Just off the west coast of Scotland is the Isle of Iona that was a hub of religious activity since the 500’s AD. It began when St. Columba came over from Ireland and established a monastery there. All that was good until the Vikings murdered 68 priests and destroyed the monastery on January 19, 608 AD in what is now known as Martyr’s Bay. Naturally, the remaining priests fled and ended up establishing monasteries in Ireland, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. This is a picture of the inside of the 1899 reconstructed church that was originally built in the 1200s on the original site of Columb’s monastery.
