Page 3: "How Did Celtic Christian Monasticism Contribute to the Life of the Church?" by Tim Yau (The Prayer Foundation)

How Did Celtic Christian Monasticism Contribute to the Life of the Church? (Page 3)

By Tim Yau

Missionary Asceticism in Celtic Monasticism; Spread of Celtic Monasticism; Demise of Celtic Monasticism; Conclusion

Missionary Asceticism in Celtic Monasticism

Part of the missionary impetus of the Irish monks was the notion that exile for Christ’s sake was a form of spiritual discipline (Smart, 1999, p.144). Monasticism was considered a form of martyrdom but there were three ways of understanding it:

‘Red’ martyrdom was the shedding of blood for Christ’s sake. Patrick prayed for the privilege of suffering for Christ’s, even if he’d be denied burial and his body would be torn to pieces;
‘White’ martyrdom was the renouncing of the world, living an ascetic life for Christ’s sake;
‘Green’ martyrdom was the road of penance for sins and was particular to the Irish. It involved leaving your native land to become a peregrinatus, a perpetual wanderer in the world (Culling, 1993, p.20).

It is this Green categorization which Ó Fiaich calls these monks, ‘the most important religious and cultural influence which was at work within the future Carolingian Empire the man who for his soul’s welfare abandoned his homeland for good or at least for many years’ (Ó Fiaich, 1995, p.101). It appears that the ascetic spiritual disciplines of Celtic Christianity predisposed the taking of the gospel far-and-wide, even beyond the Celtic fringe.

Spread of Celtic Monasticism

Columba also known as Colmcille (c. 521-597 A.D.) combined deep visionary piety and a vigorous involvement in the affairs of kings and chiefs with a concern for scholarship and a love for nature. He is the archetypal figure of the Celtic monastic missionary (Clouse, 1990, p.202). He established his first monastery at Derry from where he planted some 300 churches in Ireland. He left Ireland in 563 A.D., the reasons for which are shrouded in obscurity. With twelve disciples he established a second monastery on the island Iona, off the coast of Scotland, and was responsible for evangelizing the Picts and Scots. Iona developed into a great missionary monastery evangelizing most of England and Scotland and sending ‘wanderers for Christ’ to the continent (Bamford, 1983, p.74).

Columbanus (c. 543-615 A.D.), not to be confused with Columba, was responsible for the introduction of much Celtic influence into continental monasticism (Finucane, 1990, p.307). He was not the first Irish monk to reach the continent, but he was the one who inspired monks to take the gospel abroad. His missionary recruits from the regions where he established monasteries continued his work in Northern France , Belgium and Germany. They brought not only scripture, but also scholarship to the new inhabitants of the former empire (Cooper, 2003, p.44). As part of his role he developed a strict set of monastic ideals reflected in his words, ‘He who says he believes in Christ ought to walk as Christ walked, poor and humble and always preaching the truth’ (Baker, 1970, p.28).

Demise of Celtic Monasticism

In 597 A.D. Columba died. That same year Augustine, Prior of the Abbey of St. Andrew on Rome’s Celian Hill, was sent by Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540-604 A.D.) to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons. He arrived in Canterbury as the newly appointed first Archbishop of England. According to Bede the historian, Augustine had concerns that the Celtic church differed from Roman practices in three main areas: its attitude towards the Anglo-Saxon mission; a different method of arriving at the date of Easter; and the tradition of baptism. That said, initially the Celtic and Roman missions ran in parallel with little crossover or animosity.

In 633 A.D., Oswald became king of Northumbria and with his permission Aidan founded Lindisfarne monastery and made it his headquarters. Oswald had been educated on Iona and, with the help of Aidan, Celtic Christianity began to flourish in the Northeast. Monasteries were established – among them, the twin foundations of monks and nuns at Whitby, ruled by St. Hilda (657-680 A.D.) – and missions reached as far south as the Thames (Braddock, 2000, p.5-6).

In 664 A.D. King Oswiu, the half brother of Oswald of Northumbria, had a divided family arguing over the Celtic & Roman dates for Easter. By this time some British Christians looked to Iona and some looked to Rome as the source of ecclesiastical authority. Oswiu called the Council of Whitby to debate this subject, which resulted in Northumbria following Rome. Because of this some Celtic monks withdrew to Ireland. This was not the end of Celtic monasticism, but it did mark the beginnings of the ascendancy of Roman practices and Papal authority in Britain. In the end it was the lack of central authority that helped ensure that the Celtic church gave way to the Roman version of the faith (Culling, 1993, p.8).

Conclusion

It appears Celtic Christianity was a contextualized theology. It hit at the heart of the Celtic religion of the Druids. The Celtic mission did not force a Romanized form of Christianity on their audience, but instead, fused with the societies they reached and produced new spiritual, cultural and religious patterns (Davies, 1999, p.15). Although Celtic missionaries prevailed far and wide they paid little attention to consolidating their work. The perpetual wandering characterized by the monks was the very reason much of their work had to be done again by the late seventh century (Rosenberg, 1990, p.237). To summarize on the contribution of Celtic Christianity to the Church, I quote Niebuhr, who said, ‘Only monasticism saved the medieval church from acquiescence, petrifaction and the loss of its vision and truly revolutionary character’ (Niebuhr, 1959, p.74).

(Continued On Next Page: "Bibliography & Additional Sources") ______________________________________________________ See Also:

Celtic Christian Pages
Brief History of Christian Monasticism
Christian History Timeline
Christian History Pages
Favorite Monks

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