(Isle of my heart, Isle of my love.)
The name of Iona has appeared under a large variety of forms. The single capital letter I has stood for it, which pronounced like double ee as Gaelic requires, represents the universal Gaelic pronunciation for the island. Here are some of the other forms: Ia, Ie, Ii, Ieoa; Hi, Hii; Y, Hy; Iona, Yona, Hyona, and Yensis; I-Chalumchille and Icolmkill. In Adamnan it appears as the Iouan island. This is an adjectival form in which the radix is Iou, equivalent to the Gaelic I. Adamnan’s Iouan was corrupted by the mistake of transcribers into the more euphonious Iona, an explanation which shows, the untenableness of such fanciful etymologies as I-thonna, “the island of waves,” and I-shona, “the island of the blest.”
These were some of the peculiar developments of the Brito-Irish Church from whose bosom Columba came. The monasteries were usually located on grants of land, often very extensively made by the provincial kings or other chiefs who had been converted to Christianity, and desired to have the worship of God set up among their people, and thus became identified with the clan or tribe in which they were settled. It is in connection with these temporalities that the remarkable functionary called Co-arb comes into view. He appears to have been a person of greater consequence than the bishop, and to have exercised ecclesiastical as well as temporal power. Dr Todd defines his position and functions thus:—“On the whole it appears that the endowment in land, which were granted to the ancient church by the chieftains who were first converted into Christianity, carried with them the temporal rights and principalities originally belonging to the owners of the soil, and that these rights and principalities were vested, not in bishops as such, but in the co-arbs or ecclesiastical successors of those saints to whom the grants of land were originally made. In other words, the Co-arbs became the trustees of the temporalities of the monasteries and of the missionary enterprises of the church. They were the predecessors of those who in our own times hold property in trust for our training schools, colleges, churches, and missionary societies. There were no mines, docks, or railways in which shares could be held; but the chieftain and his clan had real property at their disposal which in their piety and generosity they set apart, as occasion required, for the support of the gospel. The property the earnest-souled monks soon transformed into a centre of holy activity and Christian civilization.”
Columba with his family of Christian brethren in Iona, labouring with hand and head; studying, writing, and praying; and sending forth to neighbouring lands and islands Christian workers whose hearts God had touched, formed a beautiful picture of pious effort which deeply impressed the imagination of succeeding ages. This band of ancient Gaelic Christians became known in course of time under the endearing designation of “The Family of Iona.” The goodly number of twelve disciples accompanied Columba to Iona, the number being that usually sent forth together to labour in a district in imitation of the accidental features of the apostolic system. The names of the twelve brethren were Baithen, and Cobthach, brothers; Ernaan, the uncle, and Diarmit the attendant of Columba; Rus and Fechno, brothers; Scandal, Luguid, Eachaid, Tochann, Cairnaan, and Grillaan.
Iona as a religious centre for the evangelising efforts of these brethren was admirably situated. It was on the confines of the Albinic and Gaelic jurisdiction. It was granted to Columba first by Conall, King of the Gaels, who were largely Christians. The great missionary also secured the grant by getting the approval of King Brude of the Albinians, whom he visited soon after his settlement at Iona. This visit to the king was paid at his fortress at the mouth of the Ness, and was afterwards repeated several times, which evinces the unchanging character of the friendship which existed between the king and the saint.
The interesting story of Columba’s missionary labours in converting the Albinians and in reviving the drooping Christianity of the Gaels belongs to the province of Church history and can only be glanced at here as a fresh transforming factor which entered deeply into the civil life of the people. It was no doubt the determining influence in the historic process which ended in Kenneth’s accession to the united throne in 843. Combined with the superior knowledge of letters, this factor of Christianity facilitated the Gaelic conquest of Albin. The struggle described in the popular ballads of the Finians was a real one—in which the heathen and decadent Féinne, the brave and chivalrous people of Ossian went forth against the psalm-singing forces of Christian clerics, but they always went forth to fall and die. The Gaelic and Christian conquest of the Albinians or Féinne was complete with the union of the two races in the ninth century. All through the struggle the members of “The Family of Iona” played a prominent part.
They had travelled north and east, earnestly labouring among the various clans and tribes, and founding churches and colleges which became not only Christianising but nationalising centres, and so preparing the way for the extension of Gaelic rule. When the proper opportunity came the nations were evidently well prepared for a fusion which appears to have been very thorough.
Judging by the number of churches which they founded, and the wide tracts of country over which their labours extended, the Family of Iona must have had a very earnest and successful brotherhood. The northern half of England was Christianised by men who went forth from Iona, a fact which, it is pleasant to notice, is specially acknowledged in the Dictionary of English History recently published.
It is to the Family of Iona we are also indebted for the first literary products to which we can refer. They were the first to love and cultivate the literature which we now so highly prize. If there were any such pre-Christian bards as Ossian, it is to the ancient clerics that we are indebted for the preservation of their compositions. Indeed it is a question whether the knowledge of the forms of poetry existed at all in pre-Christian times. There is no evidence [that we possess] a scrap of ancient poetry which belongs to ages before Christian pens began to cultivate letters. The brethren in Iona were much engaged in writing, which as an accomplishment was considered as an adornment even for the highest Church dignitaries. And great value was attached evidently to the products of their pens. The transcription of sacred literature, particularly of the Psalter, occupied much of their time. Columba himself was engaged in this work when death took him. To be a ready scribhnidh, or scribe, was an object of worthy ambition. The position of ferleighin, or praelector, was one of honour in the sacred brotherhood. Many of the terms used by them in connection with letters have come down to us; others have been lost, or have since their time received different meanings and applications. Columba’s Stylus, or pen, was called in Gaelic graib, from the Greek graphium; but the graib of modern times is an agricultural implement. A very poetic legend tells how this stylus of Columba became the property of Gregory of Rome. The leather cases in which the service books were kept for travelling were called polire and tiagha. The alphabet they styled abgiter a form which has considerable philologic value; according to one authority Columba’s abgiter was written on a cake. These waxed tablets for writing introduced ceir from the Latin cera. The library was teach screaptra; and its keeper leabhor coimhedach. These and many other terms once current in Gaelic literature, introduced by the Gaelic clerics in the British Isles and on the Continent, ceased to be used in the centuries of greater ignorance which succeeded their times.
In their ancient writings and lives occur many other terms which have their value in shedding light on the social habits and condition of the people. The family of Iona had their kitchen, cuicin, or coitchenn; in which the coquina, coic, or cook prepared the meals of the brethren. Their chief season in the day time was nona, or noin, still occasionally heard in tra-noin. Their cows were sheltered in an outhouse, the Bocetum, or bathaich; and in the neighbourhood was the pasture-ground, or buaile. The grain was stored in the barn, or, sabhall, the Gaelic term still in use. They had also their Molendinum or Muileann, in which the grain was ground by the bra, or quern. A caballus, a capull, or gerran, was kept on the faithche, or green enclosure near at hand to be in readiness for general purposes. When they wanted to move along the shores they had their curucae, or curraich, whose light frames covered with skins could so easily glide through the water. For distant voyages and other purposes they had the scaphae, or scadhan, still applied to a certain class of boats. Visitors and guests from far-off lands arrived in their barcae, or, barcan, a term still current in Gaelic. The Scologs, or lower order of the clergy did not refuse to help the Economus, or fertighis, the butler, or pincerna, or the baker, or pistor. It is curious to find that on one occasion the baker was a stray Saxon. There were also among the brethren in Iona a smith, or gobha, and a brazier, or cerd, which in recent Gaelic has become a term of reproach. The term for one article of their dress at least, cochall, the Latin cuculla, had survived in familiar Gaelic. It is represented that the hardy brethren slept on the bare stones, and in their ordinary day clothes. They were truly a Milesian or soldier race, who by their persistent labours and self-sacrifices thoroughly deserved the name and fame which after ages accorded them.