The Celts and Christianity

by Morgan O'Maolain

During the late 1st century or early 2nd Century C.E., Christianity was introduced into the British Isles. At first following the path of the Roman occupation of Britain, it began to spread to the surrounding lands, the Celtic homelands of the Gael. In order to understand the spread of the new faith and its effect on the Gaelic culture, a summary of the traditional history of Christianity in the Celtic lands, and a discussion of some of the problems with that history will be presented. A discussion of doctine and practice of Christianity among the Celts will conclude the article.

Before beginning, a brief discussion of terminology is in order. First, there never was such an institution as the Celtic Church as a distinct confession apart from other Christian confessions.

"...Celtic Church continues in popular usage where it serves, in almost every instance, as a synonym for the more historically meaningful term "ancient Irish church." While that popular usage falls short of precise historical accuracy, it does, nonetheless, acknowledge the wide scholarly recognition of the ancient Irish church as representing the unique encounter of an essentially intact Celtic druidic culture with the man-god whom the Celt recognized in Christ." Marsden, p.15.

We will use the term Celtic Christianity, not to mean a distinct religious body, but an approach to the Christian faith that our ancestors practiced, orthodox in theology, yet distinctly different in emphasis and form.

We also have to keep in mind that the sources of both the history and teachings of the Christianity practicised by the Celtic Gaels is not history as we might be used to, but religious history, and nothing inspires more passionate opinions than religious history. The majority of the source material we have is hagiographical [a biographical account of a saint or venerated person] and written at *least* one or more centuries after the events. And, ultimately, the Roman Church was the victor in the struggle for religious supremacy in the British Isles, meaning, of course, that many of the surviving accounts are written from the perspective of the Roman ecclesiastical structure, e.g. the writings of the Venerable Bede.

Historical Summary

Traditionally, Christianity entered the world of the Gaelic Celts, in 432 AD., when Patrick was sent to Ireland on a mission to convert the Celtic inhabitants to Christianity. The new faith spread rapidly and by the next century, Ireland was a stronghold of the new faith, with newly built monasteries and abbeys and a missionary zeal to carry the new faith to the lands of Alba and Man.

Before the coming of Patrick to Ireland, Christianity had established itself among the Celtic peoples of Britain. It is thought, from the archaeological evidence, that Christianity had entered the Isles with Roman soldiers during the time of Roman control of the southern parts of Alba. In the late first and second century, the practice of Christianity in Roman-occupied Britain would have been cultic and have existed amongst the sundry other cults; both those indigenous to the Britions and other cults brought in by the Romans, such as the cult of Mithras. The new faith rapidly gained adherents and began to make its influences felt on the surrounding culture. Among the artifacts are monuments and silverware with the fish symbol engraved on the handles. Further, textual commentary by Nennius tells of the British King Lucious being converted in 167. We also know that a number of British bishops attended the Council of Arles.

Upon his arrival in Ireland in 432 AD, Patrick began the establishment of a system of abbeys to consolidate the growth of the Christian faith. The abbeys became centers of learning as well as churches, teaching his followers the essentials of reading and writing Greek and Latin, laying the foundation of Irish scholasticism that would make the Church in Ireland a repository of learning during the Dark Ages that were to come.

"Patrick's main work, of course, was that of conversion, establishing bishops, churches and the seeds of monasticism. His success in this seems to have resided in his willingness to accept the indigenous traditions and conform his teaching to them. This respect and conformity the receiving wisdom then reciprocated." Bamford, p. 18.

Patrick's method of carrying the new faith to the Gaelic Celts was to meet them on the familiar ground of their own culture, the sacred groves, wells, and mounds, and making those places centers of worship for the new faith. He also adopted the ancient Celtic deities into the new faith, albeit with a demotion in status, the most famous example being the goddess Bride becoming St. Bridgit in the new faith. By incorporating the existing culture into Christianity, rather the trying to replace the existing culture with a new one, Patrick virtually assured the success of Christianity's spread throughout Ireland.

The faith continued to grow over the next two centuries, as monasteries and abbeys began to dot the landscape, each becoming a center of worship and culture in their respective areas and eventually giving rise to the first town structures within Gaelic culture.

"The monasteries were estates, small farms with livestock and fields. They were publishing houses, with scriptoria; and, finally, they were schools. Here the Seven Liberal Arts were practised while the rest of Europe was still in the 'dark ages' of transition; the Trivium of grammar, rhetoric and logic (which in practice meant Latin and Greek) and the Quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music." Bamford, p.23

The abbeys' and monasteries' success in teaching provided successive generations of scholars who would guarantee the survival of the existing Celtic culture. These scholars would not only copy Christian material but also would eventually transcribe the myths of the Ulster and Finian cycles, the Brehon laws, and other documents related to Celtic civilization. The growth of the Christian faith in Ireland created a haven for the survival of Christianity in the British Isles because, in Britain, the withdrawal of the Roman Empire in 450 AD would open the way for conquest by the Angles and Saxons and the restoration of pagan worship. With the withdrawal of the Romans, which would shortly be followed by the fall of the Roman Empire, Ireland would be isolated from the continent of Europe and the traditional centers of the Christian faith.

In 563 AD Collum Cille, known to us as St. Columba, arrived in Scotland to establish a monastery on the island of Iona and begin missionary work in the Kingdom of Dalriada. Colum Cille was born in Donegal, around 521. His father was a local chief, and his descent on his mother's side was royal for several generations. Many scholars believe that Colum Cille could have been the An Ri, or High King, of all Ireland had he been inclined to seek the position. He chose the church instead and became Columba. After losing a local power struggle in the church by establishing a competing group of monasteries, he elected the white martyrdom of exile for Christ. With twelve followers he sailed across the North Channel and landed eventually on the Hebridean island of Iona, a small island just off of Mull. On Iona, Columba's community prospered and he began a vigorous missionary throughout northern and western Scotland. The highpoint of Columba's career came in 574 AD when the King of Dalriada, Aedan mac Gabrain, was crowned on Iona. Columba had successfully welded his missionary efforts to the political star of the Kings of Dalriada, who would become, of course, the Kings of Scotland.

Following the efforts of Patrick and Columba, Celtic Christianity prospered and expanded throughout the Gaelic world. The high points of Celtic Christian culture were between the years 600 AD and 850 AD. The Book of Kells was produced circa 800 AD. Many of the larger monastic houses were also built in this period, such as Lindesfarne and Kells.

But the end of an independent Irish Church was already at hand. In 398 AD, Pelagianism was denounced as heresy by the Roman Church. Pelagius was actually his Latin name, the Celtic Church referred to him as St. Morgan of Wales. Pelagius denied the doctrine of original sin. Pelagius was a Brython who was a ranking member of the Celtic Church. His view was that humans are offered choices by God and elect the path they will take based on free will, not because of original sin. Pelagius was not condemned as a heretic in his lifetime; however, his followers were, because they extended his doctrine into the idea that humans could be perfect by simply electing not to sin. Following the condemnation of Pelagianism, bishops were dispatched by Rome to Britain, in part to counter the feared spread of the Pelagian heresy, and later, St. Augustine came to Britain and established himself at Kent, and with him came the Roman ecclesiastical structure of parishes and bishops. Rome felt that they needed a presence in the British Isles, both to counter the growth of this new heresy and extend the boundaries of the Roman rite. Slowly but surely, the Roman system was cultivated and taught. The differences between the two rites was put to the test in 664 AD. At the synod of Whitby, Northumbria decided for the Roman rite, with the issues in question being the method of calculating Easter and the cutting of the monk's tonsure. This began the gradual demise and absorbtion of the independent Irish churches.

In a real way, after the fall of the Irish Church, Rome accomplished what it had set out to do centuries earlier. It conquered the last strongholds of the Celt. The imposition of the Roman rite and Roman ecclesiastical authority continued over the next 500 years. The final dissenting Irish churches were brought by swordpoint into the Roman Church at the Synod of Cashels in 1171 AD, by the invading Anglo-Norman armies.

note: A very well written history can be found at http://www.odu.edu/~hanley/history1/Gallagher.htm

Historical Problems & Issues

Patrick

Most historians now agree that Patrick wasn't the first, or even the second, Christian missionary in Ireland. Christianity had been in Ireland at least a hundred or more years prior to Patick's arrival. In fact, the efforts of several predecessors and contempories, including Ciaran of Sgianar, have been rolled up into the hagiographical history that is Patrick's legend. Even the dates are suspect; the date that is officially used for Patrick's "triumphal entry into Ireland", 432, has Celtic symbolism. ( Hint: add the digits! )

Patrick was the first official emissary of an expanding Roman church. What is usually glossed over, is that Patrick's final years were mired in protests and dissent. Toward the end of his life, Patrick declared himself "Bishop of Ireland". The controversy surrounding his final years was his atempt at implementing a Roman ecclesiastical structure in Ireland, and the resistance of the ancient Irish Church to his demands. The structure that Patrick put in place barely survived a generation after his death. The Celts were simply to individualistic and suspicious of any centralized authority to willingly accept a rigid ecclesiatical structure.

Patrick was a Brython. This means that he was raised in the climate of Celtic Christianity. Most of the acts that have been attributed to him have come from Roman sources, and the sway that the Roman Church held after the time of Patrick is enough to cause those attributions to be suspect as contrivances. But, as a Celt, Patrick knew the ways of his people and how to reach them. His work at consolidating the efforts of his predecessors showed administrative acumen, and his putting the Christian faith in a light that allowed it to co-exist with the existing Celtic culture was brilliant.

Eastern Orthodoxy

There is no doubt that there were elements of Eastern Christianity present in the ancient Irish Church. The emphasis on monasticism, the organizational structure of abbots and monasteries versus bishops and parish churches, and the themes of ascetic holiness and pilgrimage, all point to influences from Eastern Christianity. These concepts were to fit extremely well into the Celtic culture.

What wasn't imported into the Celtic church from the East was the heresy of Gnosticism, nor was there any evidence of this heresy being present in Celtic Christianity. Gnosticism taught that the body and soul were separate, body being evil and the soul being good, obviously a neo-platonic extrapolation of Christian doctrine. This doctrine obviously led to several other major heresies, not the least of which being that the sacrifice of the cross was of no effect, since it only destroyed the flesh which was evil. These concepts are just not found in the evidence given for the insular Celts.

Pelagianism

St. Morgan, or Pelagius, taught a doctine of free will and personal responsibility; salvation didn't come only through grace, but also by proper choices and deeds. The emphasis on personal responsibilty was very popular among Celtic Christians. This was because it fit so closely into the Celtic value system that was so eloquently stated by Caelte when he told Patrick that the ethics of the people were based on "truth in our hearts, strength in our arms and fulfillment in our tongues".

In a very real way, what became known as the "Pelagian Heresy" was a national heresy, of which many of the insular Celts were guilty. Yet the doctrine of Pelagius wasn't necessarily contrary to what Jesus himself taught, to which the Gospels give ample evidence; it contains the basic Christian ideas of "as a man thinks so is he", and that through the acceptance of Christ there comes a "renewing of the mind", and that those who have experienced this will repent or turn from wickedness, and they shall then be known by their works. We should recognized that the doctrine of Pelagianism provided a very workable synthesis of the Christian religion and the existing culture. However there was perhaps another motive behind the theories of St. Morgan.

"Pelagianism has been regarded as an attempt on its author's part to syncretize Christian teaching with druidism which had no concept of sin and saw individual freedom as the basic principle of its tradition." Markale, p.139

As a historical footnote, the vituperous attacks of St. Augustine on Pelagius, and Augustine's defense of predestination, did not survive the test of time. A modified semi-Pelagianism is now the official postion of the Roman Catholic Church. [see Markale p. 140]

Columba

To discount the birth status of Colum Cille is to totally misunderstand his purposes and accomplishments. He was a great-great grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, as well as a grandnephew of Fergus Mor Mac Erc. He fully realized that those credentials would allow him to wield immense political power for the benefit of the Christian Chuch, and that is exactly what he did. He left Ireland, not as a penitent taking up exile for Christ, but to establish a political power base in the Kingdom of Dalriada.

"The real destination of the historical St. Columba in the year 563 was not the holy island of Iona, but the hillfort at Dunadd, capital fortress of his kinsmen, the high-kings of Scotic Dalriada." Marsden, p. 54

Within fifty years of his death, Iona was the spiritual center of the Gaelic world, dominating the religous landscape of both Ireland and Scotland. The subordinate establishments of Lindisfarne, Kells, and other houses were the acknowledged leaders of Celtic Christianity and Columba's foundation on Iona enjoyed the royal patronage of the kings of Ireland and Scotland. Colum Cille was a brilliant organizer, superb diplomat, gifted writer, and spiritual leader of the first magnitude. St. Columba might truly be called the patron Saint of the Gael. But we must also remember, adoring biographies not withstanding, that Columba was not the first missionary in Alba. St. Ninian had established a monastic house, Candida Casa, in Whithorn, Galloway in 397 that performed a very effective ministry to the Strathclyde Britons and Picts. [see http//www.dalriada.co.uk/history/columba.htm]

Doctrine and Structure

The ancient Irish church, in both theology and practice, was a western Catholic church. When the Roman Church began the absorbtion of the Celtic Church after the Synod of Whidby, the only things that changed were 1) the method of calculating Easter, 2) the method of cutting the tonsure, 3) the imposition of Roman ecclesiastical structure; parishes, bishops, etc., and 4) the removal of women from any type of leadership roles within the church, cf. St. Hilda or St. Brigit who were abbesses.

"Generally speaking, the theology accepted and practicised was that of the Catholic Church - with an unusual emphasis on Scripture (so that any work could only really be a commentary thereon) and asceticism. The doctrine of God was fully Trinitarian and mystical. Creation was ex nihilio, by fiat, through Christ: a theophany with a purpose - that the character of God might be revealed, contemplated, enjoyed, embodied, fulfilled." Bamford, p. 24

The mass in use by the Irish church, a copy of which has been preserved in the Stowe missal, was extremely detailed and precise, even in comparison to the Roman church. [see http://www.geocities.com/Athens/3374/stowe.html] Scholars believe the mass recorded in the Stowe missal records a form in use from the time of Columba or shortly therafter.

In addition to the somewhat differing approaches to worship, there were structural differences as well. While the evidence of British bishops shows that there were active Diocees at an early period, amongst the Gael the orders were more monastic, with monasteries or abbeys, each headed by an abbot.

"The abbot, in fact, tended to be the tribal chief, and the tribal structure meant, furthermore, that the lineage of a monastery would be passed down along kinship lines, following the family which had made the initial grant. [of land] Connected to this, Irish monasteries had a large lay, and non-celibate, family population attached to them, and, to begin with at least, a monastic female population. Most important, however, was the fact that these gave extreme autonomy and individuality to each foundation: they were more like Zen monasteries, one-pope Churches. Rites, customs and so forth differed locally, and there was no central organization. And, of course, when it came down to it, it was this lack of organization that cost the Celtic Church its power." Bamford, pp. 25-26.

The monasteries were to become the center points of villages. The priests in them could marry, have children, work , etc. As a matter of fact, the priests held all the rights and privileges that conventional wisdom gives to the Druids, who were the ollamh, or learned doctors. Many even think that the Druids or Draoi of old simply disappeared into the monastic structure of Christianity. These would explain how the teachers under the old system, the Ollamh, would become the teachers in the new; and how the monasteries as places of learning maintained a constancy that had the Irish in particular holding the lamp of learning ablaze while the rest of Europe descended into the dark ages. Those Druids that did not choose the monastic life apparently became fili, or bards.

"The druids in Ireland were never hounded or banned as they were in Gaul, and to a certain extent in Britain; and it seems certain that they became absorbed into the caste of filid, or bardic poets, whose status was solemnly confirmed in 575 by St Columkill." [Columba] Markale, p.109

This seems to be confirmed by many bits of lore regarding the practices of these early Christians in Celtic lands and was part of the reason why the traditions of the Gaelic Celt were finally written down.

Recording of the Old Lore and the End of the Irish Church

The abbots and monks that followed Patrick continued his practice of transforming the members of the Tuatha D/e Danann and Fir Bolg into saints. They dedicated places which had significance in the older beliefs, and perhaps even amongst the Celtic Christians, to Mary. This is evidenced by Mary gaining such titles as "Our Lady of the Waters", "Our Lady of the [insert your favorite druidic tree]", and most telling of all "Our Lady Of The Mounds and Menhirs". The goddess Bride became the Foster Mother of Christ, as St. Bridgit. Therefore, to we CR folk, Jesus became a Gaelic Celt when he became fostered to Bride.

The filid, in partnership with the religious houses, recited the stories and lore of the older ways, which had never before been put to writing, so monks could record them for all time in written form. There are definite places where there are glosses, and attempts to reconcile the two sets of lore (Gaelic and Biblical). The fact that our tradtions were recorded shows that they were held in high regard and held as having intrinsic value, so does the fact that the monks did all they could to reconcile them to the Christian faith, showing a degree of faith in both.

The cooperation and good relations between pagans and Celtic Christians does not demonstrate simple ambivalence, but faith in both systems. This is also portrayed in the sacred relics of the older ways being preserved in Churches across the Isles. These relics were not only preserved in the churches, to the knowledge of the priests and a blind eye of their superiors, but also in the local priests actually officiating at the rites associated with those relics, exactly as the Ollamh/Draoi of old.

As the Roman Church, with its rigid structure, strict rules, and oaths of fealty began to dominate the religious life of the Gael, the priests and monks of the ancient Irish church were finding it more and more difficult to preserve their allegiance to both cultures. Around 900, there arose a new religious order known as the Culdees, primarily based in Scotland. These monks or lay brothers, depending on the order, carried on the function of keepers of folk knowledge and Christian monk, independent of the Roman Church, well into the 17th C.

The ancient Irish church was gone, and that distinct vision that was Celtic Christianity now slept, awaiting perhaps the fulfillment of Colum Cille's prophecy from centuries ago:

"Iona of my heart, Iona of my love,
Instead of monks' voices there shall be lowing of cattle:
But before the world comes to an end
Iona shall be as it was."
Andaman, Life of St. Columba

Sources:

Sea-Road of the Saints, John Marsden, Floris Books, 1995, ISBN 0-86315-210-4

How The Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill, Anchor/Doubleday, 1995, ISBN 0-385-41849-3

Celtic Christianity Ecology And Holiness, An Anthology, Christopher Bamford and William Parker Marsh. Bamford's essay is also included in Celtic Consciousness, Robert O'Driscoll ed., Lindisfarne, ISBN 1982, 0-940262-07-X

The Celts, Gerhard Herm c. 1975 by Econ Verlag, English translation c. 1976 by Weidenfeld and Nicholson Ltd., ISBN 312-12705-7

The Celts, Jean Markale c. 1978, Inner Traditions 1993, ISBN 0-89281-413-6

The Druids, Peter Berresford Ellis c. 1994, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., ISBN 0-8028-3798-0

Celtic Lore, Ward Rutherford c. 1993, Thorsons, ISBN 1-85538-134-6

prepared by Morgan O'Maolain

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