The Gospel of John is currently on display on folios 310v-311r
The date and place of origin of the Book of Kells have long been subjects of controversy. A monastery founded around 561 by the Irish saint Colum Cille on Iona, an island off Mull in western Scotland, became the principal house of a large monastic confederation. In 806, following a Viking raid on the island which left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a new monastery at Kells, County Meath, and for many years the two monasteries were governed as a single community. It must have been close to the year 800 that the Book of Kells was written, although there is no way of knowing if the book was produced wholly at Iona or at Kells, or partially at each location. In the Middle Ages the manuscript was revered at Kells as the great gospel book of Colum Cille.
Peacocks were widely used as decorative motifs in manuscripts, sculptures and metalwork in early Christian art. In the Book of Kells the peacock motif is contorted into fantastical shapes to form letters and to draw the eye towards significant gospel texts and passages. The peacock symbolised the incorruptibility of Christ, arising from the belief that its flesh does not putrefy. Because the peacock sheds its tail feathers every year, this is another analogy of resurrection.
