Field Visit
Date September 1980
Event ID 1121974
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1121974
St John's Cross.
This ringed cross originally stood within a box-like base some 4·8m w of the small chapel known as 'St Columba's Shrine' and 1l·6m NW of the w door of the abbey church. The broken cross-shaft was recorded in 1699 by Lhuyd in drawings which show that already only the three lower ornamental panels of the W face remained intact, and that part of the second panel of the E face had flaked off. Further damage to the upper part of the w face occurred between 1859 and 1874, but the surface flakes from both faces were preserved. Various fragments of the cross-head, and part of the upper panel of the shaft, possibly discovered during the clearance operations of 1874-6, were displayed for some years within the railed enclosures in Reilig Odhráin, and in about 1900 were moved into St Oran's Chapel. The form of the crosshead was first reconstructed by J Romilly Alien, who however did not associate it with the shaft. This identification was first suggested by R A S Macalister, under whose supervision the cross-head was re-united with its shaft in 1927, the missing portions being made good with concrete. The upper part of the cross was blown down during a gale in 1951 and, following its re-erection three years later, fell again in 1957. Thereafter it was decided to replace the original cross by a pre-stressed concrete reproduction, which was installed in the cross-base in 1970. At the date when this volume went to press, the fragments of the original cross were in the custody of the Ancient Monuments Branch of the Scottish Development Department, undergoing conservation for subsequent return to Iona to be exhibited in a sheltered setting.
The existence of a cross named after St John was first mentioned by Dr Johnson in 1773, but without sufficient detail for it to be certain which one was so described . In its fragmentary state it attracted little notice from visitors, and during the 19th century the name was applied by some writers to the cross now known as 'St Matthew's', the first unambiguous use of the name perhaps being that by Skene in 1875. Despite this confusion, however, it is possible that the cross, whose Gaelic name Cros Eoin survived in local tradition, preserved its ancient dedication. Certainly its ambitious scale and elaborate ornament would be consistent with the special veneration for the evangelist John and his gospel in the early Irish and Northumbrian churches.
It is suggested on pp. 17-19 that St John's Cross, which has the widest span of any known cross of Early Christian date in the British Isles, was carved about the middle or in the second half of the 8th century, and that the ringed cross-head may have been developed in the course of the repairs made necessary by its presumed fall.
See RCAHMS 1982 pp.197-204 for a detailed and illustrated description.
RCAHMS 1982, visited September 1980
