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The Origins of Celtic Christianity and St. Patrick in Ireland

"The origins of Celtic Christianity and St. Patrick in Ireland"

The origin of Christianity among the Celts is unclear and widely debated. Christianity was firmly planted in Britain long before the fall of the Roman Empire. Tertullian of Carthage (died 220) wrote that even in "regions of the Britons beyond the sway of Rome, the name of Christ now reigns." Alban was martyred at Verulam around 220 and three bishops from Britain attended the Council of Arles in 324. St Patrick himself, born in the early 5th century, claimed that his family had been Christians for at least the previous three generations.

It wasn't until 431, however, that Pope Celestine sent Palladius to Ireland. He landed near what is now Wicklow, then inhabited by the fierce tribe of Cualann. The missionary met with hostility but was determined to do his work in Leinster where he struggled to convert the staunchly pagan population. Confronted with constant opposition, he managed to build 3 churches, one of which survives today as a parish in the village known as Donard. After his largely unsuccessful mission in Ireland, Palladius went to Scotland to preach to the Picts and died near Aberdeen soon after he arrived.

St Patrick, the first major figure of Irish Christianity, was a Briton. His parents were Roman and practiced the Christianity of the Romanized Brythonic Celts. When he was 16, Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and spent the next six years as a shepherd near what is now Antrim. During this time he learned to speak fluent Irish and acquainted himself with the native pagan customs. When he escaped, he returned home and devoted himself to Christianity. He was ordained as deacon, priest, and finally bishop.

Patrick wanted to go back to Ireland as a missionary but Pope Celestine sent Palladius instead. Then a few years later, Patrick was recommended to replace Palladius. Even though he was not the first to bring Christianity to Ireland, he was more successful than his predecessor. Patrick boldly confronted the druids at Tara and banned their rituals. He converted many influential chieftains and princes, baptizing them in the holy wells. It is widely believed that he died on March 17, 493 and was buried in the same grave as St. Brigid and St. Columba in Downpatrick, County Down. It is also rumored that he died at Glastonbury and is buried there. Because of the medieval obsession with collecting relics of saints from their corpses, his actual burial site was probably kept secret. Like many other Irish saints, St. Patrick is shrouded in mists of myth and folklore, the best-known of which is the legend that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. There probably never were any snakes in Ireland to begin with because it has been isolated as an island since the end of the Ice Age. The snake myth is obviously symbolism for the saint's abolishment of pagan practices.

After Patrick, the pathway opened for Christianity in Ireland. What followed was the development of a uniquely Celtic style of Christianity. The most significant effect of Christianity's advent was the arrival of literacy in Ireland. Over the next few hundred years, Ireland became a center for education. It was the stronghold for preservation of classical learning while the rest of Europe floundered in the Dark Ages. The high standards of scholarship in Irish monasteries drew students and teachers from both near and far.

A unique style of Christianity evolved in Ireland because the structure of the religion had to operate in a strictly rural setting. At this time in Irish history there were no towns, just nomadic settlements and loose, unconnected tribal kingdoms. Therefore the core of Christianity in Ireland was not the diocese and bishop. Everything was centered at the monasteries. This resulted in an independence that spawned unique practices and liturgies. Because Ireland was so isolated, it was difficult to impose and maintain the central Roman authority of the church. The Roman structure of urban-based bishops simply couldn't function. It had to be tailored to fit the local environment.

The latest research indicates that there was no solid institutional church structure common to all Celtic countries, no widely established "Celtic Church." Customs and practices differed from one region to another. In Ireland more than any other country, Christianity adopted local customs. The monks and priests had to maintain many of the pagan traditions in order for the new religion to take root and flourish. The Irish celebrated Easter and Lent on the "old" calendar system. Irish monks shaved the front of their heads, like the druids did. Monasteries were often huge theocratic villages often associated with a clan that shared kinship ties, along with slaves, freemen, and celibate monks, married clergy, professed laypersons, and men & women living side by side. Under ancient Irish law, women had more equal footing in society and this carried over to give them more equal say in church government. It is said that the practice of personal confession was invented in Ireland. Holy wells used in baptism and healing. All over Ireland, the local pagan cults were taken over by the church and dedicated to various saints who bore a striking similarity to the heathen deities who went before them. Monasteries were built on pagan sacred sites, such as Derry and Durrow.


The Christianity that grew in Ireland after St. Patrick was centered on learning, literacy and preservation of native culture. Up until the sixth century, although Christianity was established in Ireland, it still existed right alongside pagan rites. A flair for asceticism and spiritual exile (peregrinatio pro Christo) began to flourish which led the devout Irish hermits to settle in some amazingly remote locations, as far away from their homeland as the Alps and Iceland. Iceland, in fact, may have been inhabited by Irish monks before the Vikings got there in the ninth century.


Elements of eastern orthodoxy were merged into Irish Christianity, through connections with Gaul, by the Coptic and Eastern Church. An antiphony from the seventh century from the monks of Bangor, County Down, praise their monastery as "the true vine transplanted out of Egypt." Some distinctive features of Irish Christianity such as the frontal tonsure, hand bells, and wheeled cross may have been derived from eastern traditions, not to mention one of the most amazing of all achievements of Irish monastacism - the illuminated manuscripts. The earliest of these, The Book of Durrow, (675) contains religious portraits almost identical to the icons on the pages of earlier eastern gospel manuscripts. The most famous is the magnificent Book of Kells (800). These ancient treasures display a breathtakingly beautiful blend of intricately woven art that seems to be a combination of the patterns familiarly found in eastern carpets and the fantastically coiling spirals of La tene art.

Another outstanding aspect of Irish Christianity is the connection between religion and the natural world. The eminent Celtic scholar Kuno Meyer wrote, "To seek out and love nature was given to no people so early and so fully as to the Celts." Six hundred years before the establishment of St. Francis' ecologically friendly order, St. Brigid was hanging her cloak on a sunbeam, St. Mocolmoc was charming the bees, and a blackbird was laying its eggs upon the praying hands of St. Kevin, who remained kneeling until the eggs hatched so as not to disturb them.

By the end of the 8th century the Irish church began feeling the effects of the Viking raids, beginning in 793 when the monastery at Lindisfarne was brutally raided. By this time, Irish churches were almost completely conforming to Roman rules except for a few idiosyncracies such as still allowing priests to marry, and maintaining hereditary succession in ecclesiastical offices. Unlike other Christian regions, a whole monastery could be owned by one family in Ireland. And of course in keeping with Irish traditions, women continued to play important roles in the church. Divorce was recognized and cousins could marry, in distinct defiance of Roman Canon Law.

In the year 1111 the Irish Church was reorganized to fit Roman standards, shifting power from the abbots to the bishops and defining diocese boundaries. Ireland's first papal legate was appointed in 1151 and in the following year Pope Eugenius III recognized Armagh, Cashel, Dublin and Tuam as archiepiscopal sees. Under successive popes, the Irish Church was eventually Romanized and Anglicized until by the end of the 12th century many of its unique practices had been absorbed into conformity. Christianity in Ireland today, however, still holds a strong connection with the land and the ancient past that shaped its history.

References:
The Celts by John Davis, Cassel & Co., UK 2000

how the Irish Saved Civilization Thomas Cahill, London 1995

The Age of the Saints in the Early Celtic Church by Nora Chadwick, Oxford 1961

The Celtic World edited by Miranda Green

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