Word of the Day
Iona (eye-OH-nuh)
An island of western Scotland
Common clues: Hebrides island; Macbeth's buriel place; Scottish island or N.Y. college
Crossword puzzle frequency: 4 times a year
Frequency in English language: 25340 / 86800
News: Our hearts are in the islands
Iona, population 175, is a small island, 1 mile wide (1.6 km) and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long, of the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Its Gaelic name is I Chaluim Cille (Saint Columba's Island), or sometimes just Ì or Idhe. It is approximately one mile (1,600 m) from the coast of Mull.
In 563 Saint Columba, exiled from his native Ireland, founded a monastery here with 12 companions. From here they set about the conversion of pagan Scotland and much of northern England to Christianity. Iona's fame as a place of learning and Christian mission spread throughout Europe and it became a major site of pilgrimage. Iona became a holy island where several kings of Scotland, Ireland and Norway came to be buried.
Iona
Abbey, now an ecumenical church, is of particular historical and
religious interest to pilgrims and visitors alike. It is the most
elaborate and best-preserved ecclesiastical building surviving
from the Middle Ages in the Western Isles of Scotland. In front of
the Abbey stands the 9th century St Martin's Cross, one of the
best-preserved Celtic crosses in the British Isles, and a replica
of the 8th century St John's Cross (original fragments in the
Abbey museum).
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Iona".
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