Kirkjubaejar

Kirkjubæjarklaustur takes its name from the Benedictine convent founded here in 1186. The nuns remained until the Reformation, and nearby Systrafoss and Systravatn still bear names recalling the sisters. In 1783 the Laki fissure erupted, sending lava and poisonous gases across southern Iceland. As a flow approached the church, the pastor Jón Steingrímsson preached the service remembered as the Fire Sermon. The lava stopped short of the church, an event that became part of the story of this devastating eruption.