IN THE STEPS OF ST. COLUMBA: ORTHODOXY ON IONA
"The holy man called his servant Diormit to him and spake thus: “In the Sacred Writings this day is called Sabbath, which being interpreted is Rest. And truly to me this day is a Sabbath, because to me it is the last day of life, in which, after the afflictions of my labours, I take my rest, and on the coming Lord’s Day night, shall go the way of my fathers. For already Christ invites me, and so it is revealed to me by Him.”
An ancient Gaelic prophecy attributed to
St. Columba:
An I mo chridhe, I mo graidh,
An ait guth manaich bidh geum ba
Ach mun tig an saoghal gu crich
Bithidh I mar a bha.
Iona of my heart, Iona of my love,
Instead of monks voices shall be
the lowing of cattle;
But ere the world shall come
to an end,
Iona shall be as it was.
"Returning to his dwelling, he sat all night on his bed, where for straw he was wont to have the bare floor, for a pillow a stone, which even to this day remains beside his sepulchre, as it were the inscription on his monument. So then, sitting there he commended his last words to his children, saying: 'Among yourselves have always mutual and unfeigned charity with peace; but the Lord, the Comforter of the good, will be your aid, and I, abiding with Him, will intercede for you, that the good things of time and eternity may arise to you.'”
St. Cumein’s Life of Columba, (Lives of Scottish Saints, trans. W.M. Metcalfe, D.D.)
St. Columba dwelt on Iona for about 34 years, from 563 until his death in 597. His journey through the Great Glen in 564 to visit Pictish King Brude at Inverness obtained Brude’s goodwill to preach the Gospel throughout mainland Scotland.
Incidentally, Columba’s is the first recorded sighting of the Loch Ness monster!the monarch of Great Britain being invariably crowned by the senior English cleric, the Archbishop of
Canterbury.
Iona
continued as the
centre of Scottish
Celtic Christianity for
several centuries, until
the constant raids
of the Vikings
and the martyrdom
of many monks
made it all
but untenable as
a sanctuary of
peace. Celtic
practices were finally
suppressed in the eleventh century,
thus effectively ending
Iona’s Celtic Orthodoxy.
A NEW BEGINNING
In 1997 an Iona Pilgrimage, led by Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia to commemorate St. Columba’s 1400th anniversary, warmly welcomed the suggestion that the time had come to restore some kind of Orthodox presence to Iona. Our inspiration was the prophecy above said to be by St. Columba.
THE FRIENDS OF ORTHODOXY ON IONA
This group was set up in 1997 with three aims:
- Prayer: to pray each day that God’s will may be done on Iona:
Your Kingdom come on earth - on Iona - as in heaven. - To sponsor regular Pilgrimages to Iona; annually if possible.
- To raise funds to provide eventually a small Hermitage on Iona.