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Iona--FLIDAIS LOOK HERE
work in progress, containing blood, sweat, tears, arthritis....
One--Iona notebook not here, it's at home. I'm typing the info I have on hand and I'll flesh it out tomorrow.
________ If you were to walk the shores of Iona, you would be aware of a presense, a sense of something more, that has drawn people to the rocky shore possibly since the first Albans arrived. It is considered a "thin place," where the material and spiritual worlds are separated by a gossamer veil. earliest info, early Christianity This Hebredian isle has been sacred for as long as our grasp of history has existed. It was considered a place to commune with nature, to cleanse yourself in sacred pools and to divine by the sea. It was a world of education and of learning. When Christianity arrived on its shores, it was welcome and accepted as all new forms of learning and education. Many of the occupants were quick to see correlations and patterns between the spirits that existed in nature, and the presense of God in everything. The Gospels had the familiar feel of old tales countless fili had spoken. Iona was soon to become a haven to these early arrivals, as the Roman Christianity spread into the isles. Roman Christianity comes to the isles *synod at Whitby and how it affected Iona *don't forget about St. Columba arriving, people there telling him to go away when he arrived lol and kicking the women and cattle off Iona. *scribes, illuminated texts *travelling and ministry to other areas of Scotland, including (maybe most importantly) Dunadd, conversion of Picts based from Iona *king's graveyard and burial list (names worn off stones sometime in 17th cent) *transition from beehives and waddle and daub to stone *short short history of abbey, more extensive under abbey * Current info Late in the 19th century a man named Alexander Carmichael visited the Scottish Hebrides to transcribe Gaelic poems, songs and prayers sung by the common people there. These translations were published in 1900 in a volume entitled Carmina Gadelica, or Songs and Prayers of the Gaels. (recently republished by Floris Books, Edinburgh, 1992) These songs had been passed down for hundreds of years by the crofters and fishermen that lived in the still-wild places in the Western Isles. They were recited by Catholics and Protestants, wealthy and common, and many believed they came directly from the original Celtic Church. By the nineteenth century these songs were fading out due to the Highland Clearances and mass migration. If not for Carmichael's work they might have been forever lost. Instead Carmina Gadelica has become important to the resurging Celtic spiritual identity, on Iona and beyond. A thriving community was reestablished at Iona in 19__. *current pilgrimages *historical references/research available *web site reference |
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