Four 7th-century abbots of Iona were of the Cenél Duach; Ray was almost certainly their home church.

Local lore claims it was made by Columba (521–597) on Muckish to bring to Tory Island, but local saint Fionnán recovered Columba's Gospel Book and he gave the cross to Ray.

During Sunday Mass, the entire congregation was slaughtered in the Massacre of Ray (Marfach Ráithe).

The dead are buried in a mass grave called Resting Place of the Bones (Lag na gCnámh).

The cross was knocked down in a storm about 1750, and lay broken in the graveyard until it was repaired by the Office of Public Works in the 1970s.