the essence of the program we run here is about building community and living in community, and this is done through a program that includes daily worship. And also includes guests taking part in some of the daily work at the centres, a weekly pilgrimage around the island, a ceilidh in the village hall, and singing songs together as well as program sessions.
“The essence of what people experience is of a common life and amazingly by the grace of God, people frequently go away affected, it seems to give the spirit the opportunity to work and people can be changed by it.”
Reverend Mason Wilson is with the Iona Community New World Foundation in Asheville, North Carolina. He said the reason that the foundation was formed was because of the cost of sending money from the United States to Scotland and the prohibitive rates of exchange.
He is the treasurer of the foundation and he collects the money from the dispersed members who live in the United States and sends the funds to Iona twice a year, thereby saving in exchange rates. The New World Foundation will only accept funds for Iona from the United States members and friends. There are about 200 members and friends of Iona living in the United States, with quite a number living in the Seattle area.
Reverend Wilson has made the journey to Iona several times and said that because of the limited facilities at the abbey, people need to book a year in advance. However, he said there are bed and breakfasts, hotels, and sometimes the sheep herders or “crofters” as they are known, will take pilgrims into their houses.
Princess Diana’s mother, who became a convert to Catholicism, built a house of prayer on the island and gave it to the Catholic church as a place for Catholic pilgrims to stay while visiting the island.
Speaking about some of the work that he is doing at present for Iona, the Reverend Wilson said, “at the moment, the Iona Community has a capital funds drive on called the Growing Hope Appeal. They are trying to raise a billion pounds in order to enlarge and improve the youth camp called Camus on the island of Mull, where a lot of underprivileged youth from both England and Scotland go in the summertime.
“The staff there does just a super job and they need to enlarge that ministry. They also want to put an addition on the bookstore in order to serve day pilgrims, tea, coffee and sandwiches, since no such facility is available at present.”
Vanessa Hammond of Victoria, British Columbia, conducts Celtic Pilgrimages to many of the world’s sacred sites and she has visited Iona on a number of occasions. The name of her company is Island Pilgrims and the maximum number of pilgrims that travel on her pilgrimages are 12 people.
Hammond said, “the pilgrimages to Iona are usually in September, because the weather is usually gorgeous. Beautiful sunshine and sometimes high winds, and you can get the whole feel of what it’s like to be on a little island out in the Atlantic. It is absolutely spectacular.”
The people who travel with Hammond on her pilgrimages are from across Canada and the States. She said, “I feel that any more than 12 people becomes a tour and too pre-planned. We keep the pilgrimages small so that we can respond to people’s interests and needs as we go along.
“A pilgrimage is always related to transformation of some kind. We travel, but that’s only the starting point, it’s when we come home that things really change.”
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For more information about Iona, visit the Iona Community website at: www.iona.org.uk. For anyone living in the United States, e-mail Reverend Mason Wilson at the Iona Community New World Foundation at icnwf@mindspring.com.
[Special thanks to Mike Paul, public relations at the Scottish Cultural Centre in Vancouver for recommending the article on Iona.]
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