The Abbot of Iona was the head of

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 History of early Christianity, Christian religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point ...

during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and the leader of the monastic community of

Iona Iona (; , sometimes simply ''Ì'') is an 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 are other buildings on the island. Iona Abbey was a centre of Gaeli ...

, as well as the overlord of scores of monasteries in both Scotland and Ireland, including Durrow, Kells and, until the

Synod of Whitby The Synod of Whitby was a Christianity, Christian administrative gathering held in Northumbria in 664, wherein King Oswiu ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Roman Catholic, Ro ...

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...

. It was one of the most prestigious clerical positions in

Dark Age The ''Dark Ages'' is a term for the Early Middle Ages (–10th centuries), or occasionally the entire Middle Ages (–15th centuries), in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which characterises it as marked by economic, int ...

Europe, and was visited by kings and bishops of the

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples in what is now Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, in the Scotland in the early Middle Ages, Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and details of their culture can be gleaned from early medieval texts and Pic ...

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

and English. The Ionan abbots also had the status of Comarba of Colum Cille, i.e. the successors of that Saint,

Columba Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey ...

.Some sources refer to earlier abbots as Abbot of Hy. "Hy" being an early name for Iona (see Iona: Etymology and "He considered him as contemporary with Mugron, abbot of Hy (''d''. 980)..." ()) Iona's position as head of the Columban network (''familia'') of churches declined over time, with abbots based at Derry, Raphoe, Kells and Dunkeld. In Scotland, the abbots of Dunkeld ruled much of central Scotland in the 11th century, and functioned as some of the most important politicians of northern Britain. One of the abbots, Crínán, married Bethóc ingen Maíl Coluim, the daughter of King Máel Coluim II, and became the progenitor of the so-called

House of Dunkeld The House of Dunkeld (in or "of the Caledonians") is a historiographical and genealogical construct to illustrate the clear succession of Scottish kings from 1034 to 1040 and from 1058 to 1286. The line is also variously referred to by historian ...

, which ruled Scotland until the later thirteenth century. Dunkeld became a bishopric, and the monks based at Inchcolm Abbey became

Augustinians Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written about 400 A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...

. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the monks of Iona adopted the

Benedictine rule The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' () is a book of precepts written in Latin by St. Benedict of Nursia (c. AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Rule is summed up in the motto of th ...

. Iona was re-endowed in 1203 by Raghnall mac Somhairle, son of

Somerled Somerled (died 1164), known in Middle Irish as Somairle, Somhairle, and Somhairlidh, and in Old Norse as Sumarliði , was a mid-12th-century Norse-Gaelic lord who, through marital alliance and military conquest, rose in prominence to create the ...

, king of Argyll and the Isles.

List of abbots of Iona to 891

List of comarbai Coluim Cille and abbots of Iona, 891–1099

During the abbacies of Diarmait and Indrechtach, almost certainly because of

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

attacks, the relics of Columba were moved to other monastic houses in the Columban ''familia'', such as Kells, Raphoe and

Dunkeld Dunkeld (, , from , "fort of the Caledonians") is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The location of a historic cathedral, it lies on the north bank of the River Tay, opposite Birnam. Dunkeld lies close to the geological Highland Boundar ...

. The position of abbot on Iona ceases to have the same significance within the Columban monastic familia, and many comarbai are not based on the island.

List of comarbai Coluim Cille at Kells and Derry

None of the following comarbai Coluim Cille are based at Iona, but rather Kells and Derry.

List of Benedictine abbots of Iona

List of abbot-commendators

Notes

References

* * * * *

External links

*http://foundationsirishculture.ie/record/?id=52 {{Scottish Church Iona

Iona, Benedictine Irish abbots