Key learning points

1. The strength of Christianity in Ireland led to its own missionary activity, and Irish missionaries travelled widely.
2. St Columba was one of these, and travelled to the Scottish island of Iona in the late 6th century to set up a monastery.
3. From Iona, St Columba spread Christianity through the Pictish territories of Western and Northern Scotland.
4. St Columbanus went to Gaul at the end of the 6th century and founded two monasteries before travelling across Europe.

Keywords

• Missionary - A missionary is a person sent on a religious mission, especially one sent to promote Christianity in a foreign country

• Iona - Iona is a small Scottish island

• Picts - Picts were a tribe of people who lived in what is now eastern and northeastern Scotland

• Gaul - Gaul was an ancient region of Western Europe which included France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy

Common misconception