Iona Abbey

In 563, the Irish monk Columbus, along with 12 companions, arrived on the island of Iona, where he founded a monastery, which became the main missionary point for the spread of Christianity among the Scottish Picts and Scottes .

The monastery faced the first crisis in 806, when the Vikings invaded the island, who killed 68 monks and seized the property of the monastery. After the Viking raids, many monks fled to Ireland and the European continent, where they created new monasteries on the territory of modern Belgium , France and Switzerland .

In 825, some monks returned to the island. They restored the abbey, but after a while the monastery was again attacked by the Vikings and burned. In the XI century. the island was under the influence of the Norwegian kings, and in 1164 passed to the Irish. In 1203, the restoration of the abbey by the Benedictines began on the site of the old burned out.

In the middle of the XIII century, nuns arrived on the island, who founded a convent in the south of the island. The monastery was rebuilt in the 15th century and fell into decay in the 17th century after the Reformation began in Scotland. The monastery was closed at this time. At the end of the 19th century, when the Catholic hierarchy was restored in Great Britain, the Catholic Church in Scotland set about rebuilding the monastery as an important monument to the presence of Catholicism in the British Isles. In 1938, a group of enthusiasts founded the Aion Abbey Society, which began to study the history of the abbey and restore historical monuments. Over time, it turned into an ecumenical community.

Currently, the monastery is a museum.

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  St. John's Cross, monastery museum

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  Inside the monastery church

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  Monastery Courtyard

• School of Iona