St Martin's Cross, Iona

Category

Library Item

Item no

24551

Title

St Martin's Cross, Iona

Artist / maker

Wilson, George Washington

Date

1863

Size

19.7 x 12.0 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

The tiny island of Iona sits off the west coast of the Isle of Mull. This small isle, just three miles long by one mile wide, had a huge influence on the establishment of Christianity in Scotland, England and throughout mainland Europe.

St. Martin's Cross was carved from a single slab of gray epidiorite in the mid to late 8th Century. The most perfect of the surviving crosses on Iona, it stands in its original position where the monks of the island monastery placed it twelve hundred years ago.

The cross, including its base, is 17 feet height and is carved from a stone that originally came from Argyll. The raised circles, or bosses, are thought to represent God with everything revolving around Him. Intertwined between these bosses are serpents, which in the Celtic world represented rebirth since the snake sheds its old skin; symbolizing our rebirth into a new life upon acceptance of Jesus. The ring around the cross head represents eternal life and is a common feature in Celtic Crosses.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Monuments > Celtic Crosses

Landscape > Land > Rocks

Places > Scotland > Iona

Religion > Religious articles > Crosses

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