Monkmartyr Donnán of Eigg and the Fifty-Two with him

Saint Donnán of Eigg

On the seventeenth of April we commemorate one of the great Scottish martyrs for the faith, Donnán of Eigg, and the fifty-two monks with him who suffered ‘red martyrdom’ for Christ at the hands of the heathen Picts.

Saint Donnán was born most likely in Ireland around the year 550. His parentage and genealogy are unknown. He was known to Saint Colum Cille of Iona and perhaps even made his religious profession under him there, though their relationship subsequently seems to have been one of rivalry. Donnán asked of Colum Cille that he might become his anam-chara (that is to say, spiritual father), but Colum Cille refused him for reasons which are somewhat vague. It may have had something to do with Donnán being an itinerant and Colum Cille at that point being bound to Iona. Or, it may have been that Colum Cille did indeed foresee, as the hagiographies of Donnán make plain, that the latter saint did bear about him the cloak of ‘red martyrdom’ – that is to say, a martyrdom by the sword – and was awaiting a crown in the kingdom of God.

Saint Donnán and his followers evangelised all the way up and down the western side of Scotland, particularly in the Isles. It’s possible to trace his voyages by the toponyms associated with the saint. As one can see from this map, place-names associated with Saint Donnán range from Slewdonan in the far southwest of Scotland at Kirkmaiden, all the way up to the Outer Hebrides at Sgìr’ Ùig and around to the environs of Aberdeen in the far northeast, with his holy well at Auchterless. Certainly he managed to spread the good news of Christ far afield in the north.

However, his main settlement was the monastery at Eigg, the ruins of which were uncovered in 2012 at Kildonnan Graveyard on the southeast side of the island, by an archæological expedition led by Dr John Hunter, OBE of Birmingham University. It was here, on the seventeenth of April 617, that Donnán and fifty-two other monks were immolated within the walls of their sanctuary, by a vengeful wealthy landlady of the Pictish nation, along with her followers.

Disputes between monastic communities, which often did not respect the property claims of the landed wealthy, and the landed wealthy amongst whom they lived, were not uncommon at all – as one can see in the lives of the great British saints. The Irishman Donnán was no different. In merely being present on the Isle of Eigg, he managed to offend the Pictish Queen of Moidart who lay claim to the island as her own personal sheepfold. As far as she was concerned, Donnán and his monks were squatters and trespassers. She ordered that the monastery be burnt down and that no prisoners from the monastery be spared. And so it was done. Raiders from the sea, despatched on Moidart’s orders, came to Eigg and set the monastery aflame. One tradition holds that the raiders waited to kill the monks until Donnán had finished saying the Liturgy and administering the Gifts to his spiritual children. Saint Donnán and fifty-two of his fellow-monks were then herded into the refectory of their monastery and burnt alive, thus achieving the martyrdom foreseen by Saint Colum Cille. Holy father Donnán and the holy monks who suffered alongside him at Eigg, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!

Eigg Castle, Eigg, Scotland