Columba and Iona

Saint Columba (521 - 597) came to Iona from Ireland. It's not entirely clear why. Some accounts say that he was sent into exile after his side lost in a feud, others that he was simply called to be a missionary to the Picts. Be that as it may, he took Iona as a convenient base not too far from the lands of the Scots (who were confusingly enough an Irish people) in the south-west of today's Scotland and those of the Picts in the north-east and founded a monastery there. Although he spent most of the rest of his life in Scotland, Columba did make one trip back to Durrow in Ireland, where he founded another monastery.

The Medieval Sourcebook has Adamnan's Life of St. Columba (for Adamnan, see these posts from Heavenfield), while the Catholic Encyclopedia has an early 20th century version of his life. As part of its series on the history of Scotland, the BBC has pages dedicated to St. Columba and Iona (unfortunately the video clips are not available to all).

The monastery on Iona flourished as a centre of learning until the monastery had to be abandoned in 825 due to repeated Viking raids. Iona Abbey was founded in 1200 but was closed in the Scottish Reformation. In 1938 the non-denominational Iona Community was founded and Iona is still a place of Christian pilgrimage today.


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The tab marked 'A' marks Iona in the above map. The Iona Community Council's site has tourist information and panoramas of the island. The band Iona has pictures from the island of Iona on their website.

The youtube video below is part of a series exploring why people come on pilgrimage to Iona.

Saint Benedict and his Rule

Cadfael is, of course, a Benedictine monk. Benedictine monks follow the Rule written by Saint Benedict, who lived in Italy in the late 5th/early 6th centuries. After living as a hermit for three years, he was asked to become the leader of a group of monks. The monks found his leadership and the way of life he tried to inculcate more demanding than they wished and they tried to poison him. He survived the attempts on his life and withdrew from the monastery, founding new monasteries for followers who still wished to attach themselves to him. To guide them in following a monastic life he wrote his Rule, which has been the basis for Western monasticism ever since. The picture on the left showing Saint Benedict presenting the Rule to monks is from an 1129 manuscript (i.e., a manuscript contemporary with the setting of the Cadfael stories), now in the British Museum. (public domain picture taken from The Catholic Encyclopedia)

Although not really a biography in the modern sense, a life of Saint Benedict written by Pope Gregory the Great, who was able to interview people who worked with Saint Benedict, does still exist. Paul Halsall's Medieval Sourcebook has a modernised version of a 17th century translation. An early 20th century account of Saint Benedict's life and work can be read in The Catholic Encyclopedia.

The Medieval Sourcebook also has a translation of parts of Saint Benedict's Rule done by Ernest F. Henderson in 1910. A complete translation of the Rule, originating from a Benedictine monastery in Kansas, can be found at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The Catholic Encylopedia entry on the Rule of Saint Benedict summarises the Rule and has an extensive discussion.



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The map shows Italy at the time Benedict lived, while the satellite image shows Monte Cassino Abbey, the monastery founded by Saint Benedict, as it is today. (map by Sean and Carmen Butcher via wikimedia commons under Creative Commons Licence)