Saint Columba loved his Irish homeland. Having organized monastic communities in Derry and Durrow, he was an influential leader in Irish Celtic Christendom. But the story goes that Columba offended one of the kings of Ireland who then exiled him to Scotland in 563 C.E. So for the sake of peace, he left home, sailing north. The ship landed on the small island of Hy, known today as Iona. Storytellers say that when Columba came ashore on Hy, he looked back and could no longer see Ireland. Homesick and grieving, Columba cried, his large tears turning the rocks green, a remembrance of the Emerald Isle he had left behind. To this day, one can find green rocks at Curragh Bay, the place where Columba was said to have landed.1
Fourteen centuries later I found myself on these same rocky shores, turned green by Columba's tears. While Columba arrived as an exile, I came as a pilgrim. Columba and his monks established a way of life on the island that lay the foundation for a deep spirituality that continues to this day. Iona was once the hub from which monks traveled to share life with the Pict tribes on the Scottish mainland. Now the island serves as a spiritual crossroads,
a place of pilgrimage for thousands of Christians every year. On the cold July day that I landed, I was weary and wounded, and like Columba, I could have cried large emerald tears if those tears had not already run dry. I had not been exiled from my homeland, but I was running away.
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Rachel Grassley (2001 Krista Colleague) served for two years with the Presbyterian Church USA Young Adult Volunteer Program in Hollywood's Urban Project. She recently finished her Masters of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary and is on track to be ordained as a Minister of the Word and Sacrament which is a fancy title for "Pastor." She enjoys living in a Fuller Intentional Community where they share meals, bi-monthly meetings, parties, and quarterly retreats in sunny Pasadena, California.
