Historian and Iona Community member Rosemary Power tells the story of the small Hebridean island of Iona and its remarkable spiritual influence over fifteen centuries. Beginning with the earliest Stone Age settlements, she combines new translations of early Gaelic and medieval Latin prayers with original research to chart: the founding of the abbey in 563 A. D. and six centuries of monasticism; food, lifestyle, work and the pattern of daily prayer architecture; the high crosses and early art, medieval Iona: the nunnery, women's lives, and catering for pilgrims; post-Reformation Iona: the rebuilding of the Abbey, the lives of the resident population and what visitors from the 17th century onwards experienced.