It is 574. Columba and Aedan mac Gabran hunt down their enemies through the wilds of Ireland's ancient north and west. Their quest? To find Aedan's lost brother, to unite the warring peoples of Dal Riata, and to defeat once and for all the tyrannical overlord who holds them all hostage. But an even greater enemy threatens: bubonic plague ravages Europe yet again, bringing the West to its knees-a mortal peril from which none of them may escape.Ranging across the storied landscapes of early-mediaeval Donegal, Northern Ireland, and the Isle of Man, 'Cradle of Saints', the timely fourth instalment of this epic series, continues the stirring tale of the two men who helped to found the monastery of Iona and the nascent kingdom of Scotland.

Historically authentic,"The Chronicles of Iona: Exile" plunges the reader into the world of sixth-century Scotland and Ireland, the veritable Dark Ages-a world on the brink of either collapse or creation, poised between myth and history.

"Island-Pilgrim," the third novel in the acclaimed historical-fiction series "The Chronicles of Iona" (named to "Kirkus Reviews'" Best of 2012; and Silver Prize Winner, "ForeWord Reviews" 2012 Book of the Year Awards, Historical Fiction), continues the story of the two men who laid the foundations of the Scottish nation, an exiled Irish monk, Saint Columba, and a down-and-out Scottish warlord, Aedan mac Gabran. They were a real-life sixth-century Merlin and King Arthur and their story has never been told. It is 575 A.D. Against all odds and at great personal cost, Aedan mac Gabran, for many years an outcast amongst the barbarous Picts, has become king of the Scots of Dal Riata. With Columba, an exiled Irish prince and now abbot of the young monastery of Iona, he works to restore peace to a nascent kingdom riddled by blood feuds and bitter factions. Yet old enemies soon threaten to destroy all these two friends hold most dear, and Aedan is forced to scatter his family and go in search of a fabled lost prince who holds the key to unifying his ancestral homeland in the wilds of Ireland. Guiding him on this perilous mission is Columba who, by returning from exile to his beloved motherland, risks death at every turn. Beset on all sides by hostile Britons, Irish, and Picts, their quest to bring stability to a divided, contentious region comes at an unexpected cost neither is willing to pay. "Island-Pilgrim" brings to vivid and striking life the world of sixth-century Scotland and Ireland, a world struggling against forces both intimate and profound to shed the chaos of the Dark Ages for the light of a new age.

A much neglected field of study has been opened by the research of the author into the history of the Christian church from its apostolic origins to the close of the eighteenth century. Taking as his thesis the prominence given to the Church in the Wilderness in Bible prophecy, and the fact that “‘the Church in the Wilderness,’ and not the proud hierarchy enthroned in the world’s great capital, was the true church of Christ,” he has spent years developing this subject. In its present form, Truth Triumphant represents much arduous research in the libraries of Europe as well as in America. Excellent ancient sources are most difficult to obtain, but the author has been successful in gaining access to many of them. To crystallize the subject matter and make the historical facts live in modem times, the author also made extensive travels throughout Europe and Asia. The doctrines of the primitive Christian church spread to Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. As grains of a mustard seed they lodged in the hearts of many Godly souls in southern France and northern Italy — people known as the Albigenses and the Waldenses. The faith of Jesus was valiantly upheld by the Church of the East. This term, as used by the author, not only includes the Syrian and Assyrian Churches, but is also the term applied to the development of apostolic Christianity throughout the lands of the East. The spirit of Christ, burning in the hearts of loyal men who would not compromise with paganism, sent them forth as missionaries to lands afar. Patrick, Columbanus, Marcos, and a host of others were missionaries to distant lands. They braved the ignorance of the barbarian, the intolerance of the apostate church leaders, and the persecution of the state in order that they might win souls to God. To unfold the dangers that were ever present in the conflict of the true church against error, to reveal the sinister working of evil and the divine strength by which men of God made truth triumphant, to challenge the Remnant Church today in its final controversy against the powers of evil, and to show the holy, unchanging message of the Bible as it has been preserved for t hose who will “fear God, and keep His commandments” — these are the sincere aims of the author as he presents this book to those who know the truth. MERLIN L. NEFF.

"Prophet", the second novel in the acclaimed historical-fiction series "The Chronicles of Iona" (named to "Kirkus Reviews'" Best of 2012; Silver Prize Winner, "ForeWord Reviews" 2012 Book of the Year Awards, Historical Fiction), continues the story of the two men who laid the foundations of the Scottish nation, an Irish monk, Saint Columba, and a Scottish warlord, Aedan mac Gabran. They were a real-life sixth-century Merlin and King Arthur and their story has never been told. It is 567 A.D. Four years after journeying with the Scottish warrior Aedan mac Gabran into the land of the wild Picts, Irish abbot-prince Columba is forced back there to seek Aedan's aid for an epic battle. Aedan must leave his Pictish wife and child and return to his first love, now married to the brother whose princely power he has vowed to help save. Yet once home, the friends' struggle to quell the chaos of the western shores only unearths even more secrets and prophecies that test old loyalties and faiths of all kinds. While Saxon invaders spread from the east and the Britons' many kingdoms battle for sovereignty, the Scots' ancestors from Ireland also enter the fray, and Aedan and Columba must fight enemies both political and personal in a desperate attempt to protect everything they have come to love. "Prophet" plunges the reader into the world of 6th-century Scotland, Ireland and Britain, a world on the brink of either collapse or creation, poised between myth and history.

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 563ADsix centuries of monasticism: food, lifestyle, work and the pattern of daily prayerarchitecture, the high crosses and early artmedieval Iona: the nunnery, women’s lives, and catering for pilgrimspost Reformation Iona: the rebuilding of the Abbey, the lives of the resident population and what visitors from the 17th century onwards experienced