Island Catholicism

Catholicism in the Hebrides

One of the earliest centres of Christian faith outside the Mediterranean was western Scotland, when St. Columba founded the religious community of Iona, off of the coast of the island of Mull. Celtic Christianity was a huge civilising force before the arrival of the Vikings and this branch of the faith held sway in most of Scotland and Northumbria until well into the ninth century. The Vikings sacked the important monastaries of Iona and Lindisfarne and the Celtic Church went into terminal decline soon after. It was once known throughout European civilisation for its learning, artwork and attitudes of peaceful co-existence. One of its strengths had been its ability to absorb the pagan elements of previous religions into its dogma, thus ensuring a smooth transition to the new faith.

After the raids of the Vikings with their own Norse gods, the religion and its way of life collapsed inwards. In the Hebrides, it remained only in pockets. When the Vikings too in time, became Christian and gave allegiance to Rome, the surviving remnants of the Celtic way became a basis for the version of Catholicism which became established in the Hebrides.

Some of the saints for instance such as St. Barr, for whom Barra is named, are not recognised by the official Catholic church but are worshipped here. The stories of some of the Hebrides saints owe much more to the myths and legends of the Gaelic people than they do with the establishment of Rome.

St. Barr is said to have sailed from Ireland to found the first church on the island. After he left, despite being approached by representatives from the other churches, Barra stories insist that the people always remembered and followed St. Barr's teaching. There is, however, no historical evidence of Finnbarr ever having visited Barra, but he remains yet as a part of the island's myth. There is a memorial statue of him on the shore at Northbay in Barra. Cille Bharra is one of the most noted sites on Barra and one of its chapels has been re-roofed in recent times. There is also in Barra the ruin of a chapel dedicated to St Brendan.

This faith as practised went hand in hand with the Celtic traditions of hospitality, festivity and a strong emphasis on learning. The coming of the Reformation brought considerable, if slow, change and the most surprising part of this story is the continuation of Catholicism in certain areas for many centuries. Aiding Catholicism's survival, even in weakened form, was the new Protestant church's lack of resources at community level.

In the 17th Century new efforts were made to strenghten Catholicism and missionaries once more moved through the Catholic areas, where they found vestiges of the old faith still intact. The next onslaught came in the 18th Century and especially following Culloden, and bodies such as the Society for the Progagation of Christian Knowledge and other voluntary Gaelic School movements were set up to introduce Protestant values through Gaelic literacy for young and old. That Catholicism survived this and earlier programmes of change is evidence of the remarkable tenacity of a mode of belief once it has been established. This is made clear when we see that today's Catholic communities are those where the 17th Century missionaries has worked.

The 19th Century was characterised by the removal of a significant part of the populaton, including many priests, but the Catholic heirarchy was re-established in 1878 and saw the creation of the diocese of Argyll and the Isles.

Up to the present day the Catholic Church in the Hebrides is seen as having been more sympathetic to the traditional Gaelic culture of these island communities and there was a time since the 1930s where it was almost seen as a requisite of true Gaels to be Catholic: Barra and other Catholic islands became home to such interesting figures as John Lorne Campbell, Compton MacKenzie, Tom Macdonald, and a seeming never-ending stream of visiting scholars from the Edinburgh and beyond.

By retaining the traditonal Church calendar which enabled them to emphasise the Celtic Saints such as St Bride and many others, along with a continued place for performance and ritual, the priests were able to strenghen elements of communal Gaelic life not sustained by other forms of the Church established in the more northerly islands of the Western Isles.

See also: Protestantism in the Hebrides