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 In the
troubled and violent Dark Ages in Northern Europe, monasteries served as
inns, orphanages, centers of learning, and even as fortresses. The light of
civilization flickered dimly and might have gone out altogether if it had
not been for these convent-shelters.
Columba, a stern and strong monk from Ireland, founded three such
establishments. He founded the monasteries of Derry and Durrow in his native
Ireland, and the island monastery of Iona on the coast of Scotland. Iona was
the center of operations for the conversion of the Scots and Picts, and
became the most famous religious house in Scotland. There Columba baptized
Brude, King of the Picts, and later a King of the Scots came to this Abbot
of the "Holy Isle" for baptism.
[Geographic note: If you look at a map of Scotland, you will see a huge gash
across the country from northeast to southwest. This has been slightly
augmented by artificial digging to make a shipping canal. As you emerge from
the southwest end of the gash, the large island of Mull is on your right. At
the southwest tip of Mull lies the tiny island of Iona.]
The historian Bede tells us that Columba led many to Christianity by his
"preaching and example." He was much admired for his physical as well as
spiritual prowess. He was a strict ascetic and remained physically vigorous
and unflagging in his missionary and pastoral journeys throughout his
seventy-six years of life. The memory of Columba lives on in Scotland, and
Iona, though desecrated during the Reformation, today houses a flourishing
ecumenical religious community.
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