On Sunday, His Grace Assistant Bishop Atanasie of Bogdania officiated the consecration service for the “All Celtic Saints” Monastery in Kilninian, on the Isle of Mull. This is the first Orthodox monastic establishment inaugurated on the Scottish islands in the last 1,000 years.
The service, conducted with the blessing of Metropolitan Iosif of Western and Southern Europe, was also attended by Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco and the West from the Orthodox Church in America.
The place of worship was established on the site of an older monastery from the first Christian millennium, and it was donated to the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Western Europe in 2009.
“Today’s Sunday is exceptional, as we renew the grace where the first Celtic monks dedicated their lives for the lives of others,” said the assistant bishop to the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy.
Monasticism is a great mystery
“Monasticism is a great mystery, for monks are the ones who gather the sorrow and pain of the world, the helplessness and the fall, placing them in deep prayer, to show them all transformed and especially renewed in saving grace.”
“This is the miracle: you gather pain and bring grace, gather sorrow and bring joy. Each monk has a bag of stars, a bag from which they scatter this seed of grace everywhere, stars and stars that bring light and grace into the world, and every world begins from a mystical hermitage.”
All Celtic Saints
“This miracle lies precisely in the prayer of the Celtic saints we celebrate today. They are the ones who, over the centuries, knew how to cast the seed of Christianity on the blessed soil of Britain, giving their lives like the grain of wheat that falls to the ground, bringing forth much fruit, but only after it dies, for otherwise, it cannot bear fruit.”
“A death that brings and gives life – this is what the monks did, they died before they died, so that they might never die again, but endure forever in and with Christ the Lord,” His Grace added in conclusion.
Monstic life in Kilninian
Monastic activity in Kilninian lasted from the 6th century until the Viking attacks at the end of the first Christian millennium.
The monastic settlement was restored through the care of numerous faithful from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, as well as the monastic communities on the islands of Mull and Iona.
Photography courtesy of the Diocese of Italy
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