Adomnán

Adomnán or Adamnán of Iona (; , Adomnanus; 624 – 704), also known as Eunan ( ; from ), was an abbot of Iona Abbey ( 679–704), hagiographer, statesman, canon jurist, and saint. He was the author of the Life of Columba , probably written between 697 and 700. This biography is by far the most important surviving work written in early-medieval Scotland, and is a vital source for our knowledge of the Picts, and an insight into the life of Iona and the early-medieval Gaelic monk.

Adomnán promulgated the Law of Adomnán or "Law of Innocents" . He also wrote the treatise ('On Holy Places'), an account of the great Christian holy places and centres of pilgrimage. Adomnán got much of his information from a Frankish bishop called Arculf, who had personally visited Egypt, Rome, Constantinople and the Holy Land, and visited Iona afterwards.

Life Adomnán was born about 624, a relative on his father's side of Columba. He was a member of the Northern Uí Néill lineage Cenél Conaill. He was the son of Rónán mac Tinne by Ronat, a woman from another Northern Uí Néill lineage known as the Cenél nÉnda. Adomnán's birthplace was probably in or near Raphoe, a town in what later became Tír Chonaill (now mainly County Donegal), in Ulster in the north of Ireland. Some of Adomnán's childhood anecdotes seem to confirm at least an upbringing in this fertile eastern part of present-day County Donegal, not far from the modern city of Derry.

It is thought that Adomnán may have begun his monastic career at a Columban monastery called Druim Tuamma, but any Columban foundation in northern Ireland or Dál Riata is a possibility, although Durrow is a stronger possibility than most. He probably joined the Columban familia (i.e. the federation of monasteries under the leadership of Iona Abbey) around 640. Some modern commentators believe that he could not have come to Iona until sometime after 669, the year of the accession of Fáilbe mac Pípáin, the first abbot of whom Adomnán gives any information. However, Richard Sharpe argues that he probably came to Iona during the abbacy of Ségéne (d. 652). Whenever or wherever Adomnán received his education, Adomnán attained a level of learning rare in early-medieval Northern Europe. It has been suggested by Alfred Smyth that Adomnán spent some years teaching and studying at Durrow, and while this is not accepted by all scholars, it remains a strong possibility.

In 679, Adomnán became the ninth abbot of Iona after Columba. Abbot Adomnán enjoyed a friendship with King Aldfrith of Northumbria. In 684, Aldfrith stayed with Adomnán in Iona. In 686, after the death of Aldfrith's brother King Ecgfrith of Northumbria and Aldfrith's succession to the kingship, Adomnán was in the Kingdom of Northumbria on the request of King Fínsnechta Fledach of Brega in order to gain the freedom of sixty Gaels who had been captured in a Northumbrian raid two years before.

Cáin Adomnáin

It is generally believed that in 697, Adomnán promulgated the Cáin Adomnáin, meaning literally the "Canons" or "Law of Adomnán". The Cáin Adomnáin was promulgated amongst a gathering of Irish, Dál Riatan and Pictish notables at the Synod of Birr in 697. It is a set of laws designed, among other things, to guarantee the safety and immunity of various types of non-combatants in warfare. For this reason it is also known as the Lex Innocentium (Law of Innocents).

Works Adomnán's most important work, and the one for which he is best known, is the Vita Columbae ("Life of Columba"), a hagiography of Iona's founder, Columba, probably written between 697 and 700. The format borrows to some extent from Sulpicius Severus' Life of Saint Martin of Tours. Adomnán adapted traditional forms of Christian biography to group stories about Columba thematically rather than chronologically, and present Columba as comparable to a hero in Gaelic mythology. Wetherill suggests that one of the motivations for writing the Vita was to offer Columba as a model for the monks, and thereby improve Adomnán's standing as abbot. and they were returned to Iona in 730.

Legacy In his native Donegal, Adomnán has given his name to several institutions and buildings including: The Cathedral of St Eunan and St Columba in Letterkenny, County Donegal; the current seat of the Bishop of Raphoe, The Anglican St Eunan's Cathedral in Raphoe, County Donegal, St Eunan's NS, a national school in Raphoe, St Eunan's College, a secondary school in Letterkenny, St Eunan's NS, a national school in the small village of Laghey, just south of Donegal Town, St Eunan's GAA, a GAA club in Letterkenny In County Sligo, just to the south, he is venerated as the founder of Skreen Abbey, now the site of the Church of Ireland church of Skreen Parish.