IONA ABBEY & CLAN DONALD
IAN ROSS MACDONNELL
  • PURPOSE OF SITE
  • 1.] ABBEY: KINGS/LORDS ENDOW-FINANCE & SUPERINTEND-BUILD.
    • 2) "THE McDONALD" ABBEY HEIRS: Feudal tenure -"Functional Reciprosity".
    • 3) ABBEY "COLLAPSED, IMPOVERISHED": Heirs enforce "Conditionality of Endowment". *MACDONALDS raise Cathedral.
  • 1.] OVERVIEW - PAMPHLET
    • (2.) Charts of Kings/Lords of Isles & Iona
    • (3.) Summary of book's findings.
  • BOOK "CLAN DONALD & IONA ABBEY" - FULL CONTENTS LISTED HERE
    • INTRODUCTION
    • 1. Somerled
    • 2. Reginald
    • 3. Rauri
    • 4. Donald - Clan Founder
    • 5. Eirinn, Birthplace of Somereld and Clan Donald.
    • 6. Most Ancient Graveyard in all Scotland
    • EPILOGUE: Purgatory->Indulgences-> Reformation
  • 1.] IONA INTERPRETATION FAULTS
    • (2.) Main issue is with 5th and 8th Earls of Argyll
  • 1.] ST ORAN'S CEMETERY
    • (2.) Teampeall Odhrain. Tumulus Regum Insularum - Tomb of the King of the Isles
    • (3) Secondary burial - "tradition of the country"
  • 1.] KINGS & LORDS OF THE ISLES - GRAVESLAB ATTRIBUTION
    • [2] BURIAL INTERPRETATION, BODY PARTS, MONUMENT LOCATIONS and ATTRIBUTIONS >
      • a. "FULL NOBLE BODY" - "Good John" eviscerated?
    • [3] Other notable Clan Donald inscibed monuments
  • ANGUS OG's GRAVESLAB No. 150 - SAVIOR OF "THE BRUCE"
  • 1.] ECCLESIASTICAL MACALLISTER NOBLEMEN
    • (2.) Their descent from Alaxandair OG (complete Attachment) >
      • Chart A. From Alaxandair OG, k.1299, Undeposed Chief
      • Chart B. Alaster MOR (is NOT their ancestor)
      • Chart C. Abbots of Iona and Saddell
  • 1.] "HAND OF ST COLUMBA" BODY PART RELIQUARY
    • (2.) Golden Chalice, Plunder of Iona - Macleans of Duart & Glengarry
  • 1.] CATHEDRAL OF THE ISLES RAISED BY LORDS OF ISLES
    • (2.) Plaque for Clan Donald's Cathedral of the Isles.
  • 1.] ARGYLL EARLS STRIP, DESTROY AND PLUNDER IONA
    • (2.) 8th Duke of Argyll "Recrudescence of Romanism" >
      • 3. 19th century looting
  • 20th CENTURY IONA ABBEY RESTORATION
  • IONA COMMUNITY
  • HISTORIC SCOTLAND IONA INTERPRETATION RESEARCH CONFERENCE
  • CLAN DONALD SERVICE, MICHAEL CHAPEL
  • 1.] THE BOOK'S DEVELOPMENT & AUTHOR
    • (2.) SUMMARY of book's findings
    • (3.) Comments about book
  • 1.] BIBLIOGRAPHY
    • [2]. FILES OF MINE - LINKS
    • RANALDUS
  • NEWSLETTERS
  • MAPS
  • WEB SITES
  • CONTACT - BUY BOOK
  • BLOG
    • FREDERICK JOHN GRICE; ANZAC-100
  • GLOSSARY
  • Clan Donald Society Genealogy
ST ORAN'S CHAPEL  (TEAMPEALL ODHRAIN ).

Somerled built and was buried, 1164, in his new, mid 12th c. mausoleum, Teampeall  Odhrain, ie, St  Oran’s Chapel. Historic Scotland date the chapel as c.1150 matching  Somerled’s conquest of the Isles. Reginald was only born in c.1153 (died age  54 – G. Buchanan) therefore he could not have built it.   It was originally a pre-Columban dry-stone oratory built over St Oran’s  grave with the altar over his tomb or translated relics as was the practice (then, only maybe, Queen (St)  Margaret’s small effort c.1073).  These events are confirmed by both the architectural archaeology and the history. (RCAHMS 1977, 1982; RA McDonald – “Death & Burial of Somerled”).  

He was RI INNSE-GALL(King of The Isles) and would demand nothing less than to be buried with the 40 (at least) other  Gaelic/Celtic/Norse Kings (or ‘sub-kings’) of Ireland, Scotland and ‘Norway’ in  Reilig Odhrain, the most ancient graveyard in all Scotland  - in a “Celtic Church” cemetery.  And buried right next to the relics of a revered saint (Oran) whose earthly  remains were forever in direct contact with his soul in heaven! St Oran  was first on Iona, dieing there in 548 of the plague, 15 years before Colum  Cille even arrived. [1]  W. Reeves even says “St Columba’s bones should be sought for in the Reilig Odhrain”! [2]
 
[Somerled is not buried in Saddell Abbey (unless his heart is - "heart burial").  The warrior slab, south wall of the choir, Saddell, is 14th century at earliest and the wall niche is 15th.]
 ______________________________________________________________
[1]     AFM  548.7 :-   St. Odhran, of Leitrioch Odhrain, died on the second day of the month of October, AD 548. Tiroran –land of Oran on Mull; Kiloran on Colonsay;  Oransay, etc).  Oran was not in the  original 12 who came with Colum Cille.  The re-burial ‘legend’ of him is simply a clever disguise of Oran’s  prior foundation on Iona – he preceded  Columba.
 
[2]
     Reeves, William; Adomnan’s Life of St Columba; p.317, f/notes ‘it lies’; 1857.

Picture

The cult of saints, body part relics, the doctrines of purgatory and intercessory prayer were to profoundly shape their lives, institutions and burial rites.  

"depositio ad sanctos";
“Relics were the Saints, continuing to live among men;” "The dead are not actually dead .” 

“The Saints could act and feel like the living, and were treated as if they were alive and incorrupt.”

“And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God.” (Job 19:26)

  DEFINITIVE  INTERPRETATIVE  FRAMEWORK   (from the martyrs onwards).

“The soul in heaven remains in contact with the earthly body, which shall renew itself at the Resurrection, but which is already filled with a heavenly dynammis-virtrus, with a manna-like power. It was a miraculous double existence” (“Treasures of Heaven”; 2011; pps  19-26).


Ancestral graves remain the constant centre of life – the sacred storehouse  -  a  “mode of sepulture, according to the tradition of the country.”
ancestral_life_force_centre_2.pdf
File Size: 1433 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

ancestral_life_force_centre_2_.doc
File Size: 2805 kb
File Type: doc
Download File


attributions_plan_update_2.pdf
File Size: 676 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Attribution of Lord's slabs and positions of burial.
Picture
Picture
Picture
IAN  R.  MACDONNELL,   MELBOURNE,  AUSTRALIA -  DEC 2012.     ©    International rights reserved : Moral, Economic, Attribution.                                                                                                                                                          
HOME                                                 CONTACT                                                   YOUTUBE -CLAN DONALD SERVICE , IONA

Picture
Picture