SAINT ADAMNAN (704)

Abbot and scholar, particularly noted as the biographer os St. Columba. In 679 he was elected abbot of Iona, the ninth in succession from St. Columba, the founder. While on a visit to Northumbria he adopted the Roman rules on the tonsure and for determining the date of Easter that had been accepted for England at the Synod of Whitby in 663/664. He failed, however, to enforce the changes al Iona. He then travelled much in Ireland to promote the observance of the Roman Easter, but he was never able to persuade his own community. At the council of Birr in County Offaly, he succeeded in ameliorating the condition of women, particularly by exempting them from military service; he also made regulations protecting children and clerics; these reforms became known as the Law of Adamnan.


Adamnan´s Vita S. Columbae, in which he describes the saint´s prophecies, miracles, and visions, is one of the most important hagiographies ever written. He was also the autor of De locis sanctis ("Concernig the Sacred Places"), a narrative of the pilgrimage (c.680) made to the Holy Land by the Frankish bishop Arculf, who, forced by storms to the west coast of Britain, became Adamnan´s guest.


Adamnan is the subject od Adamnan´s Vision (Fís Adamnáin), an Irish tale of the 10th or 11th century describing the glories of heaven and the sufferings of the damned as seen by his own soul. His feast day is September 23.