Martyrs of Iona
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About
The Martyrs of Iona were a company of sixty-eight Celtic Christian monks who lived and prayed at Iona Abbey, the holy island monastery founded by Saint Columba off the western coast of Scotland. In the early ninth century, when Viking raiders descended upon the coasts of Britain and Ireland, they fell upon the peaceful community and massacred the brothers at their prayers, spilling their blood on ground sanctified by centuries of worship. These monks, who had sought only to chant the psalms and copy the Scriptures in their remote house of peace, gave their lives rather than abandon their witness, joining the long line of those whose fidelity to Christ has been sealed by death. Their sacrifice stands as a witness to the cost of discipleship.
Suggested prayer
O God, who received the prayers and the blood of the sixty-eight monks of Iona, who perished at their devotions rather than forsake Your name, grant through their intercession that all who serve You in the hidden life of prayer may be kept faithful unto the end. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
