Evening star., 1923-09-06
BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENoY.

Ii
Every one of Scottish birth or
descent, and, above all, every Presby
terian, will be sympathetically inter
ested to learn that the Duke of
Atholl, superchieftain of the great
clan of Murray and the most repre-
sentative and feudal of all the great
highland mobiles of George VS. north
ern kingdom, has accepted the active
presidency of an influential move
| ment for the establishment of a
great Gaelic college on the holy
island of Iona, the one place of all
others identified with the early
Christianity. culture and civilization
of the British Isles.
The history of Iona goes back f1f-
teen centuries to the time when. in
AID. 563, St. COLUMBIA, an Irish
monk. driven out of Erin, sought
refuge there with twelve compan-
ions-that is to say, just thirty-four
years before st. Augustine landed in
Great Britain to convert its people.
1t is probable that Iona was already
sacred for hundreds of years previ-
ouSly to the rites of the Druids.
Innis Non Druineach Gsle of the
Druids). st. COLUMBIA was confirmed !.
in the possession of the island by it's
owner, Conal, King of the Northern
Scots. King Adam, his succesSof and
cousin, came to Iona to be crowned
by st. Columbia The stone on which
he sat for the occasion is the cele-
brated Stone of Destiny and was
thereafter used at the coronation of
the kings of Scotland, at Iona, at
Dunstaffnage, and at Scone, until
carried off to London in 1926 by King
Edward / of England, since which
time 1t has been preserved in West
minister Abbey, forming the seat of
the coronation chair or throne on
which every British sovereign from
V has been crowned.
X x X
The fact that the stone should be
of the same material as the rocks of
the island of Iona clearly indicates
the fallacy of. the popular legend ac-
cording to which 1t was brought
originally from the Holy Land, after
serving there as the pillow to Jacob
when he slept and saw in his dream
angels ascending and descending a
ladder that reached to heaven; and
that it was afterward used on the
sacred hill of Tara, in Ireland,
throughout many centuries. for the
coronation of the Irish kings, before
being carried off by st. COLUMBIA to
Scotland.
1t was from Iona that Saint COLUMBIA
spread Christianity throughout the
length and breadth of Scotland, and it
was. there that he died and was
buried. predicting before his demise
that Iona would remain one of the
most honored spots on the face of the
earth, prediction which has been
fulfilled. Mo- less than forty eight
Scottish kings including Shake
kings of Norway lie buried on the
island of Iona, as we'll as the old-time
lords of the isles. . -
Indeed, in the early days of the
Christian era. and in the middle ages,
sacred, and burial there so high an
honor and SO great a privilege, that
the remains of royal personages and
of powerful mobiles, of vikings and Of
mighty chieftafns, were brought there
for interment not only from all parts
of Scotland and Ireland, but also
across the North sea. from the re-
cathedral dates from the twelfth CEN
tury, while Saint Oran's Chapel was
built by Queen Margaret. sister of the
Anglo-SaXon king, Edgar Atheling.
Attached to the cathedral was the
library, so celebrated in its day that
Pope Plus v, after presenting 1t with
many gifts, prepared to visit II, and