Saint Patrick, Celtic Christianity and Thin Places

In honour of Saint Patrick's Day I would like to write a little about thin places as found in the ancient form of the Christian faith known as Celtic Christianity. Saint Patrick is considered the founder of this unique expression of the Christian faith that spread throughout Ireland as well as parts of Scotland, Wales and Britain in the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries.

From what I understand a thin place is a place where the boundary between this material world and the realm of the divine becomes so thin that we can experience a glimpse or taste of the glory, majesty, and love of God. It’s a place where one can sense the divine more readily. There are many places that have this reputation throughout the regions where Celtic Christianity flourished. One of those place is a little island off the west coast of Scotland called Iona.

Back in 563 C.E., Saint Columba set off from Ireland and eventually landed on Iona. He and 12 other monks founded a Celtic monastery there. Since that time people have come as pilgrims to this spiritual place. It was a place that my wife and I visited in our pilgrimage throughout Europe in the summer of 2009. The picture above is of St. Columba's Bay on northern part of the island of Iona. This is the place where Saint Columba and his group of monks are said to have landed when they first arrived at Iona.

Their very presence in Scotland is an interesting case of the missionized becoming the missionaries. It was just over a century earlier that Patrick brought the message of Christ to Ireland (in 433 C.E.), and now Ireland was producing missionaries to take the Gospel back across the Irish Sea. There is some uncertainty as to exactly why Columba left Ireland for Scotland. One tradition says Columba had upset the king of Ireland by refusing to hand over a copy of the Gospels he had illegally copied, which led to a battle in which Columba's warrior family prevailed. Full of remorse for his actions and the deaths he had ultimately caused he fled. This tradition further states that when Columba landed on Iona he climbed to the top of the highest hill and when he determined that he couldn't see Ireland from Iona he decided that was where they would stop their journey.

Once settled, Columba and his monks set about converting most of pagan Scotland and northern England to the Christian faith. Iona's fame as a missionary centre and place of notable learning eventually spread throughout Europe. This resulted in Iona becoming pilgrimage destination for several centuries to come. The famous illustrated manuscript, The Book of Kells was said to have been created on Iona. For more on this beautiful work of faith and art click here.

Iona became a sacred isle where kings of Scotland, Ireland and Norway were buried. (When I learned that Norwegian kings were buried on Iona I realized that my Scandinavian roots were connected with the Celtic people and culture as well.) By establishing a long-standing vigorous religious community on Iona, Saint Columba made the tiny island an important place in Celtic Christianity.

Perhaps it is because of the centuries of Christians who gathered in intensive prayer and learning on that tiny isle that Iona has a reputation of being a thin place. As one recent pilgrim noted "It has been said that the millions of prayers offered over the centuries echo in the very stones of the walls and the presence of God resonates from the ground itself." This was certainly a sense I had, both while wandering around the island with Beth, and when worshiping in the Iona Abbey with other pilgrims.

If that was the extent of it then any place of worship that has existed for centuries could be described as a thin place. Iona had something more as well, something that is hard to put my finger on, or to put into words. I think it had to do with the stillness and isolation of the place. Iona is not easy to get to - many hours on a combination of trains, buses and ferries. In some ways I felt like we were on the edge of the world gazing out at the wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean to the west of us. There are only a few vehicles allowed on Iona, so there is little noise of any kind. Even though there are many visitors every year, most come over for a few hour tour of the Abbey and sites immediately around it, which meant when Beth and I wandered around the island most of the time we were quite alone (if you don't count the sheep that were everywhere). This quietness, the rugged beauty of the island, the expanse of the sky and sea - all this seemed to invite one into the presence of the Creator.

Yet it was even more than that. There are many places where that are quiet and surrounded by nature. Iona had something else as well. So far I've identified Iona's long history of Christian community, and its isolation from the distractions of a modern world - and still there was something more, something deeper that I experienced there. A stirring within my spirit, an enlivening of my sense of call, a sense of being surrounded by the mystery of God - these are things that I can not fully explain. All I can say for sure is that I am glad we went to visit Iona, and I have a definite desire to return someday.

While walking over rocks on the shore of St. Columba's Bay I was struck by the unique colour of some of the pebbles - they were green, or in some cases a mixture of red and green. So I did something that might seem crazy, I picked up a bunch and put them in my pocket. From my pocket they went into my suitcase, and they travelled with us the rest of our time in Europe. When back in Regina I asked Dorathea Little, a wonderful lady from my congregation, if she could help me with getting these stones polished (this was something she did as a hobby with her late husband Tom). Dorathea arranged for someone she knew in the rock jewellery community to polish them up for me. Now I have a wee bit of Iona, a reminder of that thin place, sitting on top of my desk.

So in honour of Saint Patrick I looked at my green rocks and thought of a little island where I felt particularly close to the Divine - Iona, a thin place if there ever was one.