Saint Columba (Columcille) 9th June 2012
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| The Skye Bridge that links Kyle of Lochalsh to Skye |
At the Night this morning we listened to:
1st Nocturne. Reading. Colosians 3:1-17,
2nd Noct. Reading. St. Columba –Breviary p. 220
It was that otherwise concealed in the Common of Abbots, not the assumed Adamnan’s Lesson on the Life of Columba.
There is a classic on "The misty isle of Skye : its scenery, its people, its story"
Full text at http://www.archive.org/stream/mistyisleofskyei00macc/mistyisleofskyei00macc_djvu.txt
and featurers references Admanan’s role on St. Columba as the first Church in Skye.
At the waiting room at the Outpatients Dept. In hospital I found a beautiful an ticle from the Peoples Friend magazine about St. Columba. For it I thank from the author Willie Shand, March 31, 2012.
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| Loch Coruisk Isle of Skye painted in 1874 by Sidney Richard Percy |
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“On Sacred Ground ... to walk in the footsteps of St. Columba”
Just five miles from Portree, and a few hundred yards from the Dunvegan road, has brought me to an old briddge over the Snozort – a place one would certainly have been well advised to steer clear of in 1593. It’s a much quieter scene now.
If you walk over the stone bridge you’ll find a gate leading down to a track following the right bank of the river. In a short distance this track brings us to another bridge, a wooden footbridge which crosses on to a tiny island on the river – an island within an island.
Insignificant as it may look when you step on to this island you stand upon sacred, and historic ground.
For upon it are the ruins of chapel built by St. Columba himself. Some claim this to be the first Christian church to be built on Skye.
His decision to build it here, we are told, was due to a vision the Saint had before coming to Skye. According to Columba’s Adamanan, the Saint had foreseen being greeted by an old man seeking baptism who, upon receiving it,’would immediately die.
When Columba and his followers landed at the head of Loch Snizort Beag, they were met by a number of men carrying an old and frain chief by the name of Artbraham. He had heard about Columba’s teaching and was determined to hold on to life until he could meet the Saint.
Sure enough, just as Columba had foreseen, the old man passed away immediately after baptism. He was then carried to this wee island for burial – claimed to be the first Christian burial on Skye.
Columba then chose to build his chapel upon the very site and you can still see traces of it this day. From 1079 until 1498 this was the Catholic Church of the Bishop’s of the Isles.
Since pagan times the island has been used as a cemetery. One fine carved tombstone depicts a warrior with claymore. Another marks the resting place of Donald Munro, the father of evangelical religion on Skye.
Close to the chapel you’ll find another ancient roofless ruin – Nicholson’s Aisle – and, according to tradition within is are no fewer than twenty-eight Chiefs of the Nicholsons clan.
Somewhere off the beaten tourist trail, this is indeed a fascinating wee island well worth stopping to explore.
