The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-08-25
ST. COLUMBIA AND IONA,


was continued by a body of men as
earnest and devoted as he was himself.
"For two centuries after the death of
st. Patrick the piety and learning of
Ireland were renowned throughout
Europe" ''There was a long period
when Ireland was the foremost nation
in Europe, in learning and religious
teaching" ''As early as the sixth
century there were famous schools at
Armagh and Belfast, at Clonard and
Wexford, at Mungret and Mayo"
These schools were filed to OVERLOOKING
with students from all parts of Europe.
They were free, not only in tuition, but
in board and lodging. The native tribes
had bestowed upon them large tracts
of land, fishery rights, mill privileges.
Kings, mobiles, wealthy women, had en-
dowed them with vast sums Of money.
The studies pursued in these schools
were the Latin, Greek and Hebrew
languages; Greek and Christian philos-
ophy; mathematics, physics, poetry,
music, medicine and theology. The
students titled the lands attached to
the monasteries and schools; they tend
ed the sheep, cows and pigs which con-
stituted part of their endowments;
they were skillful in architecture, as it
then existed; they acted in a clerical,
often in legal capacity; but more
than all they were missionaries Of the
faith. The monks and students went
forth in numbers from these schools
to found monasteries, to establish other
seats of learning, and to spread knowl-
edge and the Christian faith through
out northern and western Europe. A
multitude Of sanity men went forth
to found Irish and Christian colonies
on foreign soil.
The most notable instance of this,
perhaps, was the founding of an Irish
colony on the island of Iona, off the
western coast of Scotland. Iona is a
small island of the Hebrides group. Its
length is about three and a half, and its
breadth one and a half miles, with an
area of about two thousand acres. The
first systematic attempt to bring about
the conversion of the Scottish pagans
was begun on this island by st. Column
ba in sos.
st. Columbia, or Columbkill, as the
name is sometimes written, was one of
the most remarkable men of his time
and country. He was born in 521, and
was descended on both his fathers and
mothers side from prineely Irish
families. Conal, king of the Scots, was
his kinsman. He studied under st.
Finian, one of the most learned of the
Irish monks. He was near the age of
forty when he left his native isle, ac-
companied by twelve friends, or discip-
les, to found the mission at Iona. He
received the island as gift from
Conal, the ruler Of the Christian king
dom of Scotland. He fixed his residence
here, and built church. He began
now the great work of his life, the con-
version of the heather kingdom of the
northern Picts. BY his preaching, his
holy life, and, as his earliest biographer
says, by working miracles, he soon be-
came famous throughout the Pictish
tribes, and converted many of them to
Christianity, including the king 1t is
asserted by some that Columbia was
not his name, but that he received it
because of the dovelike purity and sim
plicity of his character. He was as
highly honored by his countrymen, the
Scots of Britain and Ireland, as by his
Pictish converts. He died at the mon
astery in Iona, in 596, when past the
age of eighty, and was buried in its
sacred soil. Between 500 and s07 his
remains were removed to the church of
st. Patrick, County Down, Ireland.
The monastery at Iona was several
times plundered and burned by the in
vading Norsemens and its inmates put
to death. But in the 18th century the
island came, with others of the western
group, into the possession of Scotland,
and in 1912 the monastery of Iona was
rebuilt and endowed by Margaret,
queen of Michael Canmore. In 1908
the Benedictines built new monastery
and nunnery, which were demolished
by order of the English Convention Of
Estates in 1861.
Such is the history of one of the
most important Christian missions of
the early centuries. Attention has been
called to the subject during the last few
weeks, by the pilgrimage of devout
Catholics from all parts of Europe to
the island, to celebrate the founding
of the mission, and the Inauguration of
the movement for the conversion Of the
heather tribes of the northern Plcts.
Fourteen centuries have come and gone
since then, and for nearly ten of them
Christianity has been the local religion
of these countries.