Celtic Christianity in Ireland, Jacqueline Giesbrecht, 2018

CELTIC CHRISTIANITY IN IRELAND:
THE QUEST FOR THE SPIRIT OF CELTIC CHRISTIANITY

BA HONOURS THESIS
BY
JACQUELINE GIESBRECHT
Submitted to the Faculty of

Biblical and Theological Studies
Canadian Mennonite University

Winnipeg, Manitoba
2018
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This thesis written by Jacqueline Giesbrecht was read and examined by the
following:
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Karl Koop
Reader: Dr. Brian Froese

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Abstract
Celtic Christianity in Ireland:

The Quest for the Spirit of Celtic Christianity
Jacqueline Giesbrecht
The primary objective of this thesis is to examine the unique character of Celtic
Christianity in Ireland. The central point of this thesis is that which makes Celtic Christianity
distinct from other Christianities is the Celtic culture of imagination and Druidic storytelling,
catalyzed by the lack of definitive (written) ancient Celtic and early Celtic Christian history. This
mystical history, made increasingly vibrant through extrapolation and imagination, has given
Celtic Christianity a distinct and fluid spirit that has allowed it to adapt to its environment and
remain relevant. The first chapter provides a background on the origins of Celtic culture, as well
as the Celtic learned class and how they shaped culture through their shaping of Celtic oral
history. This chapter also gives context to the Holy Woman Brigid and her pre-Christian identity,
as well as an outline of the nativist and anti-nativist views of early Irish texts. The second chapter
investigates the Christianization of Ireland, showing that the Christianization was a story more
complex and fluid than just the story of Saint Patrick. The third chapter examines the evolution
of the hagiography and traditions of Patrick and Brigid as they evolved in response to their
historical contexts. These traditions, like tree rings, will serve as markers of the growth and
evolution of Celtic Christianity in Ireland. Thus, in this work I will show how this imaginative
and hazy history has led to the evolution and growth of a new strand of tree within the forest of
Christianity. Though this tree shares commonalities with the other trees in the forest, it is in a
different genus and so also has unique characteristics. This tree has lessons to teach due to the
inspiring and adaptive spirit of imagination found within, which has kept the modern strand of
Celtic Christianity relevant today.
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Table of Contents
Preface.......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 8
Chapter 1: Entering the Fog – Early Celtic History ................................................................................ 16

The Celts of Europe ................................................................................................................................ 17
The Celts of the British Isles ................................................................................................................... 20
Celtic Ireland........................................................................................................................................... 21
Religious Background ............................................................................................................................. 23
The Learned Class................................................................................................................................... 26
The Christian Learned Class – The Case Study of Brigid ...................................................................... 31
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 35
Chapter 2: Remaining in the Fog – Christianity in Ireland ..................................................................... 36

The Autobiographical Patrick ................................................................................................................. 37
Evangelism in a ‘Barbarian’ Society ...................................................................................................... 40
Patrick’s Success..................................................................................................................................... 42
Two Patrick Theory ................................................................................................................................ 45
Egyptian Peregrini .................................................................................................................................. 47
Irish-Christian Interactions ..................................................................................................................... 49
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 50
Chapter 3: The Growing of the Tree – The Evolution of Patrick and Brigid ......................................... 51
The First Ring: c. 650-800 CE ................................................................................................................ 52
The Remaining Rings ............................................................................................................................. 61
The Second Ring: Post-Norse Raids ................................................................................................... 61
The Third Ring: Post-Reformation ..................................................................................................... 63
The Fourth Ring: 19th century ............................................................................................................. 64
The Fifth Ring: 1900-1960.................................................................................................................. 66
The Sixth Ring: the Current Revival ................................................................................................... 67
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 69
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 71
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 74
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Preface
In the summer of 2016, I found myself on a pilgrimage, my Quest for the Celtic. With my
sturdy hiking backpack, I headed out on a three-month adventure. I had one goal – to go to as
many areas of Celtic importance as I could. Why was I, a North American Mennonite prairie
girl, interested in Celtic Christianity? I have no Celtic heritage nor a geographically similar
landscape. My discovery of Celtic Christianity (the traditional Christianity of Wales, Cornwall,
Ireland, and Scotland) is not a typical story. I had heard Celtic blessings shared and though
indeed I was interested, I did not feel a strong pull to learn more. I came at it in an unexpected
and convoluted way. In the fall of 2015, I enrolled in a course titled Who is Jesus? This class
looked at the Quest for the historical Jesus as a phenomenon. While researching for this course, I
came across a brief mention of a myth in which Jesus went to England as a boy. Before I knew it,
I was writing a paper on what is called the Glastonbury myth.
In this myth, Jesus’ rich uncle Joseph of Arimathea was a merchant and was deeply
involved in the tin trade, often importing Cornish tin and Mendip lead from Britain to the Roman
Empire. According to legend, young Jesus went along with his uncle on one of these trips to
England and they stayed in the small town of Glastonbury in the southwest of England.
Glastonbury was of Celtic importance due to its Druidic university and, in some variations of the
legend, Jesus learned math and astronomy from the Druids.1 Joseph returned to England
sometime between 37-63 CE with the intent of bringing the Christian message to the Druids.2
With him, he brought the Holy Grail (the Chalice used by Jesus at the Last Supper in which
Joseph had collected Christ’s blood at the Crucifixion), two vials of Christ’s blood, and sweat
from Christ’s brow. He additionally brought a staff which, upon touching the ground, became a
1
Michael Mathias, Glastonbury (North Pomfret, VT: David & Charles, 1979), 10.
2
Ibid.
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tree (now known as the “Glastonbury Thorn”). This tree is a tree native to the Holy Land and
flowers on Christmas Day. Also, the church in Glastonbury is said by some to have been built
either by Jesus or by Joseph, making it the first church in England.
Is this myth true? Through the lens of historical accuracy, this tale seems unlikely.
However, it was and is true to someone and, arguably, that is all that matters. Regardless of
whether Jesus actually “walked upon England's mountains green,”3 this myth has captured
people’s imaginations for centuries and has shaped their experience of the world. Glastonbury
Abbey became a frequented center of pilgrimage in during the late Middle Ages, helped by the
belief that Saint Patrick built the Abbey, having come there in his old age to become
Glastonbury’s first Abbot.4 For another, Joseph brought the Holy Grail to England, making
Glastonbury a mecca for Holy Grail enthusiasts. As well, King Arthur and his wife Guinevere
are said to be buried in the churchyard. These layers make the lore rich and multi-faceted.
In Celtic tradition, it is not uncommon for a place to have a myriad of meanings. The pre-
Christian Celts had a substantial connection to their land, as they understood the presence of the
Celtic gods to be immediately around them. Some places, however, were more sacred than
others. The Celts found boundary places as being significant. The boundary lands between
kingdoms were suitable for royal forts and were where pre-Christian celebrations and religious
rituals occurred. Other places marked boundaries in time, the now and the then, like ancient ruins
with a long string of historical significance. Some places marked spiritual boundaries; though all
locations were spiritually significant, there were some that were even more so. There were good
and evil places and places where two worlds came together, and the divine met the earth. Though
a place’s geography played a part into whether it would be sacred (woodlands and wells tended
3
William Blake, “Jerusalem,” Milton (London, ENG: A.H. Bullen, 1907).
4
Ian Bradley, Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams (Edinburgh, SCT: Edinburgh University
Press, 1999), 72.
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to be traditional sacred places), the history of the place was also significant. Unsurprisingly,
when Christianity came to the British Isles, sacred Celtic places became sacred Celtic Christian
places. Glastonbury was a significant pre-Christian location both educationally and spiritually
due to its university and its landscape. The Glastonbury Tor is a hill that rises sharply out of the
Somerset countryside, and the Celts tended to find high places as spiritually significant.5 It is no
surprise then that two of the main monasteries in Ireland, Armagh and Kildare, are both located
near the hilltop ruins of ancient kingdoms.6 Geographical location was a medium of storytelling
when Ireland was not literate and continued to be so after the establishment of Christianity.
I include this story of Glastonbury because how I first happened upon Celtic Christianity
has had a significant impact on my approach to this project. My interest from the beginning has
been a phenomenological interest of the interaction between religion and culture in Celtic
Christianity, which has allowed me to appreciate the complexity and paradox of this study.
Admittedly, I got lost for a time in the theology of modern Celtic Christianity, through which I
also gained an appreciation for its inspiring beauty. All in all, this study has been shaped by my
experiences: my pilgrimage, most notably my time in Glastonbury, Lindisfarne, and Iona; my
engagement with authors like John Philip Newell, Marion Bowman, and Ian Bradley; even, I
have realized retrospectively, the political situation in which I find myself.7 Also, my journey has
been shaped by the various individuals and communities that have surrounded me during this
time, and I would like to thank all of those who have walked alongside me, even if you did not
realize you were doing so; your presence and support have meant a lot.
5
Philip Sheldrake, Living In Between Worlds: Place and Journey in Celtic Spirituality (London, ENG: Darton,
Longman, and Todd Ltd.), 29-30.
6
Lisa M Bitel, Landscape with Two Saints: How Genovefa of Paris and Brigit of Kildare Built Christianity in
Barbarian Europe (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009), 112.
7
As a portion of my thesis is dedicated to exploring the presence of political bias by historians of Celtic Christianity,
I would be naïve to believe that I am without my own bias. Though I believe it is unnecessary for me to spell out my
political influences, I felt the desire to try to be more transparent than some scholars who have come before me.
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Introduction
In the last thirty-five years or so, there has been a renewed interest in Celtic spirituality in
both the areas of Celtic Paganism8 and Celtic Christianity. This trend is called the “Celtic
Revival” or the “new Celtic Twilight,” the latter named after a W. B. Yeats poem with the same
title.9 What is it about Celtic spirituality or, more specifically, modern Celtic Christianity, that is
so compelling? Perhaps it is that Celtic Christianity, in general, has a core that readily lends itself
to feminism, anti-institutionalization, or environmentalism. However, scholars like Ian Bradley
and Oliver Davies question if these foci are key aspects of Celtic Christianity or if they are recent
projections onto or appropriations of Celtic Christian themes for a specific religious-political
agenda.10 I assert that instead of Celtic Christianity having a “heart” or a “core,” it has a spirit. I
use the word “spirit,” as its movement has a certain fluidity that envelops all that is within the
mosaic of what is Celtic Christianity.11 This spirit moves across time and space, encompassing
the “first generation” Celtic Christians (i.e., Patrick and Brigid), the Christians of Alexander
Carmichael’s (1832-1912) Carmina Gadelica,12 as well as the neo-Celtic Christian movement.
What has given Celtic Christianity in Ireland this fluidity? A lot of its fluidity comes
from the nature of early Celtic Christianity. The period of the fifth-to-sixth century CE is referred
to as the ‘Golden Age’ of Celtic Christianity, ‘First Wave Celtic Christianity’ or belonging to the
‘First Generation’ of Celtic Christians in Ireland. It includes the time of the three central Celtic
‘Paganism’ here refers to early Celtic mythology and tradition.

8
9
Rosemary Power, “A Place of Community: ‘Celtic’ Iona and Institutional Religion,” Folklore 117, no. 1 (Apr.
2006), 33.
10
Oliver Davies, Celtic Spirituality (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1999), 3-23; Ian Bradley, Celtic Christianity:
Making Myths and Chasing Dreams (Edinburgh, SCT: Edinburgh University Press, 1999).
11
This is not to deny that Christianity in general is quite fluid in how it changes to adapt to new cultural and
historical realities. Rather, I argue that the early Celtic and early Celtic Christian history has made Celtic
Christianity even more distinctly fluid.
12
Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica: Charms of the Gaels (Edinburgh, SCT: Floris Books, 1994). Five
volumes of Gaelic oral tradition collected by Carmichael in Gaelic-speaking Scotland between 1860 and 1909.
These texts include prayers, hymns, blessings, songs, and charms.
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saints of Ireland (Patrick, Brigid, and Columba), the founding of influential monasteries like Iona
and Lindisfarne as well as the writing of many illuminated manuscripts (including, perhaps, the
Book of Kells).13 Unfortunately, other than the writings of Saint Patrick, this ‘Golden Age’
cannot be studied except through later hagiography. As will be shown in Chapter 2, there is
much uncertainty about the story of evangelism in Ireland and even the importance of Saint
Patrick in this endeavour. How then did the stories around him and the early Saints become so
intricately detailed in what can be perceived as being a historical vacuum?
Ian Bradley, Scottish minister and academic, describes the Golden Age as having a
“misty and vague aura” that allows space to “weave myths and spin legends.”14 This fluid, misty
nature of Celtic Christianity, influenced by Irish druidic storytelling and enhanced by the fog-like
Golden Age, has left room for a freedom of expression and interpretation of Celtic Christianity.
As scribes were writing hagiographies, they had space to be imaginative. The scribes used
biblical and early Celtic motifs; saints were both performing biblical miracles and having run-ins
with Druids. Saint Brigid became a goddess, and Saint Patrick chased all of the snakes out of
Ireland. Just because these things may technically have not happened does not mean that they
could not have – and so then are they not true in some sense?
This freedom to engage in interpretation, however, has allowed Celtic Christianity to be
used as a source of political gain and to promote specific agendas. People have often painted a
mirage shimmering with nostalgia and then discretely slipped in details that serve a motive,15
perhaps intentionally or through subconscious wishful thinking. Consequently, these features
become so well-integrated into the already hazy image that it becomes difficult to separate real
13
Michael Slavin, The Ancient Books of Ireland (Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005), vii.
14
Bradley, Celtic Christianity, 2.
15
Examples of this will be given in Chapter 3, specifically relating to the church in Armagh and Kildare.
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from imagined or planted. Thus, unbeknownst to the general population, Celtic Christianity
becomes the perfect vessel for political or theological agendas.
This thesis’ primary objective is to examine the unique character of Celtic Christianity
(specifically, the stream in Ireland). The thesis of this paper is that which makes Celtic
Christianity distinct from other Christianities is the Celtic culture of imagination and Druidic
storytelling, catalyzed by the lack of definitive ancient Celtic and early Celtic Christian history.
This mystical history has given Celtic Christianity a distinct fluid spirit that has allowed it to
adapt to its environment and remain relevant. This evolution appears in the hagiography and
traditions of Patrick and Brigid which, like tree rings, serve as markers of this growth. This
imaginative and hazy history has led to the evolution and growth of a new strand of tree within
the forest of Christianity. Though it shares commonalities with the other trees in the forest, it is
in a different genus and so also has unique characteristics. This tree has lessons to teach due to
the fluid, inspiring, adaptive spirit of imagination found within. Thus, this spirit is what has kept
modern Celtic Christianity relevant today.
The idea of Celtic Christianity having a spirit of imagination is not new. Esther De Waal
describes the Celts as a people of imagination, who expressed their faith through visual art,
poetry, and storytelling.16 She sees this reflected in Celtic Christian prayer, which she describes
as “elemental, corporate, heroic, imaginative.”17 Philip Sheldrake has written about how stories
of people and places seem to have become entangled in a way that made the Celtic and Christian
blend together. 18
16
Esther De Waal, The Celtic Way of Prayer (New York , NY : First Image Books, 1999), xii.
17
Ibid., xiii.
18
Philip Sheldrake, Living Between Worlds: Place and Journey in Celtic Spirituality (London, ENG: Darton,
Longman, and Todd Ltd, 1995).
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Though it is unclear whether this was intentional, what is clear is that it is through the
medium of storytelling that these seemingly incompatible worldviews came together. Michael
Slavin, the author of The Ancient Books of Ireland, says that books are an indispensable part of
modern Irish identity and shape how the Irish view their past as well as who they are today.19
What I will be doing, differently than the scholars listed above, is that I will examine this idea of
Celtic Christian imagination through the foggy lens of ancient Celtic and early Celtic Christian
history. To do this, I will focus on the hagiography and tradition of two saints, Patrick and
Brigid, due to their association with Celtic-Christian syncretism and their involvement in
establishing Christianity in Ireland. A study of the tradition of Patrick (c. 400-500 CE) is a
natural extension of the study of the conversion of Ireland. Since his writings are the only ones
that exist from Ireland until the end of the sixth century,20 they provide invaluable insight into
the evolution of a saint’s character from their person to their hagiography. Brigid is a prime
example of syncretism through ecclesiastical and filid storytelling due to both her status of
historical saint and mythological goddess. Notably, the Holy Woman Brigid (also known as Brig
or Bride) is a goddess of pre-Christian Ireland (sometimes in a triad of sisters) associated with
spring, fire, fertility, healing, and poetry. Not surprisingly, then, as the historical figure of Saint
Brigid (c. 452-524 CE), and the abbess of Kildare, she was the patron saint of milkmaids,
midwives, and fire. Used to the embellishment of oral tradition, these Christians were capable of
living in the tension of these similar yet contradictory stories and were able to appreciate the
richness. In this tradition, there is an interaction between ancient Celtic folklore and Christianity,
which cannot be pulled apart without each side losing something.
19
Slavin, The Ancient Books of Ireland, ix.
20
Barbarian Europe (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009), 105.
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As the result of the syncretism between the Pagan and the Christian, practitioners of both
sides are quick to use words like “tainted” when describing the other, claiming the moral high
ground over the other. Some Celtic pagans seek to rid Celtic Paganism of Christianity due to
modern anti-Christian sentiments. However, Celtic Paganism as it is today has been influenced
by Christianity; it is only when Christians came to Ireland that their histories were written down,
mostly by the hands of monks. No written account of the Pre-Christian Celts exists that is
without a Christian lens, and so there is no idyllic Pagan Golden Age that modern Pagans can
seek to emulate. It is due to Christianity that any written records of Pagan Ireland exist at all. If
there had been a goal to have the Celtic culture die out, these monks could have let these stories
and myths die out. Interestingly, they chose not to allow this to happen.21 Some Christians seek
to rid Celtic Christianity of Paganism for fear of it not being orthodox enough. Christians
learning about Celtic Christianity are often excited about the Celtic blessings and stories but tend
to ignore the charms, incantations, and other aspects of the pre-Christian culture that remain. In
its contemporary form, paganism has influenced Celtic Christianity, visible in part by the pre-
Christian symbols found in hagiographies.22 Thus, Celtic spirituality has “evolved from the
integration of two separate cultures,” creating a third culture in which the first two are so
interwoven that if they (the Pagan and the Christian) were to be separated, there would be no
‘Celtic’ spirituality.23 In such a way, the Irish culture (and perhaps Patrick’s allowance for it)
shaped the way they expressed religion, thus once again shaping their culture.
21
Ashley Ma, “Celtic Spirituality: The Relationship Between Christian and Pagan Faiths,” Kannen Bright 2 (2011):
73-74.
22
Ibid., 76.
23
Ibid.
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In The Celtic Way of Evangelism,24 George G. Hunter III argues that the success of
Christianity in Ireland is due to this syncretism. The people of Ireland were allowed to maintain
many aspects of their culture and were able to integrate Christianity into their cultural
expressions. Patrick, according to Hunter, did not force the Roman culture upon the Irish; having
lived among them, he understood and valued them and their culture and did not see the need to
force them to change.25 Hunter supports the way in which Patrick learned the Celtic way of life
before seeking to bring Christianity to Ireland and firmly believes that Patrick’s style of
evangelism is the ideal. In contrast, Anton Wessels, author of Europe: Was It Ever Really
Christian, argues that Patrick did not have much respect for pre-Christian Ireland. For one,
Patrick had a few run-ins with Druids, and he did not like the Irish cult of the sun or their idols.26
Indeed, Patrick took on some Irish views of God to use in his preaching, but this is not the same
thing as a complete embrace of Irish culture, as Hunter implies. Therefore, the syncretism of
Celtic Christianity cannot be attributed to Patrick and must be a result of a pre-existing ethos.
Evidentially, there was a fluid relationship between the Celtic and the Christian, partly
due to their tradition of storytelling. Even before the Celts’ arrival in Ireland, the Druids were
prominent members of society. This group helped to resolve public and private disputes,
performed rituals, and were oral history keepers.27 None of their stories or practices were written
down but were shared verbally after much practice. As a people of oral tradition, storytelling was
always vital to their identity.28 Storytelling continued after Ireland became Christian, though
instead of being just oral, more of it was written down in monasteries. A tradition of Celtic saints
24
George G. Hunter III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2010).
25
Ibid., 6-13.
26
Anton, Wessels, Europe: Was it Ever Really Christian? (London, ENG: SCM Press Ltd: 1994), 59.
27
Julius Caesar, “VI,” in Gallic Wars, trans. W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn (The Internet Classics Archive, n.d.),
13-14.
28
De Waal, The Celtic Way of Prayer, xii.
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developed, including the detailed legends of Patrick and Brigid. Within all of these stories, the
Celtic and Christian stories were interwoven, creating a rich and diverse cultural tapestry.
In the first chapter, I will provide a background on the origins of Celtic culture, as well as
the Celtic learned class and how they shaped culture through their shaping of Celtic oral history.
This chapter will also give context to the Holy Woman Brigid and her pre-Christian identity.
While doing so, I will outline the nativist and anti-nativist views of early Irish texts, which
impact the studies of Saint Brigid as well as Saint Patrick. It is the learned class’ stubbornness
and loyalty to oral tradition that has given Celtic history its fluid and imaginative spirit and
continued to shape Irish Christianity upon its arrival in Ireland.
The second chapter will examine the Christianization of Ireland. It will look into debates
around Patrick’s connection to Rome, his place within the evangelism of Ireland. This section
will show that Patrick is not as significant as is commonly thought; the Christianization of
Ireland happened over time, as Ireland was not as culturally and religiously isolated as is
typically thought. The history of the evangelism is as fluid as the waters around Ireland, ebbing
and flowing with each vessel it brought to and from its shore.
The third chapter will look at the interaction between Celtic culture and Christianity by
examining the evolution of the persona of Patrick and Brigid through hagiography and tradition.
This chapter will be structured using the framework of rings of Celtic Christianity, with Celtic
Christianity as a whole being a tree. This structure is based on Ian Bradley’s framework of waves
of Celtic Christianity but has been altered to be more organic and to speak of Celtic Christianity
as an organism adapting to its surrounding historical environments. This section begins with an
analysis of the seventh-to-ninth century Patrician and Brigidine hagiographies and examines how
their traditions have evolved in response to their context. My argument is that the evolution of
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these traditions parallels that of Celtic Christianity in Ireland, allowing them to be markers for
the growth of the metaphorical tree of Celtic Christianity in Ireland.
For simplicity, this paper will be using the term ‘Celtic Christianity’ to refer to the branch
of Christianity widely understood as beginning with Saint Patrick. As well, the term ‘Irish’ will
be used to describe those living in Ireland and is not to be understood (unless specified
otherwise) as linked to a modern nationality.

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Chapter 1: Entering the Fog – Early Celtic History
Celtic Christianity is nothing if it is not rooted in history. Though this thesis will focus on
Ireland, a survey of Celtic history would be incomplete without a study of Celtic history on the
Continent. To grasp the Celtic Christian identity, one must recognize from where they come. The
term “Celtic” is a modern term that makes use of popular etic (outsider) identity that describes a
linguistically- and culturally-related people group.29 The word, based on the Greek word Keltoi,
lay dormant until its linguistic application by George Buchanan (1506-1582) and Edward Lluyd
(1660-1709). Over time, it came to take on ethnic and cultural connotations. It is only recently
that it has become an emic (insider) identity.30 What we know about the early Celts is through
second-hand Roman and Greek accounts as well as through archaeological findings; there were
no primary Celtic documents to be studied to give an account of the Celtic way of life. Since the
Celts had no written record until the coming of Christianity, the Celts of Ireland may not have
known their Celtic history. The Celts of the British Isles probably did not realize that they were
related. If this is the case, does this history even matter?
Folklorist Marion Bowman speaks of folklore and cultural tradition acting as “mental
furniture” – something that one may not even realize is there but is fundamental to how one
understands the world, including spirituality.31 Folklore is something that operates and develops
in groups of people that have a commonality of beliefs, stories, or ways of doing things. Folklore
is shaped by how one views the world and it, in turn, alters how one views the world. This
worldview includes one’s expectations for spiritual beings and how these beings interact with the
29
Oliver Davies, “Celtic Christianity: Texts and Representations,” in Celts and Christians, ed. Mark Atherton
(Cardiff, WAL: University of Wales Press, 2002), 24–28.
30
Oliver Davies, The Classics of Western Spirituality: Celtic Spirituality (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1999). 4-5
31
Marion Bowman, “Marion Bowman on Vernacular Religion,” The Religious Studies Project, 2012,
http://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/podcast-marion-bowman-on-vernacular-religion/.
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world alters one’s understanding of spirituality.32 A sense of Celtic spirituality is crucial for
understanding Celtic Christianity and the evangelization of Ireland. As well, knowledge of Celtic
history is essential for grasping modern Celtic spirituality. This chapter will focus on early Celtic
history and spirituality; though the details of this history and spirituality were not known to the
later Celts themselves, it would have been a part of their mental furniture. This furniture shaped
their oral tradition, identity, and worldview, which then further transmitted this ethos. Since there
was scant written evidence about the Celts in the early Celtic era, much of that history has been
made increasingly vibrant through extrapolation and imagination, resulting in a fluid
understanding of history by the Celts. Thus, the background information about the historical and
spiritual identity of the early Celts will be a spring board for later discussions of storytelling, and
myth development and evolution in post-Christian Ireland.
The Celts of Europe
The Celts (also known as the Gauls) were an Indo-European group that, at the height of
their power in the second century BCE, stretched from Spain to Germany and from Turkey to
Ireland.33 The Greeks called them “Keltoi” or “Galatai,”34 whereas the Romans called them
“Gauls.”35 They were the first northern European people organized enough to be considered a
civilization.36 They were already an established people group by 1000 BCE, though how much of
this relationship was ethnic or merely linguistic is debated. British archaeologist and academic
Miranda Aldhouse-Green writes of a gradual process that she calls ‘celiticisation’:
32
Ibid.
33
Angus Konstam, Historical Atlas of the Celtic World (New York, NY: Checkmark Books, 2001), 6.
34
Ibid.
35
Caesar, “I,” 6, in Gallic Wars, trans. W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn (The Internet Classics Archive, n.d.)
http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.mb.txt.
36
Konstam, Historical Atlas of the Celtic World, 6.
Giesbrecht 18
It seems irrefutable that somehow, this group of peoples, whose language and material
culture contained sufficient unity to be identifiable to their neighbours, had their roots in
the later Bronze Age cultures of Europe. However, the Celts – whether in Britain or
mainland Europe – did not suddenly appear from a specific place as the result of a single
event but, rather, were people who had become ‘Celtic’ by accretion in a process of time.
No one culture or time should be sought as the immediate source of Celtic beginnings.37
Within this gradual celticisation, there were groups with clear links to Celtic society. For
example, the Urnfield people in the later Bronze Age (1200-700 BCE) were considered to be
proto-Celtic. This group emerged c. 850 BCE and rose to power during a time of upheaval.
Urnfield people got their name from their method of burial – they cremated their dead and buried
the cremation urns in level burial sites. The Urnfield assimilated the earlier indigenous groups of
the continent and formed a union with the Cimmerians, a group of equestrian warriors. This
consolidated culture, called the Hallstatt, had spread into Austria, Hungary, Germany, and the
Czech Republic by 800 BCE and had begun to move into France and Spain. The Hallstatt
received its name from a burial site found in Hallstatt, Austria in 1824 CE dating from the
eighth-to-sixth centuries BCE. There were many linguistic, social, military, and political
similarities between the Urnfield and the Hallstatt people. What made the Hallstatt distinct was
their ability to produce iron, giving them a technological and military advantage. Such was their
military prowess that the Senones, a Celtic tribe based in Italy, sacked and occupied Rome in 390
BCE. 38
The Iron Age is seen by many archaeologists and historians to have paralleled the Celtic
era, thus making the Hallstatt the first Celtic society. Of course, due to the variation in the
37
Miranda Aldhouse-Green, The Gods of the Celts (Gloucester, ENG: Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, 1986), 1.
38
Konstam, Historical Atlas of the Celtic World, 9-36.
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development of these substances within different areas, these chronological brackets are not
uniform. The Iron Age is usually seen to have lasted from 700 BCE-500 CE. In France, it lasted
until the mid-first century BCE; in England, the mid-first century CE, and in areas of the Celtic
Fringe (especially Ireland and Scotland), it lasted until the fifth century CE.39
The fifth century BCE marked the highpoint of Celtic civilization. Called the La Tène
period, this era was named after the thousands of votive offerings from this period found in Lake
Neuchâtel by La Tène, Switzerland in the nineteenth century CE. This era of Celtic expansion
spread into western Spain, most of France, Holland, the Danube valley, and all of the British
Isles.40 They even settled in Asia Minor in the third century BCE, including in Galatia.41 The La
Tène period lasted until the Roman conquest, ending in Gaul in the mid-first century BCE and
the mid-first century CE in southern Britain. Since the Romans never conquered Scotland and
Ireland, the La Tène period continued in these areas until the fifth century CE.42
Since the Celts were not Roman, nor spoke Latin, Roman historians deemed them
uncivilized barbarians. Diodorus Siculus (c. 60-30 CE) described them as having deep and harsh
voices, being prone to drunkenness and greed.43 Likely, this cliché was merely a political tactic
of the Empire, as not all accounts of the Celts were quite this caricatured;44 the Celts were
civilized enough to be recruited by other armies to fight against Rome.45 By the beginning of
second century BCE, Spain, Greece, North Africa, and most of Italy and the Mediterranean basin
were Roman territories. By the mid-second century BCE, Rome had invaded the Celtic regions
39
Ibid.
40
Ibid., 20-21.
41
Ibid., 34. It was to them that the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians.
42
Ibid., 20.
43
Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History,” in Loeb Classical Library, trans. C. H. Oldfather, vol. 3 (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1939), 26-31.
44
Brendan Lehane, Early Celtic Christianity (London, ENG: Continuum, 2005), 8.
45
Giesbrecht 20
of northern Italy and southern Gaul.46 In 58 BCE, Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BCE-44 BCE)
entered Gaul under the pretense of defending several groups of Celts against the mass migration
of the Helvetii.47 As Caesar led the conquest of Gaul, he recorded his observations of the Celtic
society in his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the area of the Celts was called Celtica and,
after the Roman conquest, Gallia Lugdunensis (Gaule Lyonnaise).48 Celtica was made up of
many tribes, of which there were fifty in Gaul alone. The tribes were subdivided into rural
districts, which were ruled by sub-chiefs or less tribal rulers who gave allegiance to a high
chief.49 The tribes themselves were not unified, though they did occasionally form temporary
alliances. While invading Gaul, Caesar used this disunity to his advantage. Using a divide-and-
conquer technique, he conquered most of Gaul within three years and all of it within six years.50
Celtic places were destroyed, their social structure was eradicated, and Gaul became romanized.
The Celts of the British Isles
In approximately 500 BCE, Celtic peoples reached England,51 and by 300 BCE, the Celts
were the dominant population in the British Isles. The Celts in the British Isles were the only
group of independent Celtic peoples until the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 CE.52 They were
arranged similarly to the Celts in Gaul, allowing the Roman army to use the same divide-and-
conquer technique. However, the Romans did not conquer Cornwall, Scotland, Ireland, and areas
of Wales. The Roman occupation would last 400 years until Roman soldiers left Britain to go
help with political struggle within the Empire itself.53 Britain disintegrated into kingdoms, often
46
Ibid.
47
The Helvetii was a confederation of five Gallic tribes from the Swiss plateau. Due to an increased pressure by the
Germanic tribes, they began to migrate across other Gallic territories, creating conflict. Caesar, “I,” 2-3.
48
Ibid., 1.
49
50
Ibid., 89.
51
Ibid., 25.
52
Ibid., 7.
53
Ibid., 122.
Giesbrecht 21
based on older Celtic tribal divisions. The local Romano-British were left to deal with the
increasing raids by Scots, Picts, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes on their own.54 By 650 CE, the
Anglo-Saxons had largely covered what is now modern England (excepting the kingdom of
Dumnonia (Cornwall) and Cumbria) and then known as Ænglaland. The Celts in Britain either
migrated north to Scotland, west to Wales, or south-west to Cornwall. Many were forced into the
Welsh and Scottish mountains or were absorbed into Anglo-Saxon society. Though the Celts
continued to resist the Anglo-Saxons for much of the seventh century, by the early eighth
century, Britain was without a doubt Anglo-Saxon.55
Celtic Ireland
By about 350 BCE, the Celts reached Ireland.56 The way in which historians have
understood the identity of these early Celts corresponds with two main Goidelic linguistic
theories. The traditional view (the Gallo-Brythonic hypothesis) speaks to two waves of Celts
coming to the British Isles, the Q-Celts from Iberia and the P-Celts from Gaul.57 Whereas the P-
Celts settled in Britain, the Q-Celts settled in Ireland. Viewed through this lens, Ireland would
have been a mix of the Britons as well as Iberian Celts from Spain, eventually becoming the Irish
and speaking a language of the Goidelic branch (later developing into modern Irish and Scots
Gaelic). This lineage grounds a prevalent theory supported by linguists based on the differences
that exist between the Celtic languages on the British Isles. This lineage is a part of the eleventh-
century Irish foundation myth, Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Taking of Ireland). This story, which is
a part of the larger Mythological Cycle, details the Milesians (the sons of Mil, a descendant of
Noah), who come to Ireland via Spain. Though the connection to Noah is a definite result of
54
Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization (New York, NY: Nan A. Talese, 1995), 124.
55
Konstam, Konstam, Historical Atlas of the Celtic World, 127-132.
56
Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization, 80.
57
Cormac Anderson, “Questions of Identity in Contemporary Ireland and Spain,” in Unity in Diversity, ed. Sabine
Asmus and Barbara Braid, vol. 2 (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), 9.
Giesbrecht 22
“monkish tinkering,” there may be validity in the Iberian claim, especially with the linguistic
evidence.58
With the development of new linguistic techniques, linguists are starting to move away
from this traditional theory. By using phylogenetics (a technique for studying evolutionary
relationships among genes), geneticist Peter Forster and linguist Alfred Toth Zürich have been
able to study the evolution of Celtic languages. In doing so, they have found linguistic evidence
that supports the Insular Celtic hypothesis, a hypothesis that implies a single Celtic wave to the
British Isles and that the Celtic languages differentiated locally into Goidelic and Brythonic.59
This would suggest that the Irish did not have a mass immigration, as is commonly believed.
There undoubtedly was an Irish La Tène culture that came from outside of Ireland but no
archaeological markers of a population immigrating to Ireland. Though there is a major break
from the La Tène art and technology that had existed in Ireland previously, the objects were all
of native manufacture. Further, if people had immigrated and colonized the indigenous people,
imposing their language and method of social organization, there should have been a lot more
artifacts to be found. The existing burial and settlement evidence does not match the quantity that
was normal for the La Tène culture. The alternative? Perhaps the Celts arrived in a slow trickle
and assimilated with the native race. Perhaps Irish emigrants returning from abroad were
responsible for bringing about these changes. Alternatively, perhaps there was a much smaller
immigration of elite whose presence could have inspired these changes.60 Regardless, there was
no Celtic “invasion” of Ireland, though there was a gradual cultural and linguistic assimilation.
58
59
Peter Forster and Alfred Toth, “Toward a Phylogenetic Chronology of Ancient Gaulish, Celtic, and Indo-
European,” ed. Henry C. Harpending, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America 100, no. 15 (2003): doi:10.1073/pnas.1331158100, 9079.
60
Lehane, Early Celtic Christianity, 30.
Giesbrecht 23
Since Rome never invaded Ireland either, Ireland developed as a distinctly Celtic region.61 Thus,
the Iron Age lasted in Ireland until the fifth century CE. Little is known about the Celts in Ireland
that is unique from the other Celts of the Iron Age, as most information about early Ireland was
written after the coming of Christianity to Ireland.
Religious Background
Archaeological findings show that the Celts did have a religion. Though the Celts did not
make monuments and artifacts in the same form and number as the Romans did, artifacts have
been found that depict Celtic gods. The small number of religious artifacts is perhaps because the
Celts did not feel the need to represent their gods in such a way or that their artifacts were
wooden and thus rotted away.62 Two other archaeological findings, graves and votive offerings,
give evidence for the presence of a Celtic religion.63 In the British Isles, evidence of votive
offerings can be found from the Bronze Age as early as 1200 BCE, consisting of larger quantities
of valuable weaponry and ornaments with little or no sign of use.64 As seen in the artifacts found
in the graves, there was a focus on animals, forests, and other features of the landscape in their
art. Aldhouse-Green, for one, believes this focus on the natural world was due to their society
being predominantly rural and that there was more focus on divine powers of water, celestial
61
Apparently, though Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40 CE – 93 CE) contemplated invading and, though he had gathered
information from merchants who frequented Ireland, he never tried. Cornelius Tacitus, “The Life of Cnæus Julius
Agricola,” ed. Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb, trans. Alexander Thomson (New York, NY:
Random House, 1876), 24.
62
Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (Oxford UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1992), 170.
63
The shift from cremation by the Urnfield to burial by the Hallstatt has led scholars to wonder if there was a
change in religious belief. Konstam, Historical Atlas of the Celtic World, 22.
64
Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, 184.
Giesbrecht 24
bodies, and fertility.65 Though the purpose of these offerings is unknown, it is clear that they
were thrown in deliberately and is evidence of a religious aspect in Celtic society.66
Without a Celtic written record, it is difficult to say precisely what these beliefs were.
Luckily, there were a few Classical authors who discussed Celtic religion, including Caesar,
Strabo (63 BCE-21 CE), Pliny the Elder (23 CE-79 CE), Athenaeus (200 CE), Tacitus, Diodorus
Siculus, and Lucan (39 CE-65 CE).67 Strabo and Diodorus Siculus verify that the Gallic tribes
threw plunders of war into the water or consecrated precincts as an offering to their gods.68 Most
of these authors mention that the Gallic tribes believed that the soul survived death and would
“pass after death from one body to another.”69 As for the gods themselves, Caesar refers to the
gods as if they were the same as the Roman gods, using the names of the Roman gods to describe
them (i.e., Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva).70 These similarities were likely due to
either a misunderstanding by these authors or a projection of their own beliefs onto the Gallic
people. Lucan, however, mentions three Celtic gods, Esus, Teutates, and Taranis in his work
Pharsalia, claiming that they are significant gods to the Celts but failing to describe them any
further.71 These names, however, did not come up frequently in Celtic epigraphy.72
The Irish Celtic calendar of festivals framed the performance of rituals by the learned
class. By looking at records of Insular folklore as well as early literature, it is likely that all
65
Miranda Aldhouse-Green, The World of the Druids (London, ENG: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1997), 25.
66
Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, 184-186. Hutton puts forward several different theories:
perhaps the waters were the location of a shrine or a boundary marker. It may have been a funerary rite, in which the
cremated body and goods were put into the water instead of the ground.
67
Aldhouse-Green, The Gods of the Celts, 14. Several of these authors base some (if not all) of their knowledge of
Celtic society off of the lost writings of Posidonius (a Greek Syrian philosopher from the first century BCE).
68
Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, 190; Siculus, “The Library of History,” 27.
69
Caesar, “VI”, 14; Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, 183.
70
Caesar, “VI,” 17.
71
Lucan, Pharsalia, ed. Sir Edward Ridley (London, ENG: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1905), 1.396-1.522.
72
Aldhouse-Green, The Gods of the Celts, 14.
Giesbrecht 25
Gaelic areas of the British Isles celebrated these festivals.73 The Celtic calendar followed the
phases of the sun and moon and had four seasons, each with a festival (Samhain, Imbolc,
Beltane, and Lughnasadh).74 Samhain (October 31) was paramount, being when tribal assemblies
were held and when divine interference was more likely. Beltane (May 1) was the next vital
occasion, as it was featured in many stories; according to the eleventh-century pseudo-history
Leabhar Gabála Érenn (The Taking of Ireland), it is on Beltane that the Tuatha Dé Danaan (the
Celtic gods or pre-Celtic people) landed in Ireland.75 It is at these special times that portals to the
Otherworld were more likely to be used, often by heroes on a mission. According to the
literature, these portals were concealed doors in mounds, islands, hills, on the floor of lakes or
the sea. This Otherworld is not to be confused with the Greek Hades; though it is underground, it
is not necessarily where the dead go after they die, but where the supernatural live.76
Rather, this concept of the Otherworld and the Fae is a relatively unique concept of Celtic
lore in the British Isles. The Otherworld links to The Taking of Ireland, which tells the story of
various groups coming to settle Ireland. The first four groups are wiped out or forced to leave the
island. The fifth group represents Ireland’s pagan gods, and the sixth being the Irish people.
Brendan Lehane believes that The Taking of Ireland is a story that symbolizes the struggle
between the Celtic Druids and the previously dominant race (the Tuatha Dé) or, more
specifically, their gods. He speculates that perhaps after trying to eliminate these gods, the
Druids ended up letting them stay and so diminished them in their influence and their literal size.
73
The Celts of the Continent may have marked the seasons in the same way, they just did not leave evidence.
74
According to The Tain. Thomas Kinsella, ed., The Tain (1970), 27. Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient
British Isles, 176. There is no written evidence that these festival days were celebrated by Celts in the Continent, but
due to records of folklore as well as early literature, it is suggested that they were celebrated over all Gaelic areas of
the British Isles (183).
75
Ibid., 177.
76
Ibid., 184. Some tales refer to the House of Donn, a country of deceased humans. This is neither in the mortal
world or the Otherworld. Other tales speak of a sort of reincarnation.
Giesbrecht 26
They became the sidh, the Little People or the Fae and were consigned to the various mounds
and hills that had become associated with that god’s cult. 77 It is also possible that these stories
were created to explain their surroundings, as suggested by the many of the “faerie” mounds
throughout the British Isles that are Iron or Stone Age burial sites.78
The Learned Class
In Caesar’s Gallic Wars, Caesar noted a definite hierarchy within Celtic society with the
“noble” class being made up of Druids and knights.79 Strabo describes a learned class that is
more complex, made up of Druids, filid, and Bards. The Druids were the keepers of religion
(conducting public and private religious affairs and sacrifices), the keepers of the law (serving as
mediators and judges), and the keepers of memory (memorizing many verses).80 In their
religious rites, they used mistletoe and oak groves.81 Caesar, Strabo, and Diodorus accused them
of human sacrifice, but the truth to these claims is unclear.82 Many of the details about the Celts
as portrayed by the Classical writers are not dependable due to their political bias, cultural
separation, ignorance, and misinterpretation.83 Aldhouse-Green also notes that it is possible that
by the time the Greco-Roman writers took an interest in the Druids in the first century BCE,
Celtic society in Gaul was already on the decline. If so, functions of the Druids as observed by
these writers may have been different than when the Celtic civilization was at its height.
Aldhouse-Green notices a change in how authors in the first century BCE and those in the first
century CE depict the Druids. The earlier authors highlight the political power of the Druids as
77
Michael Staunton, The Voice of the Irish: The Story of Christian Ireland (Mahwah, NJ: Hidden Spring, 2002), 7.
78
Joseph Dylan Witt, “Celtic Christianity and the Future of Religious Production” (University of Florida, 2006), 19.
79
80
Ibid., 14; 17.
81
Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841) wonders if the word used by Pliny the Elder for
mistletoe was a type of berry found on oak trees. Pliny the Elder, “Historical Facts Connected with the Mistletoe,” in
Natural History, ed. John Bostock (London, ENG: Taylor and Francis, 1855), 16.95.
82
Caesar, “VI,” 16; Strabo, “IV,” in Geography (London, ENG: George Bell & Sons, 1903), 4:4; Siculus, “The
Library of History”, 31; Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, 193.
83
Aldhouse-Green, The Gods of the Celts., 14.
Giesbrecht 27
being judges, teachers, and religious leaders. The later authors emphasize their corruption and
give detailed descriptions of their savage religious ceremonies. This change marks a degradation
of authority.84 For example, in Caesar’s Gallic Wars, Caesar writes about how the Druids were
selfish intentions, as they did not allow the writing of verses even though they used Greek
characters for other matters.85 The reason for this was that they did not want the verses to be
“divulged among the mass of the people.”86 When a group is portrayed so negatively by another,
some inaccuracy is likely. Since Caesar was in Gaul with the intent of conquering, it is likely that
he laced his writings about the Celts and the Druids with convenient half-truths, exaggerations,
and strategic fact placement. In order to conquer a society, he needed to diminish any respect that
the society and their leaders had. English Historian Ronald Hutton calls this ‘black’
propaganda.87
It is true, however, that the learned class was not entirely illiterate. Celtic archaeologist
Anne Ross gives as evidence the inscriptions of Celtic coins, swords, pottery, and engraved
calendars, some of which used the Gaulish language while others used Roman characters.88 Both
Ross and Caesar are of the opinion that the learned class discouraged literacy. Ross agrees with
the reasons Caesar presents for this, though frames Caesar’s point of exclusivism as more of a
way of protecting the information itself against blasphemes by the uninitiated.89 Scholar Jane
Stevenson asserts that the lack of literacy was not a matter of exclusivism. In fact, it was the
artisans that first used written language in order to write invoices. By the second or third century
CE, the learned class became interested in learning this talent for auxiliary purposes, though they
84
Aldhouse-Green, The World of the Druids, 14.
85
86
Ibid.
87
88
Tom Duddy, “Derrida and the Druids: Writing, Lore, and Power in Early Celtic Society,” Religion & Literature
28, no. 2 (1996), 14.
89
Duddy, “Derrida and the Druids,” 14-15.
Giesbrecht 28
did not see the point of using it to record their oral history.90 Scholar Tom Duddy finds irony in
this defiance or indifference, paraphrasing French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) to
say “there is no outside-the-text, not even for those who once flourished in a defiantly oral
ethos.”91 In other words, without any early Celtic texts, most of the knowledge of the Druids has
been lost over time.
According to Caesar, the British Isles was the hub for Druidism; it was where Druidism
began and was where those wanting to learn the art would go to learn.92 The evidence for Druids
in Ireland comes from two sources of early literature: vernacular mythic texts (the Cycles), and
the Vitae (Lives) of the early Irish saints. These myths were all written within the Irish monastic
context during the seventh to twelfth centuries CE. “Anti-nativist” scholars, like Patrician scholar
James Carney, would argue that since these documents were written in a Christian context, they
were ecclesiastic documents and so are not reliable sources of Celtic paganism. However,
“nativist” scholar Aldhouse-Green says that “the myths have to be regarded as heavily
anachronistic but, at the same time, they may well contain echoes or resonances of pre-Christian
paganism, which were woven into the literature because they were already present within oral
tradition.”93 As evidence, she notes that the picture of the pagan Druidic system presented in
these mythic texts is similar to that which classical authors like Caesar and Strabo described.94
Aldhouse-Green indicates that it is where the evidence of the Classical writers “marries with
archaeological data” that their information is particularly valuable.95
90
Jane Stevenson, “The Beginnings of Literacy in Ireland,” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 89C (1989):
143.
91
Duddy, “Derrida and the Druids,” 19.
92
93
94
Ibid.
95
Aldhouse-Green, The Gods of the Celts, 14.
Giesbrecht 29
These Irish literary sources describe a more complex learned class than described by
Caesar. This learned class was divided into three sub-classes: the Druids, the filid, and the Bards.
These three sub-classes had different tasks and responsibilities which were also interrelated. The
Bards were singers, praise poets, and satirists.96 The filid were praise poets and satirists too, but
also shared various duties with the Druids, like prophecy, divination, and teaching.97 This
structure reflects the writings of Strabo, though Strabo refers to the filid as “Vates” or “Seers.”98
The Druids and the filid trained for many years to gain proficiency; Caesar says that Druids
trained for twenty years, and Insular sources say that the filid trained for twelve.99 The learned
class gained their reputation partly from their knowledge and skill, but also from their lineage.
Even at the time of early Christian Ireland, if one did not have a familial heritage connected to
the learned class, it was difficult to insert oneself into the hierarchy of Irish society. It is unclear
if this difficulty of movement within the hierarchy was just vertical or included horizontal
movement between the various groups of the learned class.100
The Druids were the most politically influential group of their time; due to their powers
of divination, rulers would often seek their advice. They were the mediators between the rulers
and the spirit world and so held power over the rulers with their ability to assign prohibitions to
keep the rulers in check.101 In many ways, the relationship between the Druids, the king, and the
divine is comparable to the prophets, the king, and Yahweh in the Old Testament. Though the
Druids had the most authority of the learned class during pre-Christian times, they began to lose
this influence when the pagan system began to fade away. Aldhouse-Green notices a subtle shift
96
Siculus, “The Library of History,” 31.
97
98
Strabo, “IV,” in Geography, 4.4.
99
100
T.M. Charles-Edwards, “The Context and Uses of Literacy in Early Christian Ireland,” in Literacy in Medieval
Celtic Societies, ed. Huw Pryce (Cambridge, ENG: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 70-71.
101
Giesbrecht 30
from the mythic literature describing pre-Christian Ireland to those describing Christian Ireland.
Since the same Christian monks had written both sets of literature, Aldhouse-Green says that this
contrast was deliberate, though she is uncertain why. The texts switch from treating the Druids
with respect,102 to being devious and ridiculous in the stories of Saint Patrick.103 They lost their
prominence over time, and many aspects of their role get passed onto the filid and the bards.
Like in the Continent, the Irish learned class was literate. A Celtic script, the ogham
script, appeared in Ireland sometime between the end of the second century and fourth century
CE. It was likely a cipher created as a reaction to Latin and was used ceremonially and to mark
locations.104 Thus, there were two “channels” to literacy in Ireland; Latin, and the Latin-based
ogham script.105 As Ireland was unconquered, literacy was not a form of colonial suppression. As
will be seen in Chapter 2, though Ireland was politically separate, it was not as culturally
separate as is often thought. Rather, the Irish learned class used literacy – which they discovered
through interaction with Rome – as they saw fit, resulting in it being “an instrument of self-
definition and increased cultural self-confidence.”106 Though they used ogham or Latin to mark
locations or make lists, they also continued to keep oral history unwritten.107
The learned class shaped culture by how they shaped oral history. Though to our cynical
Western ears, this may sound manipulative and dishonest, but it is unlikely they would have seen
it this way. Tom Duddy explains this by saying:
The power of the poet [filid], like the power of a king or druid, was not absolute. An
individual’s right to continue in a position of power depended on his ability to ‘preserve
102
Ibid., 128. One of many examples of this would be the respect given to the Druid Cathbadh, the Druid of King
Conchobar of Ulster in the Táin of the Ulster Cycle.
103
Ibid., 134.
104
Charles-Edwards, “Literacy in Early Christian Ireland,” 76-78; Stevenson, “Literacy in Ireland,” 141.
Stevenson, “Literacy in Ireland,” 143.
105
106
Ibid., 128
107
Ibid.; Charles-Edwards, “Literacy in Early Christian Ireland,” 76-78.
Giesbrecht 31
the truth.’ [. . .] The truth of a poem or other utterance was determined not by mere
correspondence with the world but by the effects which it had on the world – that is, by
what occurred in the aftermath of its utterance, either to the person of the speaker or to
the world around him.108
Duddy describes this as a “magical-pragmatist theory of truth,” where a false utterance would
have physical and social consequences – not because it upset the gods but because it “directly
jeopardized or unhinged reality.”109 This view of truth is essential to understand the evolution of
Christianity in Ireland. In this view, truth is not black and white with a clear line between
orthodoxy and heresy. Something does not have to be factually or historically true to be true.
The Christian Learned Class – The Case Study of Brigid
As will be seen, the Holy Woman Brigid is a prime example of this paradoxical nature of
truth. While most Tuatha Dé were sentenced to the Otherworld, the goddess Brigid (the daughter
of Dagda, the father of the gods) was not. In fact, she has become the main representative of
these pagan gods. Hard evidence for the existence of Brigid comes from various artifacts: a
Minerva-like statue found in Scotland, inscribed with the named Brigantia; a coin found on the
Continent with an Iberian inscription reading: Deae Nymphae Brigantiae (divine nymph
Brigit).110 Several place names are linguistically-linked to her name: Bregenz, Austria
(previously known as Brigantion), the river Brent in England, Braint in Wales, and Bride in
Ireland.111 As well, Ptolemy (100-170 CE) mentions a tribe called the Brigantes in Leinster.112
108
Charles-Edwards, “Literacy in Early Christian Ireland,” 76-78.
109
Duddy, “Derrida and the Druids: Writing, Lore, and Power in Early Celtic Society.”
110
Lisa M. Bitel, (2001) "St. Brigit of Ireland: From Virgin Saint to Fertility Goddess,"
https://web.archive.org/web/20060217084703/http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/commentaria/article.php?textId=6#_ftn
8.
111
Donál Ó Cathasaigh, "The Cult of Brigid: A Study of Pagan-Christian Syncretism in Ireland," in James J.
Preston, ed., Mother Worship: Theme and Variations (Chapel Hill, NC: University of Northern California Press,
1982), 78-79.
112
Ptolemy, Geographia II (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1991), 2.1
Giesbrecht 32
All of this suggests the worship of a goddess with a similar name, even a universal Celtic
goddess. Though this goddess’ identity is unknown, she may be Caesar’s Gaulish Minerva, who
“supplies the principals of arts and crafts.”113 Other than the name of the river Bride and the
Brigantes tribe, no other evidence suggests the worship of the goddess Brigid in Ireland. Even in
later written Celtic myths, she is only briefly mentioned. In The Taking of Ireland, she is
described as a poet, as well as having several supernatural animals.114 In The Second Battle of
Mag Tuired, one of the last additions to the Mythological Cycle, she keens over her slain son
Ruadán, whom she had with King Bres of the Tuatha Dé.115 Her identity as a mother links her
with fertility and explains her association with the spring season Imbolc. Cormac’s Glossary
(from the tenth century CE) describes Brigit as being in a triple-deity sisterhood, made up of a
poet, physician, and a smith. The glossary links her name to breo-aigit, meaning “a fiery
arrow.”116
If not for a saint by the same name, it is possible the goddess Brigid would have slipped
into obscurity due to a lack of written evidence. To modern Celtic pagans and Christians alike,
she is a symbol of the Celtic spiritual heritage and a link to the land – more specifically, a link to
an uninvaded and unpolluted land. Chiefly, Brigid is significant because of her history – not her
meager recorded history, but her perceived history. Was she a goddess or a saint first? There is
absolutely no way to know. Thus, one’s understanding of Ireland’s history is the crux of the
debate over Brigid’s identity. As with many early Irish Christian historical debates, the split
between scholars lies within the nativist and anti-nativist divide, as well as the trust put in oral
tradition and the believed identity of the writers of early Irish Christian documents. Carole
113
Caesar, "IV," 17.
114
R. A. Stewart Macalister, Lebor Gabála Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland, vol. IV (HardPress
Publishing, 1941), 133.
115
Elizabeth A. Gray, trans., Cath Maige Tuired (Cork, IRL: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2003), 57.
116
John O’Donovon, trans., Cormac’s Glossary (Calcutta: O. T. Cutter, 1868).
Giesbrecht 33
Cusack outlines three hypotheses of the nativist position: 1) that the filid replaced Druids and
remained active in their role, 2) that Irish monasteries displayed a tolerance towards paganism
uncommon among the early medieval clergy, and 3) there is a clear separation between “secular”
(non-Christian) and religious writings.117 For nativists, all written Irish history begins with the
mental furniture and oral tradition of the Irish learned class. Though there is not much-written
evidence that proves the continuation of the legacy of the Irish learned class, nativists like
Aldhouse-Green would say that the filid’s political power only disintegrated in the seventeenth
century when British rule extended to Ireland.118 With this view, the filid continued to be law-
givers and advisors as well as keepers of genealogy and legal lore.119 Likely, some of their
education took place in ecclesiastical schools, which became the new hub of learning.120
The epicenter of the nativist and anti-nativist debate lies in the identity of the writers and
their motives. Were they Christians with pagan sympathies or tolerances, or pagans posing as
Christians? Could a scholar be a filid and a Christian at the same time? Whereas the
hagiographies are distinctly ecclesiastical, the purpose of the mythological Cycles is less clear. If
Patrick was the first Christian evangelist sent by Rome, then literacy would have come alongside
Christianity and been limited to Christian communities. Then the Cycles would be Christian,
even though they contain few if any Christian undertones. Anti-nativists explain this oddity by
saying that the writers were using pagan stories as parables for the Christian story. 121 However,
as will be shown in the next chapter, the story of Christianity in Ireland is not quite that simple.
According to Stevenson, nor is the story of literacy in Ireland, which was perhaps established in
Carole M. Cusack, “Brigit: Goddess, Saint, ‘Holy Woman’, and Bone of Contention,” Sydney Studies in Religion
117
6 (2007): 78.
118
119
Duddy, “Derrida and the Druids,” 17.
120
Charles-Edwards, “Literacy in Early Christian Ireland,” 70.
Cusack, “Brigit,” 78.
121
Giesbrecht 34
Ireland even centuries before Christianity.122 Stevenson gives evidence that since Christianity
depended on literacy, those that were already literate (the learned class) provided the necessary
intellectual training and thus began to share their methods, aims, and social duties. This resulted
in the amalgamation of the pre-Christian and the Christian into a unified learned class.123
Stevenson believes that the main difference between pre-Christian and Christian literacy was that
parchment began to be used instead of stone and wood. Not only could more be written on
parchment, thus allowing for a change in the use of the written medium, but also parchment was
less likely to be disposed of than wood and so was more durable.124 As well, literacy was
accessible outside of an ecclesiastical setting and so not all writers needed to be Christian. The
learned class could have written the Cycles outside of a monastery, allowing for the Vitae and the
mythological Cycles to be separate entities which then entered into conversation and resulted in
the syncretism found in the surviving material.125
Due to the importance of oral tradition and folklore in Irish history, a strict anti-nativist
approach is not viable for the study of Celtic Christianity. Of course, this makes the study of
early Irish history difficult in a time of postmodernism and the finality of the text. Cusack calls
strict anti-nativism politically naïve, as it implies a model of conversion that erased the old
culture in favour of an “uncomplicated acceptance of the new.”126 The worldview of the Irish
shifted to adapt their identity to survive in the Christian macrocosm. In the words of Cusack, “to
examine texts and discover only Christianity, to question the existence of paganism, is to ratify
the result of colonialism while ignoring the process by which colonialism was reached.”127
122
Stevenson, “Literacy in Ireland,” 148.
123
Ibid., 128.
124
Ibid., 151.
Cusack, “Brigit,” 95.
125
126
Ibid.
127
Ibid., 96.
Giesbrecht 35
Conclusion
In this chapter, I examined early Celtic history, Celtic religion, and the Irish learned class
to build an understanding of the Celtic ethos and begin to understand some of their ‘mental
furniture.’ Not only were the Celts warriors, but they were also intelligent, creative, and spiritual.
Additionally, they were exceptionally stubborn, and the stubbornness of the Druids and their
loyalty to oral history has shaped Celtic and Irish history to be as fluid as their understanding of
truth. Thus, early Celtic history is like a mist or a mirage, through which one can see impressions
of silhouettes but no sharp details. In this situation, the brain must deduce what it is seeing using
logic, as well as a fair bit of imagination. In early Celtic history, various facts have been
discovered through archaeology, but there is little definitive knowledge about the early Celtic
people, especially regarding their beliefs. Though some stories were recorded in Irish
monasteries, this is still not enough to make the objects behind the mist materialize entirely,
especially with the unknown identities of the scribes. Early Celtic Christian history is similar.
Saint Patrick, though still very hazy, is the clearest image in the mist of Celtic history. The
existence of his writings allows for a unique glimpse at early Christian Ireland, as well as into
how storytelling through hagiography functioned. In the next chapter, I will show that Patrick is
a key character of the story of the Christianization of Ireland, whether or not he was truly
influential, simply because of the role tradition has given him.

Giesbrecht 36
Chapter 2: Remaining in the Fog – Christianity in Ireland

Though contemporary literature often treats the Celtic Church as one uniform Church, the
existence of various Celtic societies makes it historically inaccurate to substantiate this claim.
Though there are linguistic and cultural similarities, even the Celtic Churches in the British Isles
have developed differently due to the various invasions and rates of assimilation (or not), in
addition to their minute cultural differences. The Celtic Church in Ireland is different from that
of Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland. Only with the formation of the Celtic Churches in the British
Isles did links form between the different Celtic societies. As Celtic Christians learned to read
and write in Latin, ideas, and stories circulated between the various groups.128 As already stated,
this thesis is explicitly looking at the form of Celtic Christianity that began in Ireland. Though
there are similarities with other early Celtic Christianities, it is this Irish strand that (through later
peregrination) spread to the places which became the most strongly associated with modern
Celtic Christianity.129 Through its imagination, modern Celtic Christianity has shaped
perceptions of the earlier forms of Celtic Christianity in a way that can be both historically
inaccurate and confusing but also liberating and inspiring. This chapter will focus, then, on how
Christianity came to Ireland and, more specifically, on Patrick’s influence on the evolution of
Christianity in Ireland. Second, this chapter will address the various controversies surrounding
Patrick’s mission as well as his importance in the story of Celtic Christianity as a whole. These
include questions of Patrick’s success – was he successful due to his education and intelligence,
his evangelism tactics, or his personality? Alternatively, was the success with which he is
credited actually the result of other evangelists? My primary objective of this chapter is to show
128
Huw Pryce, “Introduction,” in Literacy in Medieval Celtic Societies, ed. Huw Pryce (Cambridge, ENG:
Cambridge University Press, 1998), 2-3.
129
For example, Iona and the Scottish Hebrides, Lindisfarne, and, in some stories, Glastonbury.
Giesbrecht 37
that, though Ireland was politically isolated, it was not as culturally and religiously isolated as is
often thought. The story of Christianity (and literacy) in Ireland is as fluid as the waters lapping
the shores of the island, ebbing and flowing with each vessel it brought to and from its shore.
The Autobiographical Patrick
One distinct aspect of Irish Celtic Christianity is a person – Saint Patrick. In tradition,
Patrick was the first evangelist of Ireland, and it was his conversion of the entire island that
brought about the Golden Age of Celtic Christianity in Ireland. According to legend, he turned
people into goats, banished all of the snakes from Ireland, and won various magical competitions
with Druids. Those whose primary source of information comes from Saint Patrick’s Day
celebrations may assume that he hung out with leprechauns, picked a lot of clovers, and drank a
lot of beer. Although these are all common conceptions about Patrick, most of them (if not all)
are untrue. Many myths about Patrick have developed over the years through both hagiography
and tradition. Thus, there are two Patricks – the historical Patrick, unlearned yet zealous, and the
Patrick of legend, headstrong and revengeful.130 This chapter will attempt to look at the historical
Patrick by using his writings and not using hagiographies as sources.
The historical Patrick (5th century) was born in Bannavem Taberniae (probably in Britain)
to a Romano-Celtic family.131 He was the son of the deacon Calporius and the grandson of the
priest Potitus. At the age of sixteen, he was taken captive during a plundering expedition,
brought to Ireland and sold into slavery.132 At the beginning of his captivity, he did not firmly
believe in God. It was, however, in the solitude of his work (looking after his master’s flocks)
130
Not to be confused with the Two Patricks theory. Arthur Haire Forster, “Saint Patrick in Fact and Fiction,”
Anglican Theological Review 11, no. 1 (1928): 23; E J Newell, The Fathers of English Readers: Saint Patrick
(London, ENG: Society for Promoting English Knowledge, 1890), 1.
131
While most scholars tend to place the birthplace of Patrick in England, some, [like Margaret Anne Cusack (1829-
1899)], are adamant that he was born in Gaul. Margaret Anne Cusack, An Illustrated History of Ireland, 1868.
132
Patrick, “Confession,” in The Life and Writings of Saint Patrick, trans. R P C Hanson (New York, NY: Seabury
Press, 1983), 76.
Giesbrecht 38
that he began to pray regularly and his faith grew. After having been there for six years, a voice
spoke to him in a dream telling him that a ship was prepared to bring him home. Patrick
journeyed two hundred miles to the boat, which he boarded.133 Though Patrick does not say
where the vessel took him, many scholars believe he went to Gaul, where he may have spent
time in the monastery of Saint Martin of Tours at Lérins in Gaul, been mentored by Saint
Germain of Auxerre (c. 379-448 CE), and inspired by monasticism.134 He eventually went back
home, where he had a vision of a man from Ireland imploring him to return to Ireland.135 Patrick
may have returned to Gaul to prepare for his mission and receive his subsequent ordination as
bishop (thus making Irish Celtic Christianity Roman).136 Hereafter, he arrived in Ireland, where
he was highly successful as a missionary in Ireland and may have performed many miracles.
Patrick wrote two texts during his life, his Letter to Croticus, a letter of excommunication
for a British chief that had taken some of Patrick’s converts during a raid, and his Confession, a
defense of his mission to Ireland. He wrote the Letter earlier in his missionary career whereas he
wrote his Confession closer to the end. On reading Patrick’s texts, one is struck by the utter
humility with which he presents himself. Due to his captivity, Patrick did not receive the
education he would have otherwise obtained; therefore his Latin was shaky, at best. In contrast,
Patrick knew his scripture well – his writing is at its strongest when he is citing scripture or using
scriptural phrases as a base for his sentences.137 In fact, there are more than 200 biblical
quotations is his 80 paragraphs of writing.138 It is when he starts writing about his feelings – an
area in which he probably did not have much practice – which translators have had to interpret
133
Ibid., 86.
134
J B Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (New York, NY: The MacMillian Company, 1905),
37-40; Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan, “Early Monasticism in Gaul,” American Benedictine Review 16, no. 1 (1965): 46;
Cusack, “St. Patrick’s Captivity,” An Illustrated History of Ireland.
135
Patrick, “Confession,” 92.
136
Bury, The Life of St. Patrick, 48-49.
137
R P C Hanson, The Life and Writings of Saint Patrick (New York, NY: Seabury Press, 1983), 57.
138
Forster, “Saint Patrick in Fact and Fiction,” 26.
Giesbrecht 39
his meaning. This self-conscious Patrick (who introduces himself in his Letter to Croticus as “a
sinner, very badly educated”139 and as “least of all the faithful and despised in the eyes of
many”140 in his Confession) is far from the Saint Patrick of later myth. It is in part his poor
writing and his humility that allow scholars to credit these texts as true autobiography – no future
biographer would have chosen to write about him in such a way. As well, the language that
Patrick uses is accurate for the fifth century, and when he cited scripture, he used a mixed
version of Old Latin and Vulgate, as was common at the time.141
Patrick viewed himself as one of the last apostles, honoured by his realization that he, “in
spite of [his] ignorance and in the last days should venture to undertake this task [. . .] to declare
[the Lord’s] gospel as a testimony to all nations before the end of the world” and that he was “a
witness that the gospel has been preached as far as the point where there is no one beyond.”142 It
may sound like Patrick was promoting self-importance. However, since Ireland was at that
farthest edge of the known world, it was reasonable for Patrick to assume that the world would
end once the evangelism of Ireland was complete. This eschatological view was not the
motivation of his mission but provided a reassurance of its importance.
Despite later tradition saying that Rome commissioned Patrick, this seems unlikely;
Rome probably would not have sent a missionary so uneducated. Also, one would think that
Patrick would have mentioned that in his Confession. Some officials of the Roman Church may
have been questioning his mission, providing a partial insight into why he wrote his Confession.
Though Rome did not commission him, he still saw himself as a part of their Christian mission,
referring to those of the Roman mission (to whom he presumably is writing his Confession) as
139
Patrick, “Letter to Croticus,” in Life and Writings of Saint Patrick, trans. R P C Hanson (New York, NY, 1983),
58.
140
141
Forster, “Saint Patrick in Fact and Fiction,” 26.
142
In reference to Matthew 24:14. Patrick, “Confession,” 104-106.
Giesbrecht 40
“brothers.”143 It is my observation that the Roman Church likely did not identify with his mission
as being Catholic while Patrick was alive. Only later when it served political benefits did his
apparent Roman education and commissioning became a recurring theme in his hagiographies.
Thus, while Celtic Christianity was in some ways Catholic, it was not entirely so.
Evangelism in a ‘Barbarian’ Society
Usually Christianizing required the society to be civilized (i.e., romanized) first.144
However, Patrick did not come to the Irish as a cultured and educated Roman citizen. His lack of
this background led to a new flavour of evangelism, as Patrick received his authority from
auctoritas (expertise of his subject, though in this case not scholarly) and not in potestas
(military, economic, or cultural power). Therefore, the transformation of society that followed as
a result of Patrick’s activities occurred not through the people’s outward imitation of his life, but
their seeking of “the inner working of the Holy Spirit.”145 This left room for both movement in
how the Irish accepted Christianity and how they integrated it into their society, allowing them to
be possibly the first “accomplished indigenous church.”146 In addition, the Irish were the first
people converted without being acquainted with Roman law and order and the only cattle culture
to retain their tribal economy after Christianization in the entire history of the Church.147
In many ways, it was helpful for Patrick not to be a cultured Roman, as a lot of the
standard Roman approaches to evangelism would have posed unique challenges. The first
challenge was a completely different view of the land. For both the Romans and the Celts, the
land was ancient, and stories connected to specific places. For the Romans, however, these sites
143
144
George G Hunter, The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West-- Again (Nashville, TN:
Abingdom Press, 2010), 7.
145
William Henry Scott, “St Patrick’s Missionary Methods,” International Review of Mission 50, no. 198 (1961):
137.
146
Ibid.
147
Ibid.
Giesbrecht 41
were often marked by monuments or buildings. For the Celts, natural features marked these sites
(e.g., rivers that held spirits, hilltops that had been the fort of a semi-divine king, and burial
mounds that were portals into the otherworld). Though they did not necessarily have a human-
made marker, people remembered the locations of these places and maintained them with ritual
gatherings and offerings rather than architectural monuments. The Roman’s resourceful
approach of repurposing old pagan sites would not work in Ireland. There were no temples to
convert into churches and so even the idea of creating a building for public worship was a
foreign concept.148 An evangelist cannot Christianize sacred spaces that are not known to them.
The political structure was also different. Irish territories were unstable, and their
boundaries shifted often. The Irish were organized into tribes or kingdoms, attached to a group of
people rather than anchored to a specific region. Thus, Ireland did not have towns as Romans
understood them, so Irish society would have required a different approach, as “no urban mobs
existed to embrace or assault missionary bishops."149 In addition, the kingdoms operated
differently. Each tribe had a king, who was typically an overlord or under-king to another king.
These clientage relationships were sometimes temporary or existed for generations. No king had
control over any kingdom but his own. Thus, the Roman tactic of baptizing one or two kings to
convert a large area of land would not work.150 In Roman Christianity, it was common for
bishoprics to become associated with local kingships of the area, in effect allowing them to
subtly and gradually increase the favour and power of the church.151 Ireland, however, had a
148
Lisa Bitel, Landscape with Two Saints: How Genovefa of Paris and Brigit of Kildare Built Christianity in
Barbarian Europe (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009)97-98.
149
Ibid.
150
Ibid.
151
Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization (New York, NY: Nan A. Talese, 1995), 110.
Giesbrecht 42
mobile politic as well as local attachment to sacred sites. This combination meant that Roman
bishops had nowhere to establish an ecclesiastical structure.152
Patrick’s Success
If he faced all of these challenges, how was Patrick so successful in spreading
Christianity? Perhaps Saint Patrick “threw [the divine gift of faith] like a white mantle over the
whole land,” a place which, according to W.J. Lockington (1871-1948), was already inherently
Christian.153 Despite Lockington’s obvious romanticism, this view has been commonplace
throughout history. It is likely, though, that to have made history, Patrick must have been a man
of inspiring charisma with gifts in evangelism. George G. Hunter looks at Celtic Christianity in
Ireland through the lens of evangelism. Patrick, according to Hunter, did not force the Roman
culture upon the Irish and it is this that made the evangelism of Ireland successful.154 One asset
that Patrick had was that he knew Irish society, and so had some idea of how to present
Christianity to the Irish before he returned to Ireland. For example, he would have known that
Christianity could “[fuel] and [amplify] the Irish love for learning,” and so he adapted by
emphasizing oral tradition and memorization.155 He also focused on aspects that made
Christianity less cerebral, more imaginative, and closer to nature.156 Hunter turns to modern
communication theory to explain Patrick’s success, saying that he must have been energetic,
dynamic, authentic, an “eloquent speaker and a splendid storyteller,”157 and a graduate of a
present-day communications program. For Hunter, Patrick’s method of evangelism is the ideal
and is how we should evangelize the “New Barbarians” of the West.158
152
Bitel, Landscape with Two Saints, 99.
153
W J Lockington, The Soul of Ireland (New York, NY: The MacMillian Company, 1920), 6-7.
154
Ibid., 6-13.
155
Hunter, The Celtic Way of Evangelism, 8-9.
156
Ibid., 14.
157
Ibid., 46-58.
158
Ibid., 130.
Giesbrecht 43
Though Hunter’s theory is far-fetched in its idealism, he does have a point. Perhaps
Patrick did adjust Christianity to the Irish to make it palatable. It is possible that he saw the
unmet needs of Irish society as a whole and was able to communicate Christianity in a way that
met these needs. The early Celts of the Continent were a warrior people, and this characteristic of
the Celtic people seems to have migrated to Ireland, as is shown through the many stories within
the Cycles of Irish mythology, including the Táin Bó (cattle raids). The Táin Bó makes up an
entire genre of early Irish literature, the most famous of which is the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the
“Cattle Raid of Cooley.” This story is traditionally set in the first century CE and is referred to
simply as the Táin. A written version of the Táin goes back to the seventh or early eighth
century, with additions and edits occurring up until the eleventh century inclusively.159 The
stories in the Táin Bó genre are full of sidh, lax sexual ethics, endless tribal rivalries, and
senseless violence. In the words of Thomas Cahill, author of The Hinges of History series: “the
conscious indifference to death that is a hallmark of all the heroes of the Táin masks a
subconscious fear of death that no public rhetoric can erase.”160 The same can be said for other
Celtic Cycles. For the Irish, death was meaningless, and so reality was arbitrary and
insubstantial. The individual was unable to form a fixed identity and so it “like the rest of rest of
reality, [was] essentially fluid – essentially inessential.”161 Cahill credits Patrick’s success (both
the Patrick of the Confession and the hagiographies) to his providing an alternative worldview to
the people. His worldview was one where one did not have to be paranoid of curses, prophecies,
or tricks of the sidh. Patrick knew that he was taken care of by God and it is from God that he
found his identity. Patrick too could do magic, though his magic came from God and was for
159
L Winifred Faraday, The Cattle-Raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cuailnge) (Cambridge, ON: In Parentheses, 2002), 7.
160
161
Ibid., 129.
Giesbrecht 44
good. Cahill gives Patrick credit for “baptizing” and “washing clean” the Irish imagination by
encouraging the finding of identity to be in God rather than in senseless war and violence.162
Perhaps Patrick succeeded because some of his teachings matched those of the Irish
religious elite. For example, there is evidence that the Druids had an eschatological belief in a
future wrath. If so, the people would have been familiar with some aspects of Patrick’s
eschatology, and the idea of being saved from wrath would have been enticing.163 As well, the
number three was already a significant number (stories were told in threes, the goddess Brigid
was a part of a triad of sisters, etc.).164 Thus, the understanding of God being triune would likely
have fit easily into their understanding. As well, the coming of Christianity introduced a culture
that delighted in myths and storytelling to a large repertoire of new stories. In Lehane’s opinion,
Christianity came to Ireland at the perfect time – with the Germanic invasion of Britain, some
British sailed to Ireland, bringing with them knowledge of writing and Latin, allowing
monasteries to become places of scholarship.165 Later, these learning centres would become
distinctive to Irish identity, resulting in scriptoriums that produced books that would become
symbolic of Ireland itself, as well as becoming a saviour to Western society due to the continued
high quality of learning that occurred in these locations throughout the “Dark Ages.”166
Another alternative is that since the Irish had not come into contact with other religions,
there was not a pre-established “tradition of suspicion.”167 Christianity is a theologically-
exclusive religion due to its devotion to a singular God and its concepts of orthodoxy and heresy.
This exclusivism would have been foreign to the adherents of the Celtic religion, which were
162
Cahill admits that this cleansing didn’t extend to their sexual ethics, but it seems that Patrick was not concerned
about that subject in his writings. Ibid., 135.
163
John Carey, “Saint Patrick, the Druids, and the End of the World,” History of Religions 36, no. 1 (1996): 42–53.
164
Anton Wessels, Europe: Was It Ever Really Christian? (London, ENG: SCM Press Ltd, 1994), 68.
165
Brendan Lehane, Early Celtic Christianity (London, ENG: Continuum, 2005), 40-43.
166
This is the thesis of Cahill in How the Irish Saved Civilization.
167
Hunter, The Celtic Way of Evangelism, 10.
Giesbrecht 45
used to religious tolerance. This rigidity would have been alarming to the Druids, whose status
and way of life depended on the acceptance and tolerance of the Celtic religion. The regular
members of society, however, were “unburdened by any sophisticated philosophical attachment
to their gods but faithful to them because they had served them well.”168 Perhaps they naively
extended their tolerance without receiving any in return. If so, this tolerance was an asset to
Patrick and a weakness for the Irish pagan religious leaders.169
The new believers eventually organized themselves into monasteries. There were some
monasteries, like Armagh, which began with an episcopal organization but, over time, abbatical
rule dominated. This change is likely because Ireland had no tradition of centralized
organization. The position of the bishop still existed and was well-respected but did not have
administrative powers unless they were also abbots.170 These communities maintained the
existing kinship pattern (leadership was passed down in families, often of the land donors)171 and
within native Irish society. Monasteries were not a foreign concept, as they had similarities to the
druidic colleges of learning (bangor). Once monastic confederations formed, the abbot of a
major church matched the power of the position of an over-king.172 The structure of monasteries
was a natural fit for Irish society, and this contributed to Patrick’s success.
Two Patrick Theory
Patrick is believed to be the first evangelist of the Irish due to his apparent success. What
is not so well-known is that evangelists were in Ireland before Patrick. The first Christian
mission to Ireland was that of Palladius, who arrived in Ireland in 431 CE. Not much is known
168
Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Longman History of Ireland: Early Medieval Ireland (400 - 1200), ed. Steven G. Ellis (New
York, NY: Longman, 1995), 32.
169
Ibid., 30-33.
170
Paul Lonigan, The Early Irish Church, 2nd ed. (Woodside, NY: Celtic Heritage Press, 1988), 47.
171
Ibid., 46.
172
Angus Konstam, Historical Atlas of the Celtic World (New York, NY: Checkmark Books, 2001), 156.
Giesbrecht 46
about his mission, so it is assumed that it was unsuccessful. However, Thomas O’Rahilly (1883-
1953), the creator of the “Two Patricks” theory, thinks differently. An Irish scholar in linguistics
and Celtic studies, O’Rahilly stumbled upon Patrician studies when studying the fifth- and sixth-
century Irish annals. He became fascinated by the chronological discrepancy of the Irish annals
on the topic of Patrick. He had been told that the saint’s work in Ireland lasted from 432-461 CE
but discovered that the annals recorded many of his contemporaries as dying between 488-544
CE, a full fifty to seventy years after Patrick’s death.173 How could this be explained?
Previously, it had become standard practice for Patrician scholars to assume that the
annals were wrong. However, O’Rahilly trusted the annals, and so he wanted to investigate the
justification for the general opinion that Patrick died in 461 CE. O’Rahilly says that he had a
“safeguard” that those in the Patrician field did not – he had not read J. B. Bury’s (1861-1927)
Life of St. Patrick and so was not “tempted to let Bury do [his] thinking for [him].”174 Also,
O’Rahilly was not invested in a particular agenda and simply desired to follow the evidence.
After doing his research, he concluded that there were two “Patricks,” Patricius Palladius (whose
mission was from 431-461 CE) and Patricius the Briton (who died c. 492 CE). O’Rahilly was
convinced that the writers of the earliest annals were aware of the two Patricks but, over time,
others either got them confused or had a specific political agenda for amalgamating them.175
The benefit of the Two Patricks theory, according to James Carney (1914-1989), is that a
Patrick can be convincingly presented as having interacted with his contemporary religious
colleagues and Irish rulers. With the traditional view, “we must conclude that he lived in a
173
Thomas F. O’Rahilly, The Two Patricks: A Lecture on the History of Christianity in Fifth-Century Ireland
(Dublin, IRL: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1942), 6.
174
Ibid., 7.
175
Ibid., 8-12.
Giesbrecht 47
historical vacuum” or that he did, in fact, precede his contemporaries by an entire generation.176
As well, by having two Patricks, the plethora of stories involving him can be divided, splitting
the load previously carried by Patrick the Superhuman. Carney believes that, even if O’Rahilly
did not get every detail correct, “the future of Patrician studies lies along the road indicated [by
him]. There will be doubts, hesitations as to whether to take this turn or that, but the general
direction has been set for all time, and there will be no returning to the Bury path, which, after
all, turned out to be a cul de sac.”177 O’Rahilly’s theory does mark progress in the area of
historical feasibility. Unfortunately, regardless of how much progress has been made and will be
in the future, there will always be as many questions as answers.
Egyptian Peregrini
Another theory is that there were missionaries before the time of Palladius and Patrick.
For example, it is possible that Coptic missionaries came to Ireland. A handful of scholars have
noted that Celtic Christianity differs from regular Western Christianity in how monasticism has
provided the primary organization of the Church in Ireland.178 Also, there are many artistic
similarities; art historian Françoise Henry (1902-1982), for example, has done much work
attempting to uncover the foreign influences in illuminated manuscripts, noting Coptic art as a
possible influence for the carpet pages and icons within the manuscripts.179
Archaeologist Stanley Lane-Poole (1854-1931) believes that the first preaching of the
Gospel in England was from an Egyptian missionary and that Irish Christianity was “the child of
176
James Carney, The Problem of Saint Patrick (Dublin, IRL: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1961), 3.
177
Ibid., viii.
178
Robert K Ritner, “Egyptians in Ireland : A Question of Coptic Peregrinations,” Rice Institute Pamphlet - Rice
University Studies 62, no. 2 (1976), 65.
179
For more on this, see Françoise Henry, The Books of Kells: Reproductions from the Manuscript in Trinity
College (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988).
Giesbrecht 48
the Egyptian Church.” 180 He also speaks of seven Egyptian monks having been buried at Disert
Uldith, an unknown location in Ireland.181 Coptic historian Aziz Atiya’s (1898-1988) History of
Eastern Christianity also speaks of these seven Egyptian monks.182 Egyptologist Robert Ritner
published an article in 1976 on the topic of Coptic peregrinations to Ireland. He spends time
delving into on literary similarities between various pieces of Irish and Coptic literature (e.g.,
symbols, genres), an area he finds to have been under-investigated. He also looks into Irish
religious practices that reflect the desert fathers (e.g., the use of the clochette or hand bell by
begging monks, the use of the tau cross as a symbol). Ritner hoped that his essay would address
the lack of scholarship regarding the Coptic hypothesis and encourage new academic work on
the topic; however, this has not occurred.183
Even if no Egyptian monks traveled to the British Isles or the Continent, the reverse
undoubtedly happened. People visited Egypt frequently as a stop on their pilgrimage to the Holy
Land and, as word spread about Egyptian monasticism, people came from far and wide to be a
part of these monastic communities. The teachings of these monastic communities spread
through monastic literature as well as through the direct interpersonal relationships of former
members or pupils that returned home or continued to travel. One of these pilgrims was John
Cassian of southern Gaul (c. 360-435), who returned to Gaul after his pilgrimage to the Holy
Land and a seven-year visitation of monasteries in Egypt. Thereafter, he founded two cenobitic
monasteries in Marseilles and reformed many others. He was an influence for the monastery at
Lérins, France, one of the monasteries commonly thought to have been visited by Patrick.184
180
Stanley Lane-Poole, Cairo: Sketches of Its History, Monuments and Social Life (London, ENG: J. S. Virtue,
1898), 203.
181
Ibid.
182
Aziz S. Atiya, A History of Eastern Christianity (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968), 54.
183
Ritner, “Egyptians in Ireland: A Question of Coptic Peregrinations,” 66-68.
184
Patricia Ann Eshagh, “Tracing the Jesus Prayer Westward: Reaffirming Egyptian Influence on Western
Monasticism in Late Antiquity” (ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2016), 4-6.
Giesbrecht 49
Therefore, the possibility of Egyptian influence in Ireland is feasible, thus further diminishing
the importance of Patrick in the evangelism of Ireland.
Irish-Christian Interactions
No matter who the first evangelist was, there were already Christians in Ireland before
either Palladius or Patrick arrived there. From where did these Christians come? Historian Dáibhí
Ó Cróinín points first to the Irish kings established in Cornwall and Wales as early as the third
century CE. Called the Déisi, some of them ruled there until the tenth century and stayed in
contact with their homeland at least until the eighth century. This interaction allowed for an
exchange of goods, ideas (Britain was already Christian), and people (it seems there were even a
few Cornish Christians in Ireland.) As previously shown in the life of Patrick, another interaction
between Ireland and Britain consisted of slaves and prisoners of war. If the individual captured
was Christian, they may have maintained some of the practices of Christianity.185 As well,
people from the continent may have come to Ireland as refugees after the barbarian invasions of
France at the start of the fifth century.186 Though it is unlikely these interactions led to a mass
Christianization of Ireland, there was at least an acquaintance with the religion.
According to American historian Lisa Bitel, “Christianization did not come [to Ireland] at
the decision of a preacher or king in a historical moment but from the repeated passages of many
women and men from place to particular place, and the mutual influences of those passages and
places.”187 She suggests that Christianization occurred in three stages, beginning with an increase
in the traffic and trade between Ireland and Roman society and the introduction of Christian
artifacts to Ireland. In the second period, evangelists came to Ireland and “marketed” Christian
185
Ó Cróinín, Early Medieval Ireland, 19-20.
186
John R Walsh and Thomas Bradley, A History of the Irish Church: 400-700 AD (Dublin, IRL: The Columba
Press, 1991), 9.
187
Giesbrecht 50
ideas and goods around Ireland. These evangelists worked to adapt Christian concepts to Irish
politics, society, and landscapes to “ready the land for the permanent establishment of romanized
religion.”188 Then, in the final phase, churches and monasteries were built. Interestingly, it is
Saint Brigid that Bitel gives credit for establishing Christianity in Ireland as a result of her
instrumental role in building the permanent architecture and hierarchical infrastructure of the
Christian faith in Ireland. Thus, in the view of Bitel, though other evangelists (like Patrick)
brought Christianity to Ireland, Brigid was the critical figure in its establishment, perhaps even
the installation of the institutional Irish Celtic Church as characterized by monasticism.189 Due to
her Pagan and Christian identity, the Holy Woman Brigit marks the completion of the conversion
of Ireland to Christianity and the tolerance of Christianity to the Pagan. Since the sources for
Brigid are all hagiographies, this topic will be covered more in the next chapter.
Conclusion
Though Patrick is considered critical to the Christianization of Ireland in modern times, it
is doubtful that he single-handedly evangelized and established Christianity in Ireland. Most
likely, its Christianization was a result of the interactions between many people and happened
over time, fluid as the ebb and flow of the waters around Ireland. As will be seen in the next
chapter, there is a good reason to believe that the Patrick of myth was a result of the political
power struggle of churches, catalyzed by the hazy nature of the Golden Age. The next chapter
will look at the evolution of Irish hagiography, specifically in the case of Patrick and Brigid, and
the way in which these stories were a product of their time. Shaped by the fluid spirit of Celtic
Christianity, the resulting hagiographies and traditions showcase Celtic Christianity’s adaptive
and imaginative nature.
188
Ibid., 99.
189
Ibid., 97-99.
Giesbrecht 51
Chapter 3: The Growing of the Tree – The Evolution of Patrick and Brigid
As seen, the Christianization of Ireland is a complex story with many possibilities.
One thing is certain; due to the evolution of their hagiographies and traditions, both Patrick and
Brigid came to be viewed as having instrumental roles in early Irish Christian history and so this
chapter will focus on the evolution of the Patrician and Brigidine traditions as phenomena.
Both individuals primarily remained in Ireland throughout their missions, allowing their
hagiographies and traditions to be markers for the growth of Celtic Christianity in general. The
fluid nature of Celtic Christianity, influenced by the nature of Druidic storytelling and enhanced
by the fog-like Golden Age, has left room for a freedom of expression and interpretation of
Celtic Christianity. The result is a layering of growth within Celtic Christianity.
To illustrate this anecdotally, we will briefly return to Glastonbury. As a review, Joseph
of Arimathea established the church (or even Jesus), Patrick built the Abbey, and the churchyard
is the final burial site of the King Arthur. This rich history seems like a convenient happenstance
for one place. Likely, these myths developed over time, either for political, ecclesiastical, or
theological reasons. This phenomenon relates to the idea of ‘genealogical schizophrenia,’ “where
a dynasty appears to claim more than one origin, or, in effect, more than one genealogical
‘personality.’”190 In an article on the impact of orality and literacy on Irish genealogy, Welsh
historian David E. Thornton challenges the idea that only oral tradition can have fluid
genealogies. Giving evidence of genealogies in early medieval Ireland and Wales, he points out
that just because their genealogies were written down did not stop augmentation or grafting from
David E. Thornton, “Orality, Literacy and Genealogy in Early Medieval Ireland and Wales,” in Literacy in
190
Medieval Celtic Societies, ed. Huw Pryce (Cambridge, ENG: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 83–98.
Giesbrecht 52
occurring when it was politically desirable.191 I believe this concept also pertains to the heritage
of a place, the hagiography of a saint, or the nature of a Christianity.
With such a complex and intricate tapestry of myth woven together, it is impossible to
tease the individual strands apart to investigate their authenticity. Ian Bradley uses the language
of Celtic “waves” to outline the surges of interest in Celtic Christianity.192 This section applies
Bradley’s wave framework to examine Celtic Christianity, though I have customized it to look
almost explicitly at Patrick and Brigid in Ireland. To add a sense of layering, I suggest thinking
of the myths that have developed around saints and places as ancient trees. Each ring is
fundamental to the growth of the tree, telling the story of how the tree grew, adapted, or changed
during periods of its life. Most importantly, the removal of rings is unattainable.
The imagery of growth is not intended to be a moral judgment of progress or maturation,
which would be a judgment at the expense of other Celtic spiritualties of the past and present.
Rather, this growth is more akin to the morally-neutral and natural process of biological
evolution. An obvious flaw in this metaphor is the absence of the pre-Christian within the rings.
Of course, the tree metaphor is based on written Celtic Christian history and so does not include
all of the histories that came before literacy in Ireland. With the risk of stretching the metaphor,
the spirit of Celtic pre-Christian history perhaps places the tree of Celtic Christianity in a
different genus of than other trees within the forest of Christianity.
The First Ring: c. 650-800 CE
The Golden Age of Celtic Christianity, traditionally spanning from the mid-fifth to the
mid-seventh century, includes the lives of Patrick, Brigit, and Columba, and the founding of
great monasteries such as Iona and Lindisfarne. However, the early Celtic Christians were so
191
Ibid., 86-90.
192
Ian Bradley, Celtic Christianity (Edinburgh, SCT : Edinburgh University Press, 1999).
Giesbrecht 53
focused on missionary work, building churches (usually out of wood), and preparing for the
coming time of judgment that they did not take the time to write down their stories and so there
is little literary or archaeological evidence from the time itself.193 Thus, the first identifiable and
perhaps the most influential ring of (or wave of interest in) Celtic Christianity is made up of
individuals from c. 650-800 CE who wrote the hagiographies of the saints that came before.
Bradley suggests that this first surge of hagiography has to do with ecclesiastical power politics,
as churches scrambled to prove their supremacy over others. Those canonized were local figures
and often founders of monasteries (or were given that role). The fact that Patrick and Brigid are
among the greatest of the Celtic saints probably has more to do with the success of the monastery
to which they are affiliated than to the saintliness of their actual lives.194
Since the Irish had a firm connection to the land and a powerful sense of place, the land
was a medium for storytelling. Two examples of this are the hilltop structures of Dún Ailinne,
the capital of Leinster (near Kildare, associated with Brigid) and Emain Macha, the capital of
ancient Ulster (near Armagh, associated with Patrick). Both were tribal centres built in the late
Neolithic Age with innovative architecture and the ability to hold large masses. There are signs
of celebrations, feasts, and rituals, though no signs of regular occupation. Even when these
structures were already in ruins, these were the places to which troops would go to declare their
invasion of the area or stage a battle. Victory was not gained by displacing the enemy, but by
occupying their ritual capitals, destroying their landscape, and stealing their goods. Though these
centers were no longer in use in the few centuries before Patrick’s arrival, their stories remained
in the memory of the people and so were a helpful tool for the local dynasties and churches. 195
193
Ibid., 1.
194
Ibid., 7.
195
Barbarian Europe (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009), 112-114.
Giesbrecht 54
As well, kings were asked to help sponsor and protect churches established on their lands.
Though there was less fame in helping than destroying, it seems that kings clued into the lasting
power of written legacy. When written, the histories of their dynasties and territory could be
recorded, maintained, publicized, and even manipulated (e.g., adding Noah into a genealogy).196
Perhaps this compromise had to do with why the two churches wrestling for primacy also
happened to be located near these ancient dynasties. These political agendas do not mean Patrick
and Brigid did not lead faithful lives – just that their current status as Celtic “Power Rangers” has
more to do with propaganda battles and monastic marketing schemes.197 Most likely, these saints
were both known for the good they did in their lives as depicted in oral tradition. The delay in the
writing of their Vitae does not mean that they were not extraordinary people, even if their
historical and traditional grandeur are dissimilar. Perhaps other hagiographies were produced and
lost in the Viking raids (first hitting Ireland in 795 CE). Alternately, there may have been a
sudden desire to record early Irish Christian history following the great plague of 665 CE. After
many deaths, there may have been nostalgia for an easier time, or a heightened urgency to record
what had previously been an oral history, with the increasingly near coming Day of Judgment.198
The Synod of Whitby in 664 CE has traditionally been portrayed as the triumph of Anglo-
Saxon/Roman Christianity over Celtic Christianity in the British Isles. The Synod was called to
solve differences between the Roman and Celtic churches, as they observed different dates for
Easter and wore different tonsures. Whitby certainly did mark a victory for the Anglo-Saxons,
but was not the beginning of the oppression of Celtic Christians, as many authors (John Philip
Newall, for one) would have one believe. For example, Colmán (605-675 CE), the ‘defeated’
Bishop of Lindisfarne, kept his beliefs and simply moved his monastery to Ireland. The Synod
196
Ibid.
197
198
Ibid., 5.
Giesbrecht 55
may have left the Celtic Christians feeling the need to assert their traditions and beliefs. At the
same time, there was an increased interest in Celtic Christianity within the English Church,
evidenced by the late seventh-century hagiographies of Celtic saints written by ‘Romanizers’
who viewed Celtic Christianity romantically.199 For example, the Venerable Bede (c. 672-735
CE) wrote fondly of the Celtic saints and viewed Ireland as being a place that “abound[ed] in
milk and honey.”200 Perhaps the Synod actually gave birth to Celtic Christianity as we know it!
Though the motives and circumstances of the early Irish monastic writers are unknown, it is
likely that the connections between the saints and Celtic mythology as well as their monasteries
and the ancient dynasties were helpful for evangelism. Wessels, for one, believes that the
‘success’ of Christianity in Ireland comes from this period and its attachment to Celtic gods, holy
places, and holy times.201 Michael Staunton of University College of Dublin goes as far as
suggesting that we thank these propagandists; likely without the writings of these times, Patrick
(and by extension, Brigid) would have “slipped into obscurity.”202
Cogitosus (c. 650 CE), a member of the Brigidine community of Kildare, wrote the first
Vita of Brigid. In this hagiography, Brigid does not yet have pagan origins – the only thing
known about her background is that she grew up with her father Dubhtach and her mother
Broicsech on their farm. Brigid is a stereotypical holy woman similar to those written about in
Gaul or Rome; virtuous, humble, and never arguing with male authority (unless their instructions
disobey the will of God). She performs many miracles, many of them biblical (e.g., turning water
199
Ibid.
200
Bede, History of the English Church and People, trans. Leo Sherley-Price (London, ENG: The Folio Society,
2010), 9.
201
Anton Wessels, Europe: Was It Ever Really Christian? (London, ENG: SCM Press Ltd, 1994), 95.
202
Michael Staunton, The Voice of the Irish: The Story of Christian Ireland (Mahwah, NJ: Hidden Spring, 2002),
43.
Giesbrecht 56
into ale, healing a blind man).203 Cogitosus emphasizes that she can do these things due to her
strong faith which, like a mustard seed, can move mountains.204 Cogitosus believed that, despite
her gender, Brigid was the greatest saint due to her faith and humility. She was not royal, male,
or married; the only source of her status was from God.205
Whereas Patrick’s burial site and chosen church are disputed, Brigid founded Kildare and
was buried there, providing proof of everything that Cogitosus wrote.206 Bitel describes
Cogitosus’ portrayal of Brigid as that of a “builder saint whose tracks mapped the route from
Kildare to the heavenly Jerusalem;”207 he establishes the importance of Kildare by describing the
church building, perhaps as an effort to relate it to the magnificence of Rome architecturally and
the Temple symbolically.208 According to Cogitosus, Kildare was the head of all the Irish
monasteries, and so he believed that other ecclesiastics should look to Kildare for aid in
ecclesiastical and theological decisions.209
Tírechán (died in 657 CE) wrote the first Patrician Vita for Patrick. This Vita establishes
Patrick as the founder of the churches in Ireland, with him consecrating 450 bishops.210 Perhaps
most importantly, Tírechán names the bishop of Armagh as Patrick’s successor.211 Both he and
the later writer Muirchú largely told the stories that occurred around Armagh, which at that point
was already claiming to be the head of the Irish church.212 Armagh was two miles from the
ancient royal center of Emain Macha, the central power in Ulster and associated with the Celtic
203
Cogitosus, “Life of Saint Brigit,” trans. Sean Connolly and Jean-Mitchel Picard, The Journal of the Royal Society
of Antiquaries of Ireland 117 (1987): 12-13.
204
Ibid., 17.
205
Bitel, Landscape with Two Saints, 138-139.
206
Ibid.
207
Ibid., 206.
208
Ibid., 151-160.
209
Cogitosus, “Life of Saint Brigit,” 11; Bitel, “Body of a Saint, Story of a Goddess,” 215.
210
Tírechán, “Collectiana,” trans. Ludwig Bieler, (Dublin, IRL: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1979), 6:1.
211
Ibid., 5:4.
212
Nora Chadwick, The Celts (Toronto, CAN: Peguin Books, 1997) , 204-205.
Giesbrecht 57
goddess, Macha.213 The Uí Néill dynasty was growing in Ulster and Leinster, and they wanted to
link the Patrician cult to their dynastic center, Armagh, and they did so successfully.214
In Muirchú’s Vita (from later in the seventh century), there is a focus on the saints’
interactions with Druids. Bradley says that is because saintship was “a concept of the magical
order,” focusing not on moral goodness but miraculous and mysterious power.215 Patrick
challenges the Druids at their magical arts and proves them to be powerless, as well as destroys
their idols.216 He is a “quasi-druid fighting pagan wizardry with his own powerful brand of
Christian magic.”217 Perhaps it is for this reason that Celtic monks continued to wear the
traditional Druid’s white mantle and adopted a similar tonsure.218 In one story, the high king
Loigaire and his druids were meeting at the hill of Tara (the traditional crowning place of Irish
high kings) to light a fire for a pagan celebration. When Patrick lights an Easter fire on the
nearby hill of Slane before they had lit theirs (which was forbidden), the king and his party
confront Patrick. After an earthquake and general pandemonium, Patrick and his party shapeshift
into deer and flee the scene.219 Not only does this story establish Patrick as more powerful than
the Druids, but it also tells the story of the first Easter in Ireland.
If the Patrician hagiographers wanted Patrick to reign supreme over paganism, the Brigidine
hagiographers were not going to let him win easily. As with the monastery in Armagh, location
was significant for Saint Brigid’s monastery. Kildare (cill dara, meaning “church of the oak”)
213
Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles (Oxford UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1992), 154;
Staunton, The Voice of the Irish, 36; James Carney, The Problem of Saint Patrick (Dublin, IRL: The Dublin Institute
for Advanced Studies, 1961), 23.
214
Davies, Celtic Spirituality, 30.
215
James F. Kenney, The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: Ecclesiastical; an Introduction and Guide,
Records of Civilization; Sources and Studies (New York, NY: Octagon Books, 1966), 298.
216
Muirchú, “The Life of Patrick,” in The Classics of Western Spirituality: Celtic Spirituality, trans. Oliver Davies
(New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1999), 101.
217
Michael Howard, Angels & Goddesses: Celtic Christianity & Paganism in Ancient Britain (Freshfields, ENG:
Capall Bann Publishing, 1994), 95.
218
Wessels, Europe, 75.
219
Muirchú, “The Life of Patrick,” 99–102.
Giesbrecht 58
was built near an ancient oak grove as well as the place for inaugurating the kings of Leinster.220
Her monastery contained the legendary eternal fire of the goddess which remained lit until the
Reformation (with a short pause in the thirteenth century).221 These weighty geographical
connections provided Brigid with a status that would rival Patrick’s position as the ultimate
Druid as she became increasingly associated with the goddess Brigid.
The next two Brigidine hagiographies, the Vita Prima and Bethu Brigte, both were written
circa the eighth century. In these stories, she is the illegitimate daughter of two Christian parents,
a king and the servant of a Druid, and grows up in the Druid’s household.222 Many miracles
accompany her birth; for example, the Druid sees a column of fire appearing to come from her
head,223 thus symbolizing the Holy Spirit and the lúan láith, a radiant halo that shot from the
heads of Irish saga heroes.224 Her Christian purity is highlighted throughout her childhood, even
by the Druid, who recognizes that she is unable to eat any food prepared in his house.225
Brigid is a capable colleague of Patrick. Humourously, she falls asleep during one of his
sermons and instead has a vision from God. She does not need Patrick as an intermediary
between her and God. Patrick interprets the dream as showing that the two are working together
as equals to spread the gospel.226 As well, Brigid is accidentally made a bishop during her
ceremony to become a nun due to the bishop being “intoxicated by the grace of God.”227
Between the time of Cogitosus and that of the other two Vitae, Armagh and Kildare had
negotiated a relationship in which Brigid had authority over Leinster while Patrick had control
220
Lisa M Bitel, “Body of a Saint, Story of a Goddess: Origins of the Brigidine Tradition,” Textual Practice 16, no.
2 (2002): 222, doi:10.1080/0950236021014146.
221
Wessels, Europe, 69; Howard, Angels & Goddesses, 100.
222
Sean Connolly, trans., “Vita Prima Sanctae Brigitae,” Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 119 (1989): 14.
223
Donnchadh Ó hAodha, trans., Bethu Brigte (Cork, IRL: Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition, 2008), 20; Connolly,
trans., “Vita Prima Sanctae Brigitae,” 15.
224
225
Ó hAodha, Bethu Brigte, 22.
226
227
Ó hAodha, Bethu Brigte, 24.
Giesbrecht 59
over the rest of Ireland. However, these Vitae show that Brigid was not any lesser than he.228
By the time these Vitae were written, Brigid’s body was no longer at Kildare as it had been
at the time of Cogitosus, which was problematic since a saint’s presence manifested itself at their
tomb. The authors of the Vitae solved this issue by giving Saint Brigid the powerful bodiless
presence that continued to exist in the landscapes and the territories in which Saint Brigid had
lived or visited.229 Thus, these hagiographies focus on her time on the road, with her visiting all
five provinces.230 She is present even in places over which Armagh has authority.231 She also has
more control over land and animals, whereas Patrick’s control is just “Christian counter-
magic.”232 These hagiographers ingeniously turned a problem into an advantage.
Despite Brigid being Christian, she has many similarities to the goddess Brigid. In the
Brigidine goddess triad of sisters, one associated with the poetic arts, the second with healing,
and the third with metalwork. Saint Brigid was associated with teaching, healing, and domestic
arts. The “goddess was made a virgin” and was linked to Mary, fertility, and hospitality.233 Her
feast day is on February 1 in the spring season of Imbolc, the day before the feast day of Mary.234
Brigid, the ‘Mary of the Gael,’ as “not only nurtures the church, but also gives birth to Christ’s
word in Ireland, [being] to Ireland what Mary was to the whole Christian world.”235 These two
hagiographies claimed authority for Brigid because of her gender; “her very femaleness gave her
territorial and numinous powers both Christian and Other and, further, that she had governed the
228
Bitel, “Body of a Saint, Story of a Goddess,” 219.
229
Ibid., 210.
230
Ibid., 218.
231
232
233
Wessels, Europe, 71; Ó hAodha, Bethu Brigte, 22.
234
Ibid., 71.
235
Diane Peters Auslander, “Gendering the ‘Vita Prima’: An Examination of St. Brigid’s Role as ‘Mary of the
Gael,’” Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 20/21 (n.d.): 201–202.
Giesbrecht 60
landscapes of Ireland long before Patrick and Christianity ever came to Ireland.”236
Bitel sees Brigid as being more significant than Patrick – whereas Patrick brings the
message of Christianity to Ireland, the Brigid of Cogitosus translates it and converts the very
land. Patrick never mentions churches, whereas Cogitosus’ Vita extensively describes a church
that Brigid has built. Patrick spends much of his mission wandering and never specifying his
location, implying that to him geography does not matter. In contrast, to Brigid, geography
always matters.237 Tírechán and Muirchú’s Patrick has many dramatic confrontations with
Druids, thus exorcising the land of pagan influences. Bitel asserts that this was done to show that
the land first needed to be purified before it could be built upon, thus justifying why Patrick does
not focus on founding churches. Brigid of the VP and BB, however, had already converted the
land with the sanctity of her presence and had befriended the Druids. Thus, her mission focuses
on building up the Church in Ireland rather than tearing down the pagan.238
Brigid has connections to paganism that scholars have written of a “pagan-Christian
syncretism” or “personification [. . . and] Christianization of a Celtic goddess.”239 Instead of
using the word “syncretism,” Liliane Marcil-Johnston uses “continuity,” saying that “through the
incorporation of folklore in monastic writing, in particular in hagiography, the monks were
creating continuity with the long cultural past rather than an abrupt discontinuity through the
novel features of Christian culture.”240 In her Master’s thesis, Marcil-Johnston notes that since
history has for a long time been a “boys’ club,” if the club included a female, it was for a purpose
and usually included a transformation of gender.241 Using modern terms, while female saints
236
237
238
Ibid., 119.
239
Wessels, Europe, 71.
240
Liliane Catherine Marcil-Johnston, “The Transformative Nature of Gender: The Coding of St. Brigit of Kildare
through Hagiography” (Concordia University, 2012), 14.
241
Ibid., 1.
Giesbrecht 61
always remained of the female sex, they tended to move around on the gender spectrum.242 By
becoming a member of the “third” gender and denying their femaleness, a woman could become
holy. In the early medieval period, women were either seen as an inferior manifestation of the
male or as simply being other. In Ireland, this meant coming from the ‘Otherworld,’ a place of
fairies and changelings.243 Thus women “stood on the threshold between two worlds.”244 Saint
Brigid, of course, was born in a threshold of the farmhouse, in some cases the farmhouse of the
Druid.245 Brigid herself is a threshold: between women and men, rich and poor, human and the
divine, Druid and the priest, hero and the saint, myth and history, eternal and temporal, folkloric
and ecclesiastical, vernacular and Latin, pagan and Christian.246 Therefore, Brigid is both a
symbol of syncretism and continuity; she represents the paradox that is Celtic Christianity, which
is neither one thing nor the other.247 It is for this reason that Brigid and, by extension, Celtic
Christianity have stayed relevant up until modern times.
The Remaining Rings
The Second Ring: Post-Norse Raids
The first tree ring of Celtic Christianity ended around the middle of the ninth century,
with the Norse raids beginning in the tenth century. Many monasteries were wiped out or left
behind, and their libraries were destroyed, causing a void of written material during this time.
This next ring marks the beginning of a common theme – the tendency for Celtic Christianity to
be revived and defined by outsiders, as well as the ‘Celts’ themselves seeking the support of their
242
Ibid., 73.
243
Ibid., 18-21.
244
Ibid., 33.
245
Sean Connolly, trans., “Vita Prima Sanctae Brigitae,” 15.
246
Marcil-Johnston, “The Transformative Nature of Gender,” 75; Carole M. Cusack, “Brigit: Goddess, Saint, ‘Holy
Woman’, and Bone of Contention,” Sydney Studies in Religion 6 (2007): 97; Howard, Angels & Goddesses, 100.
247
Marcil-Johnston, “The Transformative Nature of Gender,” 75.
Giesbrecht 62
saints and heritage in their struggles against the English.248 During this time, Giraldus
Cambrensis (c. 1146-1223) wrote his impressions of Ireland in Topographia Hibernica, in which
he develops the notion of the Celts as a distinct ethnic group.249
The Church of Ireland changed considerably during the Norman Conquest of the eleventh
century. Territorial dioceses replaced monasteries, now under the episcopal control of Anglo-
Norman bishops. The Anglo-Normans were the real ‘architects’ of the twelfth-century Celtic
revival. They built their cathedrals on old monastic sites and appropriated the sixth- and seventh-
century Celtic saints in their foundation legends to aid in the authentication of their superiority.
This cast the invaders as consolidators who respected the tradition of the Irish, which may have
helped with public relations.250 The Anglo-Norman John de Courcy (1150-1219), seeking to
establish his ecclesiastical headquarters at Downpatrick and authorize his authority, ‘found’ the
bodies of Brigid, Patrick, and Columba and buried them together at his church in 1185 CE. His
colleague, Jocelin of Furness (1175-1214) wrote a Vita of Patrick to support this project.251
The Irish renewed interest in ‘Celtic’ Christianity as a way of protecting their national
identity. Many of the Vitae produced during this revival were written in Irish instead of Latin and
included more pre-Christian mythology to show the saints’ allegiance to Ireland. As well, Irish
monks (or their colleagues) living in Continental monasteries wrote numerous new Celtic
hagiographies, regularly fleeced with themes of biblical exile and romantic views towards their
homeland. These often are seen as being the earliest collection of formal nationalist propaganda.
248
Bradley, Celtic Christianity, 74-76.
249
Giraldus Cambrensis, The Topography of Ireland, trans. Thomas Forester (Cambridge, ON: In Parentheses,
2000).
250
Bradley, Celtic Christianity, 40-41.
251
Ibid., 61-62.
Giesbrecht 63
Stories of pilgrimage also increased, written both by writers from the Continent and the British
Isles, including accounts of pilgrimage to Saint Patrick’s Purgatory.252
In the fourteen and fifteenth centuries, Brigid lost her ecclesiastic authority. Columba
(521-597 CE), the founding Abbot of Iona, was in some ways her replacement; a new Vita
written in 1150 CE highlighted his Irishness by emphasizing his time in Ireland as well as his
association with the filid and bards. At the time, there was a competition between Kells, Derry,
and Durrow for Columba’s authority (Iona had moved to Kells) as well as a desire for Columba
to be an alternative for Ireland’s patron Saint.253 Reproduced versions of Brigid’s hagiographies
contained introductions showcasing her humility, virginity, and celibacy.254 Details of her travel
and her equality with her male colleagues disappeared from the stories. Her authority diminished
to the household; she became the patron saint of farmwives, virgins, midwives, and the hearth.
Women prayed to Brigid for cures for headaches, good pregnancies, and house blessings. Her
presence was limited to holy wells, which were visited only by the peasants. Her cult was made
up of the uneducated and was seen as superstitious. This association of Celtic Christian practices
with the lower class is a trend within its history in the British Isles and has a lot to do with Celtic
Christianity’s association with marginalized and peripheral people.255
The Third Ring: Post-Reformation
A reinvention of the term “Celticity” occurred around the time of the Reformation. The
term in this era tended to suggest a Celtic/British identity (the two almost synonymous in Great
Britain) from the Roman/Continental identity.256 In Ireland, James Ussher (1581-1656), the
252
Ibid., 40-69
253
Ibid., 58-59.
E.g. The fifteenth-century Leabhar Breac found in Whitley Stokes, ed., “On the Life of Saint Brigit,” Three
254
Middle-Irish Homilies on the Lives of Saints Patrick, Brigit and Columba (Calcutta, 1877), 50-89.
255
Bitel, Landscape with Two Saints, 208-209.
256
Giesbrecht 64
Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, wrote a book called A Discourse of the Religion Anciently
Professed by the Irish and the British in 1631. In this book, he emphasized the theological
differences of the Celtic Church that made it more similar to Protestantism than Catholicism. In
his Patrician studies, Ussher maintained that early Christianity in Ireland had no consultation
with the Pope and that Patrick had ordained all Irish bishops.257
The Catholic Church also had a renewed interest in the Celtic saints during this period.
The Council of Trent (1545-1563) addressed the role of saints within the Church and the need for
their canonization to become centralized and standardized under the authority of Rome to limit
abuses of their cult. This standardization, in part, led to an increased interest in Irish hagiography
in the seventeenth century, a movement headed by the Bollandist project of Antwerp.258 In
addition to the need to remodel Vitae to meet the new requirements of hagiography, there was
also a desire to share the Irish Vitae with the wider Catholic community – partly to enrich the
lives of others, partly to have Irish saints compete with those in Europe. There was also a desire
to preserve hagiographical material following the Tudor conquest of Ireland (mid-sixteenth
century) and to defend Irish history from being used for a Protestant agenda.259 Some of the
Vitae were written specifically for Catholic countries on the Continent (Italy, Spain, and France)
to gain support for their anti-English cause.260
The Fourth Ring: 19th century
This fourth ring is characterized by romanticism and antiquarianism, with a fascination of
ruins and artifacts, including abandoned monasteries, Celtic crosses and ‘Celtic’ ruins (e.g.,
257
James Ussher, A Discourse on the Religion Anciently Professed by the Irish and British (Dublin, IRL: John
Jones, 1815).
258
Salvador Ryan, “Steadfast Saints or Malleable Models? Seventeenth-Century Irish Hagiography Revisited,” The
Catholic Historical Review 91, no. 2 (2005): 251–252.
259
Ibid., 256.
260
Giesbrecht 65
Stonehenge). Interest in ancient Celtic culture was secondary to the interest in Anglo-Saxon
heritage; however, Celtic studies flourished in a way it had never before. Aided by the Victorian
fascination for medievalism and classical antiquity, the tourism of Celtic places continued.
Proper investigation of Celtic archaeological sites occurred, and early texts were translated and
published. Characteristics of Celtic artwork (knots, calligraphy) were taken up by artists and
artisans and appreciated for their aesthetics alone.261 It was also during this time that the modern
concept of “Celticity” developed. Ernest Rénan (1823-1892) published “La Poésie des Races
Celtiques” in 1854, portraying the Celts as a poetic, imaginative, sensitive, and instinctively
religious people.262 With this came an interest in folklore and stories about faeries and ancient
heroes. In 1893, W. B. Yeats published a collection of peasant’s tales entitled Celtic Twilight.263
This title became the label associated with this movement, whose primary interest was in Celtic
mythology and, if it involved Christianity, it tended to focus on syncretism. 264
Irish archaeologist George Petrie (1790-1866) had hoped that this renewed interest in
Celtic Christianity would serve to unite the Protestant and Catholic groups due to their common
Christian heritage. Though the Potato Famine (1845-1847) brought with it Irish nationalism, it
was one of political power and force.265 In the religious sector, a fierce pamphlet war continued
between Protestant and Catholic groups in Ireland. Patrick was in the middle of this contentious
tug-of-war, with arguments over who could claim their lineage back to him, whether Rome sent
him, and what sort of church structure he established. Of course, some Irish Catholic churches
were more focused on looking to Continental influences than fighting about Patrick.266
261
Ibid., 119-123.
Ernest Rénan, “La Poésie des Races Celtiques,” Revue des Deux Mondes (February 1854): 474.
262
263
William Butler Yeats, The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore (Project Gutenberg EBook: 2003).
264
265
Ibid., 113.
266
Ibid., 127-135.
Giesbrecht 66
The Fifth Ring: 1900-1960
Alexander Carmichael (1832-1912) and his Carmina Gadelica mark the next ring. This
project focused on the gathering of the oral tradition (prayers, hymns, charms) from the Scottish
Hebrides and was motivated by the fear of the tradition disappearing. Carmichael saw himself as
saving this oral tradition, which the Protestant Reformers had forced into hiding.267 This view,
helped by physical isolation of the Hebrides, reinforced the idea of the Celtic Christians being
peripheral and marginalized. Though this project only included tradition from Scotland, its
results were projected on all traditionally Celtic areas. Douglas Hyde (1860-1949) published an
almost identical anthology for Ireland in 1906 called Religious Songs of Connacht, which has an
added lament for the disappearance of the Irish language.268
These works encouraged pride in the reclaiming of heritage. As mentioned previously,
Celtic Christianity became associated with the lower class and the marginalized Celtic peoples of
the British Isles. Carmichael and Hyde gave these people a voice and showed them that their
voice was relevant. Of course, this was not a reclaiming of heritage, since “Celtic” heritage is
somewhat fabricated. However, the term “Celtic” has for some been one of homecoming. In the
last hundred years, Celtic has become more of an emic identity than ever before. This
identification is popular among communities in places like the United States where people trace
their origins to the British Isles. Also, it presents a movement within the British Isles among the
Celtic-speaking peoples who have experienced a history of political and economic
marginalization and are seeking a different “national identity” to which they can better relate.
The Celtic revival has a hint of what Davies calls the “‘internalized other’ – a performative etic
which expresses the desire of many English-speaking people to identify with what they
267
Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica: Charms of the Gaels (Edinburgh, SCT: Floris Books, 1994), 24.
268
Douglas Hyde, The Religious Songs of Connacht (London, ENG: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906),
https://archive.org/details/religioussongsof02hydeiala.
Giesbrecht 67
perceived to be an alternative and exotic strand in their own historical evolution, otherwise
suppressed by what they perceived to be other less attractive identities of a more institutionalized
kind.”269 This etic is a trend that continues into the present. Increasingly, the application of the
term “indigenous” to the self-identifying Celts can be observed.270
The late 1930s saw an establishment of an institution that would shape the path of the
modern Celtic Christian movement. The Iona Community, founded in 1938 by George
MacLeod, was a project that began with the intent of restoring the Abbey buildings on Iona and
providing a place to equip Church of Scotland ministers for ministry. Though not explicitly
Celtic, MacLeod was known to shape stories of saints and traditions to fit his purposes. Though
not necessarily harmful, it is Iona’s place as a prominent leader in the modern Celtic revival that
makes this manipulative appropriation particularly relevant.271
The Sixth Ring: the Current Revival
Nostalgia and wishful thinking primarily fuel the current ring (or wave). Anti-
institutionalist Christians who are sick of the strictness and monotony of the Western Church
make up a portion of this wave’s supporters. Another portion is made up by traditionalists
seeking a tool and supplement for renewal and church growth.272 Ideals of feminism,
environmentalism, and simplicity are projected upon the saints of the past – ideals that were as
269
Oliver Davies, “Celtic Christianity: Texts and Representations,” in Celts and Christians, ed. Mark Atherton
(Cardiff, WAL: University of Wales Press, 2002), 28.
270
It will be interesting to see how the use of the term ‘indigenous’ will interact with the growing trend of the self-
identifying marginalized and oppressed white Westerner. For example, see Olivia Rudgard, “Pagans Demand Return
of Church Buildings ‘Stolen’ 1,300 Years Ago,” The Telegraph, August 27, 2017,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/27/pagans-demand-return-church-buildings-stolen-1300-years-ago/;
James Mackay and David Stirrup, “There Is No Such Thing as an ‘Indigenous’ Briton,” The Guardian, December
20, 2010, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/20/indigenous-britons-far-right.
271
Rosemary Power, “A Place of Community: ‘Celtic’ Iona and Institutional Religion,” Folklore 117, no. 1 (2006):
33–53, doi:10.1080/00155870500479919.
272
Ibid., 33.
Giesbrecht 68
contemporary to these saints as automobiles.273 The current revival is easy-to-swallow and
excellent for commercialism; selling CDs, books, decorations, and strengthening the spiritual
retreat industry. White middle-class westerners seem most attracted to this revival – or at least
they are the ones who can afford to attend the retreat centres.274 Modern Celtic Christianity is
largely an advertising campaign for its modern representatives, like Lindisfarne and Iona.
Though the modern Celtic Christian movement focuses on Columba and Aidan, Patrick
and Brigid are still present figures. Patrician studies were especially active in the early twentieth
century, with scholars like O’Rahilly and Bieler writing. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Dublin celebrated the 1,500 anniversary of Patrick’s death in 1961. As well, after the Troubles
(1960-1998), there has been some attempt to change Patrick from a symbol of Protestantism or
nationalism to be instead a reminder of a “common heritage in Christ through St Patrick, whose
spirituality predates our modern divisions and has had an influence on both Protestant and
Catholic traditions.”275 Meanwhile, both the feminist and the Celtic Pagan movement have
appropriated Brigid for their causes. As well, the Brigidine Sisters, a group of nuns founded in
1807, “returned” to Kildare in 1992 and relit the flame at Kildare.276 In 2009, a new sort of
hagiography came out in the form of the novel Brigit of Kildare by Heather Terrell, which plot
focuses on the hardship that Brigid may have experienced as a woman running Kildare.277
273
These are promoted by authors like Newell and refuted by historians like Hutton and Sheldrake. John Phillip
Newell, The Book of Creation: An Introduction to Celtic Spirituality (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1999); Philip
Sheldrake, Living In Between Worlds: Place and Journey in Celtic Spirituality (London, ENG: Darton, Longman,
and Todd Ltd, 1995), 71; Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, 252.
274
This is my observation when spending a week at Iona. Though the volunteers were made up of a larger range of
nationalities, the large majority of the people staying there fit into the description of being white, middle-class,
middle-aged (or older) Westerners. Though this could have been a coincidence, Rosemary Power remarks likewise
saying that “the roots of modem Celtic spirituality are understood to lie within current popular culture, in particular
that of the white middle class” (33). Power, “A Place of Community,” 33.
275
Celebrating Together (Corrymeela Community, 1998), 5.
276
Marcil-Johnston, “The Transformative Nature of Gender,” 76-78.
277
Heather Terrell, Brigid of Kildare (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2009).
Giesbrecht 69
The materialism of Western society has made the identity of the saints feel trivial,
perhaps reflecting stands within the modern Celtic Christian movement. Some scholars separate
modern Celtic Christianity from historical Celtic Christianity entirely. Joseph Witt writes in his
Master's thesis that “Celtic Christianity is a modern Christian spirituality movement allegedly
based on the beliefs and practices of pre-Christian and early Christian Celtic peoples.”278 He also
writes that Celtic Christianity is a “new type of nature-based religion” that “represents a modern
attempt to address ecological and social crises from a Christian religious framework.”279 The
understanding of “Celtic” in this context tends to be the projection of a homogenous and unified
insular cultural group.280 Hutton calls the modern expression “pseudo-Celtism.”281
Conclusion
Due to the fluid spirit of Celtic Christianity, the traditions of Patrick and Brigid were able
to evolve and adapt to their historical contexts. These evolutions parallel that of Celtic
Christianity in Ireland, thus serving as markers within the metaphorical tree. Throughout this
thesis, there has been a distinction between Celtic Christianity and modern Celtic Christianity.
Most simply put, historical Celtic Christianity contains Christians who grew up in a Celtic
Christian society without realizing that they were Celtic or they practiced Celtic Christianity.
Thus, modern Celtic Christianity contains Christians who self-identify as Celtic Christians or at
least see Celtic as something as which one can identify.282 Perhaps it is tempting to view the
modern strand as inauthentic. However, this judgment would contradict the spirit of Celtic
Christianity which, with its fluidity, has left room for freedom of expression and interpretation.
278
Joseph Dylan Witt, “Celtic Christianity and the Future of Religious Production” (University of Florida, 2006), v.
279
Ibid., v, 1.
280
Oliver Davies, The Classics of Western Spirituality: Celtic Spirituality (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1999), 7.
281
282
Of course, there will be overlap between these two Christianities, as I am describing their adherents, not the
Christianities themselves.
Giesbrecht 70
However, modern Celtic Christians have the same critical responsibility required of all
Christianities – to remain accountable to history as well as the message of Christ.283
283
This statement should not be taken as a contradiction to my insistence that Celtic Christianity has no core. This is
a statement about Christianity in general, of which Celtic Christianity is a part. Though this paper has been historical
and not theological, I have received feedback that I feel I need to address. Sometimes people find it difficult to view
Celtic Christianity as being within Christianity simply because it does not fit into their preconceived idea of
Christianity. However, it is my assumption, both in this paper and in general practice, that if a person or group of
people identifies themselves in a certain way, than that is what they are. Thus, if someone identifies as being a
follower of Christ, then that is what they are. According to 1 Corinthians 12, the Body of Christ is diverse and Christ
is what draws these parts together to function as one Body. To reiterate, Christ is both the heart as well as the
encompassing agent that draws these parts together into what is Christianity – not a specific worldview or
theological understanding of Christianity.
Giesbrecht 71
Conclusion
As with any religious tradition that has developed to be different from its original form,
Celtic Christians may be tempted to argue for the diversion back to the “core” or the “Golden
Age.” Alternatively, Celtic Christians with a strict view of orthodoxy and heresy may be tempted
to throw out what is “impure” and pagan. However, there is no core of Celtic Christianity. We
cannot go back to some Golden Age (or, for the Celtic Pagan, a time before Christianity), in part
because this time does not exist. Though Celtic Christianity does not have a core, it does have a
spirit. This fluid spirit was influenced by the Celtic culture of imagination and Druidic
storytelling. Due to the learned class’ stubbornness and loyalty to oral tradition, much of early
Celtic history was not written and so was forgotten. Thus, early Celtic history is like a mist or a
mirage, through which one can see impressions of silhouettes but no sharp details. In this
situation, we must deduce the shapes in the fog using what information we do have, such as
archaeology, second-hand sources, as well as resulting mental furniture found in later Celtic
Christian documents. This requires logic, as well as a fair bit of imagination. This imagination
has shaped the spirit of Celtic Christianity to be as fluid as the Celtic understanding of truth.
Patrick is the clearest image in the mist of early Celtic Christian history because of his
written material as well as the role tradition has given him. Contrary to common belief, he did
not single-handedly evangelize and establish Christianity in Ireland. Instead, the history of the
evangelism is more fluid, as Ireland was not as culturally and religiously isolated as is often
thought. The Christianization of Ireland was a result of many interactions between people over
time and was as fluid as the waters surrounding Ireland.
The fog-like Golden Age further enhanced this fluid and mystical nature and so allowed
for the growth and evolution of Celtic Christianity as it adapted to its surroundings. This
Giesbrecht 72
evolution is evidenced by the hagiographies and traditions of Patrick and Brigid, which serve as
markers of the rings of the tree of Celtic Christianity. Though rings may contradict or seem
incompatible with each other, each ring is fundamental to the growth of the tree and telling the
story of how the tree grew, adapted, and changed during periods of its life. The result is a new
strand of tree within the forest of Christianity, which shares commonalities with the other trees in
the forest, but also has unique characteristics. Thus, this tree has lessons to teach due to the fluid,
inspiring, adaptive spirit of imagination found within.
This adaptive spirit leaves room for a freedom of expression and interpretation. Thus,
judgment of the legitimacy of different streams of Celtic Christianity runs counter to the very
spirit of Celtic Christianity. For example, modern Celtic Christianity is not made legitimate by
historic accuracy but rather by the life given to it by its adherents. Perhaps this new life is what
will keep modern Celtic Christianity relevant in its current context. As Bradley says:
If Celtic Christianity, however reconstructed and reshaped, can help us not just to dream
but to put our dreams into reality by changing ourselves and our world and moving
forward in imitation of Christ and towards the Kingdom of God, then that for me is its
ultimate justification. I also happen to think that such a role is in keeping with its original
spirit, in so far as we can discern it through the mists of time, the clouds of romanticism
and the fog of legend that have enveloped and obscured it over the centuries.284
The fluid, paradoxical spirit of Celtic Christianity provides space for stories of the unimaginable
– that a slave can be free and can free those who enslaved him, a goddess can become a saint,
and a God can perform miracles. It provides space for hope – that there may one day be gender
equality or a healthy relationship to creation. It gives space to dream.
284
Ian Bradley, Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams (Edinburgh, SCT: Edinburgh University
Press, 1999), x.
Giesbrecht 73
However lovely this dreaming sounds, one cannot ignore that it is this space for dreaming
that has allowed Celtic Christianity to be an easily-claimed vessel for religious or political
propaganda. We should not reshape history to serve our desires. However, I believe there are
worse things than for a tradition to be linked with environmentalism, feminism, un-intrusive
mission, poetry, and art. It is when a tradition is skewed to promote hatred and intolerance that
we must be wary. Thus modern Celtic Christianity has the same critical responsibility required of
all Christianities – to remain accountable to history as well as the message of Christ. With the
growing amount of academic studies in the area of Celtic Christianity, I believe that this
accountability is possible. At the very least, a modern subscriber skimming the surface of Celtic
Christianity may be inspired to link creativity, equality, or environmental sustainability to their
spirituality in new ways. If they dig a little deeper, they may find other truths. Firstly, generally
speaking, generalizations are inaccurate. Secondly, we do not need to know (or make up) facts
about someone to know them and be inspired by them. In the case of Patrick, the humble Patrick
of the Confessio is just as inspiring (if not more) than the grand character found in Patrician
hagiography. Thirdly, truth can be in a story that is not historically true. Truth is not made true
by its adherance to facts, but the effects that the utterance that the truth has on the world. Like
modern Celtic Christianity, truth is made true by experience and the life that this experience
breathes into the world around it. Fourthly, it is okay to live on the threshold of paradox. Like in
the case of Brigid, living in this threshold allows for many different people and ideas to be
brought together in surprising and meaningful ways. Fifthly, culture has influenced all religions.
Religion is always based in culture and one does not gain honour by claiming otherwise. Finally,
the stories we are told shape us and we, in turn, shape the stories we tell. Thus, may the stories
that are told and received be stories of life-bearing truth.

Giesbrecht 74
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Celtic Christianity in Ireland, Jacqueline Giesbrecht, 2018

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CELTIC CHRISTIANITY IN IRELAND:

THE QUEST FOR THE SPIRIT OF CELTIC CHRISTIANITY

Submitted to the Faculty of

Canadian Mennonite University

Thesis Advisor: Dr. Karl Koop

Reader: Dr. Brian Froese

Celtic Christianity in Ireland:

Chapter 1: Entering the Fog – Early Celtic History ................................................................................ 16

Chapter 2: Remaining in the Fog – Christianity in Ireland ..................................................................... 36

landscape. My discovery of Celtic Christianity (the traditional Christianity of Wales, Cornwall,

I was writing a paper on what is called the Glastonbury myth.

either by Jesus or by Joseph, making it the first church in England.

experiences: my pilgrimage, most notably my time in Glastonbury, Lindisfarne, and Iona; my

to feminism, anti-institutionalization, or environmentalism. However, scholars like Ian Bradley

projections onto or appropriations of Celtic Christian themes for a specific religious-political

Carmichael’s (1832-1912) Carmina Gadelica,12 as well as the neo-Celtic Christian movement.

‘Paganism’ here refers to early Celtic mythology and tradition.

intricately detailed in what can be perceived as being a historical vacuum?

This freedom to engage in interpretation, however, has allowed Celtic Christianity to be

perhaps intentionally or through subconscious wishful thinking. Consequently, these features

becomes the perfect vessel for political or theological agendas.

modern Celtic Christianity relevant today.

or Bride) is a goddess of pre-Christian Ireland (sometimes in a triad of sisters) associated with

which cannot be pulled apart without each side losing something.

continued to shape Irish Christianity upon its arrival in Ireland.

the growth of the metaphorical tree of Celtic Christianity in Ireland.

otherwise) as linked to a modern nationality.

Chapter 1: Entering the Fog – Early Celtic History

related. If this is the case, does this history even matter?

made increasingly vibrant through extrapolation and imagination, resulting in a fluid

myth development and evolution in post-Christian Ireland.

The Celts of Europe

Miranda Aldhouse-Green writes of a gradual process that she calls ‘celiticisation’:

The Celts of the British Isles

century, Britain was without a doubt Anglo-Saxon.55

archaeological markers of a population immigrating to Ireland. Though there is a major break

written after the coming of Christianity to Ireland.

were thrown in deliberately and is evidence of a religious aspect in Celtic society.66

occasion, as it was featured in many stories; according to the eleventh-century pseudo-history

The Learned Class

this defiance or indifference, paraphrasing French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) to

been lost over time.

archaeological data” that their information is particularly valuable.95

movement between the various groups of the learned class.100

it this way. Tom Duddy explains this by saying:

individual’s right to continue in a position of power depended on his ability to ‘preserve

the world around him.108

The Christian Learned Class – The Case Study of Brigid

the syncretism found in the surviving material.125

influential, simply because of the role tradition has given him.

Chapter 2: Remaining in the Fog – Christianity in Ireland

The Autobiographical Patrick

Patrick by using his writings and not using hagiographies as sources.

version of Old Latin and Vulgate, as was common at the time.141

motivation of his mission but provided a reassurance of its importance.

Evangelism in a ‘Barbarian’ Society

Usually Christianizing required the society to be civilized (i.e., romanized) first.144

existed to embrace or assault missionary bishops."149 In addition, the kingdoms operated

bishops had nowhere to establish an ecclesiastical structure.152

If he faced all of these challenges, how was Patrick so successful in spreading

dynamic, authentic, an “eloquent speaker and a splendid storyteller,”157 and a graduate of a

and is how we should evangelize the “New Barbarians” of the West.158

there was not a pre-established “tradition of suspicion.”167 Christianity is a theologically-