The martyrs of Iona were a group of 68 Celtic Christian monks who lived at

Iona Abbey Iona Abbey is an abbey located on the island of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest Christian religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianit ...

(on the island of

Iona Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: �iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there ...

, Scotland) and were massacred there in the early ninth century. Viking raids of the British and Irish coasts began in 793 AD, when the Vikings conducted a bloody attack on the monastery of

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important ...

on the English coast; so began the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

of conquest. Iona itself suffered numerous attacks, starting in 795 AD and continuing in 802, 806, and 825. The massacre of the martyrs of Iona was the result of the raid of 806 AD, where fleets of Vikings stormed the abbey, pillaged it for riches, and killed the monks, who were largely without weapons, and thus defenseless. This was Iona's first incidence of "red martyrdom," or the bestowing of martyrdom as a result of violent death by religious persecution. Medieval monasteries and abbeys were frequently the target of Viking raids because they were wealthy landowners, and stored vast amounts of gold and other precious materials. Vikings plundered abbeys, like Iona Abbey, for riches, food, and even their holy texts—which were, at the time, often inscribed with gold leaf. Iona island was particularly vulnerable because it was easily accessible to Viking boats and hard to reinforce from the mainland. The monks of Iona Abbey were known best for their work on the

Book of Kells The Book of Kells ( la, Codex Cenannensis; ga, Leabhar Cheanannais; Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I. 8 sometimes known as the Book of Columba) is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New ...

, an illuminated Latin manuscript of the Gospel. It is largely accepted that after the massacre in 806, survivors fled to the

Abbey of Kells The Abbey of Kells (''Mainistir Cheanannais'' in Irish) is a former monastery in Kells, County Meath, Ireland, north of Dublin. It was founded in the early 9th century, and the Book of Kells was kept there during the later medieval and early ...

in Ireland, where work on the book continued. Sixty-eight monks were massacred in the course of the raid of 806, and Columba's Bay on Iona (originally named for

St. Columba Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...

, founder of the abbey in 563 AD) has been renamed Martyr's Bay after them.

Other Notable Martyrs of Iona

A few years after the raid of 806, St.

Blathmac Saint Blathmac ( la, Blathmacus, Florentius) was a distinguished Irish monk, born in Ireland about 750 AD. He is known as "Blathmac, son of Flann", to distinguish him from the poet and monk Blathmac mac Con Brettan. He was killed and became a ...

was killed during another Viking attack (825 AD) at Iona Abbey. He was struck down whilst celebrating Mass.

References

9th-century Christian saints Scottish Roman Catholic saints Massacres in Scotland 806 9th century in Scotland Iona 806 deaths {{Scotland-reli-stub

Other Notable Martyrs of Iona

See also

References