Why is Iona a place of pilgrimage?

Answer 1

It was the place that St Columba settled in. He was a monk from Ireland and set up a small monastic community there from which he evangelized Scotland. A community was reestablished there in the middle of the last century and the abbey was repaired and rebuilt. Lots of people came to help and they operated a guest house. Other churches too have guest houses on the island. The Iona community have been at the forefront of the churches interaction with political issues and also have provided some wonderful music, largely through the compositions of John Bell.Iona itself is a fantastic location and naturally very beautiful, but also there is a real and tangible peacefulness there which has nothing to do with its natural beauty. Its almost as if you can touch the stillness. There is something a bit romantic about alot of so called Celtic spirituality which is bit new agey and akin to nature worship and some people doubtless go to Iona thinking of it as a centre for Celtic spirituality, but this is wrong. St Columba was no romantic and his disciplined life and gentleness provided the pattern for the foundation of the church in Scotland for centuries to come.