Otteran was of royal Irish lineage and was a kinsman of St. Columba of Tír Conaill (Donegal) in the 5th century. Columba founded the monastery on Iona in Western Scotland, and he had brought with him many monks. Otteran was an abbot in Meath, which was the royal Irish province. In those days there were five proud provinces of Ireland. Otteran can very well have visited Iona before Columba, before the mission there had properly begun. Columba was of the royal family descendent of the Dál Riada. The island of Iona would have been part of the Irish Dál Riada kingdom. Columba founded a very influential monastic settlement on this island. It would have been reasonably central via the sea to its borders which included north eastern Ireland & parts of western Scotland. The Dalriada colony stretched from western Scotland known as Argyll today, and extended over the Irish sea into Antrim and Down Patrick. In Iona, began the beginning of that wonderful manuscript the Book of Kells. With the invasion of the vikings, as described in “An Leabhar Breac” this book project had to be moved to Kells in Ireland for completion.
For sure Otteran was present with Columba and the monks on Iona. The oldest remaining church on Iona is named after St. Otteran located by his tomb, called Reilig Odhráin. He worked in Iona evangelising the people of Scotland. An Irish Calendar from 800 A.D. written by Oengus the Culdee testifies his death. Otteran or Oran (Irish Odhran, = `the pale faced one’) is mentioned to be the first monk who died on the missionary island.
Otterran is ‘’Titular Guardian’’ of Viking ancestors’ ashes
Otteran was the first Christian to be buried in the old pagan cemetery on Iona. The vikings had long carried their deceased leaders to be buried there. Iona is also the place of repose for over fifty kings and a handful of princes. The norsemen chose Otteran (the viking pronunciation), with the titular guardian of their ancestors’ ashes, and patron of Waterford city in 1096.
The Irish Martyrologies tell us that saint Otteran is honoured on October 27th as a monk of Hy, a kinsman of St. Columba. Otteran’s died in 548 AD and his tomb is greatly revered in Iona. He is recognised as a saint through the process of Cultus confirmation (equipollent canonization) since 1902 by Pope Leo XIII
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