St Columba

ST COLUMBA

Take the M6 motorway to Gretna Green on the Scottish border, where the M6 becomes the A74[M]. Pass through the city of Glasgow on the M8 and cross the Firth of Clyde over Erskin Bridge and follow the A82 along the west side of Loch Lomond. At Tyndrum take the A85 to the Port of Oban on the west coast of Scotland.

At Oban, take the ferry across the Firth of Lorne to the east side of the lsland of Mull, and then take the local bus across the island to Fionnphort on the west coast. Finally take a small boat across the Sound of lona and you arrive at the lsland of lona, situated in the lnner Hebrides, not far from Fingal’s Cave.

A long and complicated journey - yes. But I guarantee you will be richly rewarded when you reach this ancient island of past and present day pilgrimage, and where kings of Scotland were laid to rest between the 9th and 11th centuries, and where in more recent times, John Smith, the former leader of the Labour Party was also laid to rest.

The island of Iona is flat and exposed to the winds from the Atlantic. George MacCloud once described it as ‘a place where only a tissue of paper separates earth from heaven’. It is indeed a holy place, where, cut off from the distractions of everyday life, one cannot but feel very close to God.

No wonder that St Columba, whose memory we recall on 9 June, sought solace there in the sixth century.

Columba was born in lreland about 521 AD, a descendant of two royal families. He was trained as a monk by St Finnion, with whom he founded several monasteries, including the famous one at Kells.

However, in mid-life, he, together with twelve other companions, left the familiar shores of County Donegal and set sail in a wicker coracle covered with hides. They left, not knowing where the currents of the north Atlantic would take them. Eventually, they landed at the lsland of lona where he established a monastery.

The original buildings consisted of a wooden church, in which to worship together and a refectory where they would eat together. They lived separately in bee hive huts, surrounded by a stone wall which encircled the community for protection.

From this isolated location, where the monks engaged in tilling the soil, fishing the waters, copying manuscripts and regular worship, he went forth to convert the Pagan Picts of Scotland. He travelled as far north as the Orkney lslands, as far west as Aberdeen. At lnverness he converted King Brude. His influence spread as far south as Northumberland. ln all these places he established monastic communities which became powerhouses of evangelism. Such was the influence of St Columba, that many monasteries in Western Europe adopted his Rule, until superseded by the Rule of St Benedict.

Most of our knowledge of St Columba is derived from a later disciple called, Adomnon, who lived some thirty years later and eventually became Abbot of lona.

Physically, Columba was a giant of a man, with a voice so loud that it could be heard from a mile away. He is described as being harsh and austere in manner, who mellowed in old age. Although he was originally known as Colum the dove, Dr John Moorman observes that his character was more of an eagle than a dove!

As he grew older, he travelled less, devoting his time to writing poetry and translating manuscripts. lt is said that he made 300 copies of the Gospels. In later years, the original wooden church was rebuilt in stone and became the cathedral of the Western lsles until it was destroyed at the time of the Reformation.

In 1938, George Maccloud, a Scottish Minister in Glasgow, set about restoring the church as a project for unemployed and future ministers working alongside each other. lt was completed in 1966 and is now the home to a new type of religious community, providing a place of study and spiritual refreshment on an ecumenical basis and attracting some 150,000 pilgrims a year. Several of my former parishioners made retreats there.

It is a place of peace and quiet, soaked in the prayers of those who have lived and worshipped there over the centuries. lt is indeed a place where heaven and earth continue to meet, allowing God to become known without distraction.

Whilst you and l may not be able to visit lona and recapture something of the atmosphere which St Columba experienced in his lifetime, we can all cultivate the practice of setting a time apart, where we can draw close to God and have a foretaste of heaven here on earth. Such moments, are not a waste of time, no more than monastic life is a waste of time, because such moments can become the springboard for evangelism. Moments when we recharge our batteries so that we can engage with the world more effectively in mission.

So we give thanks to God for the life and witness of St Columba of lona, praying that we may follow his example of seeking God without outside distraction in the solitude of our cells of prayer.