‘Rowing through the infinite storm’: Iona’s mental map of its ocean geography in the Life of St Columba

Abstract

Iona used a series of mental maps to understand its political and spiritual relationships in the British Isles and the wider world. This phenomenon has been observed in Adomnán’s Life of Columba and De Locis Sanctis. A mental map of concentric circles can be applied to Iona’s understanding of its ocean geography. Those nearby waters of Dál Riata provided little risk; the waters of Pictland challenged the monks and had the possibility of monsters; the open ocean and the far Atlantic, the ‘infernal zone’, was a far more existential test.

How the monks interacted with each ‘circle’ surrounding their island reveals an essential anxiety for the monks of Iona. A rogue wave, a rising whale, a heavy storm that could sink their boats: these show how Iona understood its ocean surroundings. The peril of maritime travel these monks feared was not the risk to life, but the temptation to break one’s faith. To break faith in their religious mission, in the power of Columba, in salvation itself. This danger increased as the monks strayed from the power of St Columba, step by step away from Iona, to where he alone could not help you.