Touched by a sense of history in the making

My View, by Donnie Munro

Amid the "flotsam and jetsam" of contemporary living, it is all too easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, dulled to obscurity by the inbuilt disposability of modern consumerism. To stand, then, in the simple theatre of history in the making is always a pleasure too noble to resist.

I was deeply moved to have witnessed such an event last Sunday, when more than 150 parishioners of St Mary's and St Maolrubha's congregated on the ancient site of Eilean Chaluim Chille (St Columba's Isle) in Skeabost, at the head of Loch Snizort on the Isle of Skye, to celebrate mass at that site for the first time in almost 400 years.

The pilgrimage to the site of this ancient Columban cathedral, one of Skye's best-kept secrets, was due to the inspired thinking of the dynamic parish priest, Father James McNeil of Barra.

The occasion was a celebratory mass which paid homage to the defining influence of Calum Cille and the early Columban monks and recognised the central role which this now ruined and almost forgotten ecclesiastical centre had played within the development of the Church from the 6th century onwards.

As the young first communicants walked in procession behind the Bishop of the Isles, who for the first time found a practical use for his bishop's crozier, the bright sunlight seemed to invoke the past and illuminate the future for this rejuvenated congregational community as they made their way across the broken ground and fallen stonewalls of this one-time powerful Christian centre.

The church had its origins in the life and time of St Columba when, following on from his two well-documented visits to Skye, he and his followers created five different centres, of which St Columba's Isle was to become the most significant. For a period of 400 years, from the 11th to the late 15th century, this cathedral church was arguably one of the most important anywhere in the country.

In 1097, Bishop Wymond was consecrated in York and installed as Bishop of Skye and all the Isles, covering a diocese which extended from the Butt of Lewis in the north to the Isle of Man in the south and included the now world-renowned Iona Abbey, with which it would soon be in direct contention, within the internal power struggles of the Church itself.

The bishop would have faced an undoubtedly difficult task. Quite apart from tending to the pastoral and organisational needs of such a vast diocese, he would also have had to run the gauntlet of the continuing power struggles of the clans and the uneasy relationship between the Lordship of the Isles and the Crown, not to mention the confusion at that time of having to deal with three different Popes, all claiming supreme authority over the Church.

However, despite this clearly volatile cocktail, the centre was to remain the seat of the bishop until 1491, when the Lordship of the Isles, whose patronage it had enjoyed, ceded to the Crown and the significance of the cathedral at Skeabost began to diminish as a direct consequence.

By 1498, the seat of the Bishop had been moved to Iona and the centre at Skeabost was to decline in influence and to become a soon-forgotten backwater.

Following the Reformation, the building was virtually destroyed, with much of the stone forming the 80ft-long transept structure, removed from the site.

Recent archaeological evidence would indicate a highly decorated and beautiful piece of architecture which would have shared many common features with Iona Abbey, not least features which are distinct to both buildings and indicate the imprint of the same artisans at work in both centres.

Within the Isle of Skye itself, there existed very little common knowledge of this remarkably significant spiritual place and, despite the marvellous work of the local museums officer and the late, great scholar and historian Dr Maclean, of Bernisdale, it remained, to most at least, one of Skye's great secret treasures.

It is, therefore, all the more pleasing to witness the recognition and celebration of the important role which Eilean Chaluim Chille has played in the evolution of the modern Church.

There is a deep, all-pervading sense of tranquillity on this holy isle. As the sound of Gaelic voices rose in praise to mingle with the low, gentle murmur of the river Snizort – that dark silent witness to the years, passing on by on either side, as it has for centuries – the sense that here we have a people reaffirming a tradition, reconnecting to a continuum that is greater than all the barriers and false boundaries we construct, was both inspiring and reassuring amid the customary transience of our efforts.

The sunlight cast its warmth on this historic place, lengthening the shadows among the fallen stones and ancient carvings and, as the last pilgrim moved out beyond the island's powerful grasp, the sense that history has been made and remade among the fallen stones will long remain a powerful memory.

The cathedral island, which is also the burial place of the chiefs of the Clan Nicholson throughout the centuries, is a place of great importance and one which the inherited prejudices of our ecclesiastical history has for too long masked from the knowledge of the people.

Among the headstones in this holy place is one marking the burial site of Skye's own great evangelist, chatecist and preacher, the blind Donald Munro, and, despite the difference of his theological drive, his presence there confirms that we are all a product of our time and that importantly, in the great continuum, time mingles to defy the divisions which we ourselves so often seek to cast in stone.

Press and Journal 24^th August 2001