Crois Chill Daltain

The cross at the church of the foster-son.

Crois Chill Daltain (Kildalton Cross) stands on the Isle of Islay, Inner Hebrides Scotland. Its name comes from the poetic Gaelic name for the beloved foster-son, here referring to Saint John the Evangelist. 

In Gaelic Scotland the ancient Celtic practice of fosterage bound together kith and kin: Sons from the community were fostered in the chief’s household or anothers’, and the chief’s sons’ by his vassals. Interwoven together kith becomes kin, these foster sons were loved with an even a greater love than a family’s own son.

In the days of the Celtic monks of Iona Saint John, the beloved foster-son, was deeply loved and teachings followed. The way of following St John is rooted in “the School of John”. A school of teachings that is traced by scholars back to the second Century writings of Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, who received mentoring and teaching from Polycarp of Smyrna who knew and followed the disciple of Jesus, Saint John. 

Crois Chill Daltain is said to be built by monks from Iona with the mastery of the Pict stone-masons, it is a remarkable 8th-century mono-lithic high stone cross. Each face tells tales of resurrection power of the cross. Upon the front of this cross facing west the Pict saw their indigenous Pict imagery of the snake symbolising the afterlife respectfully placed on the cross silently pointing to the resurrected Christ. In the Book of Kells, produced around the year 800, the snake was commonly used as a symbol for Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

The eastern side has a mosaic of biblical imagery that speaks of God’s power and grace to a tribal warrior people. In her book ‘Picts, Gaels and Vikings’ archeologist Sally Foster describes this imagery: “At the top of the shaft sits the Virgin and Child with angels, while around the hollow central boss (defined by animals) are scenes from the Old Testament: Cain murdering Abel; David killing the lion; and the sacrifice of Isaac and Abraham.”

Such imagery may seem strange to us, but it spoke into the condition of forever-warring and raiding Pict kings. Sally Foster notes the relationships the Columbian and other Christian monks had with Pict kings in the 7th and 8th-century and how their influence began to reduce violence and bring stability.

This ancient high Celtic cross respectfully stands on a border between two worlds, and in our contemporary contexts it silently invites a deep response from Pagan pilgrims, secular wanderers and voyaging Christians.