St Adamnan of Iona

Adamnan stands close to St Columba in the memory of Iona, but this life makes clear that he deserves to be remembered in his own right. He was abbot, scholar, churchman, and peacemaker. His Life of St Columba became one of the great treasures of early medieval Christian writing, preserving not only the memory of Iona's founder but a whole world of monastic sanctity. His De locis sanctis handed on precious early testimony about the holy places of the East. Yet Adamnan's importance did not end in the scriptorium. He traveled, negotiated, taught, and worked publicly for peace.

This life gives special weight to the law associated with his name, protecting women and children from slaughter or enslavement, and to his patient campaign to bring the Celtic churches into harmony with the Roman observance of Easter. That second labor cost him dearly, because it put him at odds with many in his own monastic world. Butler's line about divine providence is memorable: Adamnan, a lover of peace and unity, was taken to eternal life before he had to renew the Easter dispute yet again with those who refused to follow him. The picture that remains is unusually complete. Adamnan was learned without becoming dry, active without becoming worldly, and reforming without losing charity. In him scholarship became a form of service to memory, law, peace, and ecclesial unity.