Iona
One of the several themes that we have been exploring on this voyage is that of Celtic Christianity and our understanding of this fascinating topic has been greatly assisted by the fact that the story unfolds in chronological order as we progress around the British Isles. At our first port-of-call, Dartmouth, we visited two churches, that of St Saviour, which like most English parish churches dates from Norman times, and the earlier Celtic foundation of St Petrox, a church founded in AD594, three years before Augustine arrived in Canterbury on mission to convert the pagan English. For the Anglo-Saxon settlers on the east coast of Britain were part of a wider movement of pagan peoples who filled the power vacuum in Europe following the fall of Rome in AD410. The light of Christianity was put out and the Dark Ages were ushered in, everywhere save for the western fringes of the British Isles. We saw the remains of a Norman abbey at Tresco on the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall and again, beneath the ruins, were those of an earlier Celtic foundation. At the National Museum in Dublin we saw the treasures of the Early Christian period, as the Dark Ages are known in Irish history: the Armagh Chalice, the Cross of Cong and St Patrick's Bell. For there were no Dark Ages on these western shores: rather, a glorious spiritual and artistic effervescence along the western seaways uniting Ireland, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany in a common civilization that was to keep the light of the Christian gospel burning in the west.
Last night, we followed in the wake of St Columba from Ireland to Scotland as we sailed for Iona, one of the holiest places in the British Isles. Here, Columba converted Brude, the Pictish king, by explaining that Christ was his druid. Here, the celebrated Book of Kells, which we had seen in Trinity College, Dublin, was produced. From Iona, Christianity was taken to the northern English kingdom of Northumbria by Aidan who founded the monastery at Lindisfarne, an up-coming destination of this voyage, as is Whitby, where in AD667 a famous Synod saw Celtic Christianity officially absorbed into the Roman fold. From Dartmouth to Whitby an inspiring story unfolds in places that still have a numinous power to inspire and refresh the spirit. And nowhere does this hold true more than on the isle of Iona.
One of the several themes that we have been exploring on this voyage is that of Celtic Christianity and our understanding of this fascinating topic has been greatly assisted by the fact that the story unfolds in chronological order as we progress around the British Isles. At our first port-of-call, Dartmouth, we visited two churches, that of St Saviour, which like most English parish churches dates from Norman times, and the earlier Celtic foundation of St Petrox, a church founded in AD594, three years before Augustine arrived in Canterbury on mission to convert the pagan English. For the Anglo-Saxon settlers on the east coast of Britain were part of a wider movement of pagan peoples who filled the power vacuum in Europe following the fall of Rome in AD410. The light of Christianity was put out and the Dark Ages were ushered in, everywhere save for the western fringes of the British Isles. We saw the remains of a Norman abbey at Tresco on the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall and again, beneath the ruins, were those of an earlier Celtic foundation. At the National Museum in Dublin we saw the treasures of the Early Christian period, as the Dark Ages are known in Irish history: the Armagh Chalice, the Cross of Cong and St Patrick's Bell. For there were no Dark Ages on these western shores: rather, a glorious spiritual and artistic effervescence along the western seaways uniting Ireland, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany in a common civilization that was to keep the light of the Christian gospel burning in the west.
Last night, we followed in the wake of St Columba from Ireland to Scotland as we sailed for Iona, one of the holiest places in the British Isles. Here, Columba converted Brude, the Pictish king, by explaining that Christ was his druid. Here, the celebrated Book of Kells, which we had seen in Trinity College, Dublin, was produced. From Iona, Christianity was taken to the northern English kingdom of Northumbria by Aidan who founded the monastery at Lindisfarne, an up-coming destination of this voyage, as is Whitby, where in AD667 a famous Synod saw Celtic Christianity officially absorbed into the Roman fold. From Dartmouth to Whitby an inspiring story unfolds in places that still have a numinous power to inspire and refresh the spirit. And nowhere does this hold true more than on the isle of Iona.
