Past Life - Present Mission (4)

Chapter 3: Christian life and mission in the light of Celtic Christianity

St Edmunds Tyseley

Tyseley is a large geographical area in East Birmingham, 2½ miles from the city centre, known as ‘the forgotten triangle’. It is an older working-class area of mixed residential and industrial land use with high proportions of minority ethnic people together with a rapidly increasing young family population with a high birth rate. Social needs in Tyseley included high levels of unemployment, large numbers of elder people and lone parents, a lack of youth facilities, congested roads and heavy industrial traffic, a polluted atmosphere, high levels of illness, and few open or play spaces. On my arrival at St Edmunds in 1989, a social worker told me:

“The thing you will soon discover about Tyseley people is that they have no hope. If they are middle-aged and unemployed they will never be employed again. What they have got in life now, won’t really be added to before they eventually die.”

The Church buildings and site were in need of refurbishment although the facilities were used by the community and the Church members viewed themselves as being an extended Christian family committed to being a church for their community. Change occurred in our situation as major building works were financed and completed and through an experimental Neighbourhood Project, StEdicare – Tyseley. The building works and StEdicare created an environment where, by the mid 1990s, we were motivated to search for a fresh and relevant set of Christian mission principles that applied both to our own lifestyle and were relevant to the local community. The use of Celtic materials in worship and study were a key part of developing this fresh approach.

Using the Biblical themes

Mitton’s biblical themes were used by three housegroups and several individuals (45 starters, 40 completers) as a set of notes with the following format:

1. Consider an historical story about one or more of the Celtic Saints which illustrates each Biblical theme.

2. Interpret the story and its theme and apply it to the Church of today.

3. Read a relevant Bible Passage for each theme.

4. Discuss questions arising from the text.

5. Conclude with prayer.

When each group had finished studying the material I visited them and discussed their response. Behind my approach lay the question: “Is it possible for an ancient form of indigenous Christianity to act as an important guide line for Christians living and mission in a deprived UPA 1500 years later?”

Responses

Category 1 responses: This included the majority of participants (a total of 32 out of 40), most of whom were long-term residents of Tyseley. As a group, Category 1 people were untroubled and perhaps unaware that there could be a problem in accepting, that an ancient, indigenous, Christian approach could be relevant to their own spiritual growth and awareness. In general they set aside what one might call the structural and historic differences between rural, agrarian people and themselves as urban dwellers immersed in the culture of Tyseley and St. Edmund’s Church. They were prepared to consider what the biblical theme itself offered. As a part of that, they accepted themes and aspects of themes that affirmed existing Christian life-style, and any challenge toward new ways for them, to live out that theme.

Category 1 people coped with the ‘Woven Cord’ programme notes through the strength of the story approach, and the sense of concreteness it brought to their discussions. The success and centrality of the story approach with its visual and descriptive imagery should not be lost sight of. Neither should the use of biographical content and illustrative testimony by group members, which became a positive part of their own involvement with the notes. The notes were totally focussed on examples of Celtic Christian principles and practices. So this was what participants accepted and applied to their lives. Equally themes which were not accepted reflect positive decisions as these emerged from the exploratory process they had practised.

People in this first category were warmed by stories of Celtic Christians and connected with them at a feeling level.

Category 2 responses: These people were a minority (8) of participants in the ‘Woven Cord’ programme. Category 2 people found the issue of responding to cultural knowledge and life style from an ancient Christian people somewhat difficult. They perceived the Celtic way to be ‘romantic’ and rural and, therefore, irrelevant. Their reasoning was academic and the question arose as to whether the use of ‘non-academic’ faculties such as intuition, story and art was viewed as a threat.

This also raised the question, are well-educated Christians who occupy a high social class but choose to live in or near a UPA and worship within it, less motivated to consider alternative Christian life-styles than the ones they currently live out? Whilst this is merely a possibility it could be relevant to the way mission was planned and structured in UPA parishes. After a lifetime’s involvement in working class areas, I am of the view that well-educated, professional people are needed to worship and live in UPAs. They have lots of gifts to offer, but the essential question is how effectively they relate to Christian living and life-style of local people who are long-term residents. In this instance the two categories seemed to be within two different worlds.

I asked myself the question, why were the Category 2 people so unaccepting of the Celtic themes? Various possibilities seemed relevant: What was their commitment to living in a UPA, was it for ‘Romantic’ reasons? Was their response related to the kind of worldview they implicitly accepted, which (perhaps) made receptivity to the past difficult? What theological position had they adopted with respect to tradition? Had they thought through the question of ancient text (the Bible) or story (the Celtic) in relation to contemporary life? Did they assume the Biblical text transcends the historical and cultural in a way which other texts do not?

Themes that resonated

The following are themes that particularly resonated with the Category 1 participants. They are themes that were transposed directly into their approach to Christian living, and are not presented in any particular order:

• The importance of authenticity, simplicity of life-style and holiness within daily Christian living.
• The centrality of the Bible and the commitment to living out its teaching in a direct manner.
• The acceptance of the presence of illness, death and dying and the significance of faith in relation to that awareness. ‘Life’ beyond the grave.
• The sense of unity with the world of creation.
• The reality of spiritual powers, including those of evil, and the fact of spiritual battle.
• The place, work and gifts of the Holy Spirit...Discernment, prophecy and healing.
• Acceptance of the ministry of women, and the place of children within the Christian setting.
• The importance of prayer in the daily life and worship of Christians.

Other themes that strongly emerged included:

• The possibility of experiencing peace, quietness of spirit and hope in the living out of faith.
• The sense of freedom in Christian living and worship.
• The awareness of Christian belonging and sharing faith with others.

Themes that did not resonate

In the main these were as follows:

• Celibacy seemed to be regarded as irrelevant to their lives. In terms of gender, their view and assumption was the acceptance of heterosexual family life as being the norm. 
• Asceticism was regarded as strange and irrelevant. They were aware of the challenge toward discipleship but now saw that in terms of direct Christian living within their daily lives. Asceticism was not applicable to their view of growing in holiness. 
• Poverty was a matter most knew something about. For them it had not involved choice. As a factor that was chosen as part of a Celt’s life of faith, it did not appeal to participants in the ‘Woven Cord’ programme. 
• Christian Monastic Community was ignored as significant to their lives. In general the response of participants was biased towards direct examples of Christian living as demonstrated in the ‘story’ approach. This particular theme illustrated their unreadiness to approach issues from the basis of Institutional life.
• Peregrinatio was discussed with interest and felt to be Biblical. We have already established that with most themes that resonated, they were then applied directly to people’s lives, especially any scriptural teaching. The fact this theme did not resonate related to the lack of feasibility for them to practice peregrinatio i.e. it was a Celtic Christian practice that did not transpose into their social structure. The fact it did not resonate, thereby showed the critical ability of Category 1 participants to show that not everything about Celtic Christianity was suitable for them.

The common denominator in these negative responses was that even where they were individual practices, they had a particular link with the institutional structure of the Celtic Church. As a result, there was not the same acceptance by the Category 1 participants.

Key factors

The key factors which made these themes of significant meaning were:

• People’s identity and self-image: Many UPA Christian people do not have a strong identity or confident self-image in relation to the wider society. They are not confident about many roles. Roles that for example, most middle-class people are automatically prepared for by family and life experience. In the Christian context of St. Edmund Tyseley that included such common roles as: becoming a Sunday School Teacher; taking a Bible reading in a Church Service; or joining a visiting team. All of the themes that resonated had this linking strength. Acceptance of the themes aided that person’s identity and self-image as a Christian believer.
• Direct applicability to everyday Christian life as a UPA person: The social context for the target group of Tyseley residents was one of ‘deprivation’ and marginalisation from affluent Britain. Within the Church context of St. Edmund’s there had been an absence of ‘hope’. The movement into using Celtic Christian principles and practices as a set of guide lines for spiritual growth within the Church reinforced in the mid 1990’s, a movement away from this no hope perception for the individual and the Church. As the ‘Woven Cord’ programme progressed there was an increasing awareness of the presence of God, a God who was at the centre of the new openness to directly apply the practice of Celtic spiritual material into daily living. The story of the way Celtic Christians saw and lived out their faith became relevant and accessible to participants. The manner in which this happened, suggested that Category 1 participant’s perception of renewed Christian living did not depend on institutional or social class definitions of the correct type of image or behaviour. One of the more significant changes in absorbing Celtic Christian practice, was the move away from coming to Church “to get your batteries charged” – to viewing Christian living as a daily affair involving prayer, worship and service to others. The themes that resonated had this “direct applicability” element to the participant’s everyday Christian life as a UPA person.
• Need for a sense of belonging and to find their Christian roots: Within UPAs’ there is usually found a locality-based, neighbourhood sense of community. Social networks are often locally based also. This, together with family and friendship networks, link strongly into a person’s identity and self-image. Tyseley has been very much a white community with a great emphasis on extended families. That structure is now in rapid change into a multi-ethnic community, surrounded by the influence of contemporary social values and rapid social change. This means there are areas of new vulnerability within the local neighbourhood, within family, Church life and for the individual. The whole structure of belonging and the sense of roots has been dislocated through rapid social change. It is hardly surprising that for Christian UPA believers, anything that helps their sense of belonging and discovery of significant roots is welcomed. This programme and its Celtic Christian backcloth together with the themes that resonated, strengthened the participants sense of belonging to each other and to God through Christ. Their sense of dignity and worth as a child of God gained new roots through their identity with Celtic Christians. A significant factor in this was that their faith was no longer to be so determined by their UPA human context or definitions about them stemming from social class attitudes and behaviour.

In the earlier Chapters I noted two developmental stages in the evolution of Celtic Christianity. First, the age of the Sancti, where there was a major focus on the Saints of the 4th-6th centuries AD. These were the men who were the Christian equivalent of the Celtic war-lord heroes of which Ninian, Patrick and Columba were distinguished examples. Second, this was followed by the movement into structures that were to characterise the Celtic Church, in particular monasticism and Peregrinatio from the early 6th Century onwards. The Themes that resonated with UPA people were particularly illustrated by stories from the first time period of the Celtic Sancti. The Themes that were rejected or ignored, were generally related to the period when the focus was upon the characteristic structures found within Celtic Christianity and its practice. In terms of the wider study of Celtic Christianity, both divisions include major themes. For future programmes the different contemporary contexts within which such themes may be placed, will help to determine whether they are regarded as major or minor Themes.

Implications for developing future programmes

Some excellent material has surfaced in the last few years, that greatly improves the position. This comes, for example, from the Rev. Martin Wallace who initially published a series of low cost, samizdat publications based on Celtic style talks given at St. Peter’s Chapel, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex. This was the Church St. Cedd built in 654 AD. Wallace’s basic value in writing such books was to “combine the lives of the Saints together with radical lessons for today.” These were followed in 1998 by Wallace’s “The Celtic Resource Book”. This excellent book uses the same type of worship resource material we used at St. Edmund’s, which included material from David Adam, the Carmina Gadelica, Wild Goose Publications (Iona), the Northumbrian Community and the like. Content is divided into sections that include: Liturgies; Prayers; Lessons from the Saints; Practical Meditation; Artistic Activities; and Going on Pilgrimage Today together with exploratory ideas on different ways of using the Resource book. Any future programmes about Celtic Christianity among UPA people would be helped by making use of Wallace’s ability to relate Celtic Spirituality into the context of modern urban living, particularly that of ‘deprived’ communities.

Learning patterns

The following were important to the way the Study developed:

• Celtic Christian prayers, poems and meditations used within Church worship from 1994.
• A series of sermons during 1996 that transposed Celtic approaches into life, living, and Christian faith within a UPA context. 
• The use of everyday objects as visual aids or as a sacramental symbol. For example: offering the congregation, after a sermon about Columba’s life and ministry, a small pebble from the beach on Iona where he landed. It was offered on condition that if accepted, the pebble would be used as a symbol for that person of a commitment to share the Good News about Jesus with others. Another image used was that of the ‘Open Gate,’ signifying movement in our Christian pilgrimage individually and as a Church.
• A series of visions that occurred at the time of a PCC Away Day in 1996 and their challenge about responding to the Spirit’s work in rebuilding Church relationships.

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David Fitzgerald & Dave Bainbridge - I Arise Today.

Past Life - Present Mission (3)

Chapter 2: The Celtic Saints: what can we know and how?

“Interest in and admiration for Celtic Christianity is booming. Books pour off the press telling the stories of 5th and 6th century British and Irish saints … offering a Celtic model of mission and church organisation … The appeal seems to extend across the theological and denominational spectrum, and well beyond the company of Christian believers, New Agers, post-modernists, liberals, feminists, environmentalists, evangelicals and charismatics identify with Celtic Christianity and call for a recovery of its key principles today.” The publishing fraternity has responded with “everything from weighty tomes on Celtic consciousness to some poor attempts at re-telling ancient Celtic myths and legends”. But these often create as much fog as light. How sure could we be sure then that Mitton’s fourteen themes accurately describe Celtic Christianity?

Issues

The romanticism and trendy nature of some contemporary literature on Celtic Christianity can obscure what the Celtic Christians actually believed while interpretations of the historical data can often be subjective reflections of established Church traditions. Patrick Thomas refers to a TV commentator’s comment during George Carey’s enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury that “the new Archbishop was the successor of St Augustine who brought Christianity to Britain in 597 AD”. Thomas comments, “it was the kind of statement calculated to make Welsh, Irish and Scottish hackles rise, as there were Christians in Britain long before St Augustine’s mission”.

Similarly, Basil Hume suggests that the deeper issue which lay behind the discussions about the date of Easter at the Synod of Whitby was this: “was the Christian Church in this Island going to be separate from the universal Church and develop along its own lines, or was it going to be part of the universal Church accepting the authority of the successor of Saint Peter?” The Synod of Whitby was actually the point at which the Celtic Church of the north and west was forced to bend the ecclesiastical knee to the Roman ‘Catholic’ (meaning universal) Church of the south. Hume’s historical perspective, therefore, is associated with a traditional belief system that claims dogmatic authority for the Roman Church and its claim of universal jurisdiction, which it certainly did not have in the 7th century AD. Instead, as F. E. Warren clearly asserted:

“[The Celtic Church was] orthodox (catholic), independent of Rome. Part of a vast communion existing in Britain and Ireland from which it expressed its mission to the Teutonic tribes of the continent. Its claims to Catholicity ignored or impugned by the European Church of Rome.”

Many writers insist that the heart of any in-depth understanding of Celtic Christianity and its spirituality is not merely intellectual or academic but is experiential. Esther De Waal suggests that:

“The Celtic way of seeing the world … cannot be understood only in cerebral terms. It speaks to the heart, is closer to poetry and like poetry, it must remain ultimately illusive.
You can come in,
You can come in a long way –
But you won’t be inside.”

However, this approach too can lead to total subjectivity. Mackey, for example, reveals that his assessment of the various papers for his book on Celtic Christianity was based on “whatever seems to reverberate within some depths of my own Celtic consciousness as that too has been formed by my learning and use from my earliest childhood of the Irish language that repository of a total and ancient culture”.

Elizabeth Culling berates Mackey for this specific inconsistency in historical objectivity saying: “If this kind of criterion is used to sift the evidence of history subjectivity takes over … A writer like Mackey is free to build up a picture of Celtic Christianity as characterised by a theology which excludes original sin and a natural world which is ‘altogether good and salvific’ for ‘the Celtic mentality’”.

Ninian

The problem of source material is illustrated in considering the life and work of Ninian at Whithorn, as there is no documentary or source evidence until about 300 years after his death. Charles Thomas suggests the following approach to achieve a level of historical critique about the Celtic Saints:

· Establish the primary sources: The visible and tangible ones e.g. St Patrick’s written “Confession” and “Letter to Coroticus” or the inscribed Latinus Stone of Whithorn and the stones found at Kirkmadrine, which are equivalent to contemporary and authoritative documents.

· Secondary sources usually based on oral traditions: Such as Bede’s comments about Ninian and Whithorn 300 years later or the 8th century “Miracula” poem which refers to the Whithorn period.

· Tertiary sources: These include peripheral allusions to Whithorn in the Irish context, the Medieval life by Aelred, the lengthy ecclesiology of Whithorn, and the whole body of commentary most of which has occurred during the last forty years.

An informed and culturally sensitive understanding of Celtic history must therefore be a prerequisite to entering into an experiential awareness of these ancient ways of thinking and acting. A point illustrated by the example of Ian Bradley who acknowledges that his early book The Celtic Way reflected the romantic approach that he now rejects. Nevertheless he suggests:

“If Celtic Christianity, however reconstructed and re-shaped, can help us not just to dream but put our dream into reality by changing ourselves and our world and moving forward in imitation of Christ and toward the kingdom of God, then … it is its ultimate justification.”

This is a summary of the hopes and vision that lay behind our approach at St Edmunds based on the belief that “the distinctive voice of the early indigenous Christian Communities of the British Isles speaks to us through all the layers of distortion and fabrication with which it has been overlaid". Ninian is a good example of this occurring, as is the following material on Patrick, Columba, monasticism and peregrinatio.

Patrick

According to the best estimates Patrick lived from 390 to 461 AD. Much literature about Patrick agrees that at age 16 he was captured by Irish (Scotti) raiders who returned with him to Ireland where he was enslaved, and used as a herdsman. Separated from his family, Patrick responded to the Christian faith becoming deeply committed to prolonged and intense prayer. Six years later he escaped from Ireland by ship to the Continent, but was eventually able to return to Britannia and his home. Whilst in his home environment, he had a dream that called him back to Ireland to preach Christ there and engage in mission.

The Annals of Ulster record Patrick’s arrival in Ireland as 432 AD. O’Laoghaire records the fact that less than 100 years after Patrick the structure of the Church in Ireland had become Celtic monastic, not Roman Diocesan. The subsequent wide scale emergence in Ireland of Celtic Monasticism linked to the rural, tribal system was based on Abbots who governed them. Bishops were often part of the monastery but rarely in control. This became the established model throughout Celtic Christian areas rather than the European Roman Diocesan model.

In his exploration of Patrick’s evangelistic method John Riordian analyses and evaluates Patrick’s handling of Christian belief as an evangelistic offer within the worldview of those who were living within Druid belief. Following Riordain’s argument, I suggest that we need to change the view that Patrick was a Romano-Briton who failed to convert Ireland to the Roman Diocesan approach, even though he subsequently became the Patron Saint of Ireland. Rather, he should be regarded as an outstanding Celtic Evangelist.

Riordain begins by pointing out that in Irish Druid culture “the Celtic understanding of reality, the gods and goddesses inhabited the hills, the mounds, the megalithic tombs, the lakes, the rivers and woods. The entire world was enveloped in a sort of nature faith. People were always in contact with the other world, the world of the supernatural. It was invisible but around one at all times and could certainly manifest itself at any moment.”

Riordain then discusses an episode outlined in the “Tripartite Life of Patrick”, which throws light on Patrick’s “missionary approach to a people surrounded by so many gods and goddesses”. Patrick meets two daughters of Laoghaire at the well of Clibach near Rathcrochan the Royal seat of Connacht. As they wash their hair in the well, Patrick and his clerics walked by in white robes. Not having seen them before, the Princesses think they are of the “Tuatha De Danann” (i.e. mythological Celtic gods and goddesses). Patrick starts to share his religion with them. When the eldest girl Eithane finds place to speak, she has a lot of questions for missionary Patrick:

“Who is God?
and Where is God?
Of whom is God?
And where is his dwelling?
Has he sons and daughters?
Gold and silver
This God of yours?
Is he ever living?
Is he Beautiful?
Was his son fostered by many?
Are his daughters dear and beautiful to the men of the world?
Is he in heaven
Or on earth
In the sea, in the rivers,
In the mountains
In the valleys?
Speak to us
Tidings of Him?
How will He be seen?
How is He loved?
How is He found?
Is it in youth
Or old age
He is found?”

Riordain suggests that in this series of questions Eithane is naturally thinking in terms of Druid religion, the Tuath De Danann faith. He notes that Patrick’s response does not contradict her. Indeed he endorses, while reforming and transcending her own assumptions. Patrick’s response is to present to Eithane and her companions a revised worldview:

“Our God is the God of all things,
The God of Heaven and Earth
The God of the sea and the streams
The God of the sun, moon and stars,
The God of the great high mountains and the deep glens.
The God above heaven, in heaven and under heaven,
And he has a household, heaven and earth,
and the sea and all that they contain.”

This is in contrast to the Druid impersonal concept of Nuirt. He unfolds the mystery of the God of all things, revealed in the person of Christ:

“The ancient religion far from being obliterated has in fact blossomed into its fullness. Having gone through the impersonal stages of ‘Nuirt’ and the semi-personal deification of nature, it reveals its full development in the incarnation. Nothing has been lost along the way and God is still as near as ever.”

Riordain suggests that “...if one is to understand Celtic religion and its spirituality … it is necessary to appreciate that continuity of thought”. Patrick’s basic approach to evangelism was not to argue or ‘put down’ the Druidic beliefs of the people, but to show them Christianity as a better way that brought fulfilment to their patterns of belief and world view.

Columba

Columba was born in Donegal, Ireland, of royal stock. As a young boy he was fostered by a priest who prepared him for the priesthood. Later, under St Finnian he studied at the Monastery of Molville (Leinster). After ordination he spent 15 years preaching and teaching in Ireland and founded a number of monasteries including ones at Derry and Durrow. He was skilled as a scribe at illumination of Biblical texts and it was alleged that he made a copy of the Psalms from the edition belonging to Finnian. Subsequently Finnian claimed the copy Columba had made as his own. This led to a massive and bloody battle at Cooldrevne (Cul Dreimne) in 561 AD.

Subsequently and on the advice of St Molaisse his Anmchara (spiritual director) Columba left Ireland on a wandering pilgrimage (peregrinatio). Molaisse condemned Columba to a permanent exile to undertake the conversion of as many Picts as were killed at the battle to Cul Dreimne, for which he held Columba responsible. This created for Columba a personal peregrinatio that was to involve both mission and evangelism.

Columba, aged 42 years, set out from the coast of Derry with twelve companions during 563. He was obliged, following his arrival in Iona, to journey to what is now Inverness to obtain permission from King Brude to establish a monastery at Iona. This was accomplished and Brude became impressed with the Christian faith through Columba’s influence and miracles.

The site where Columba chose to build the Iona monastery was a former Druid site. It was to become one of the great mission centres of the Celtic lands and an important seat of learning. During the early years of Columba’s ministry he developed a major emphasis on teaching and preparing monks for mission to the Irish Scotti. These were ethnically his own people, many of whom were responsive to Christianity. His Ionian approach was equally committed to evangelism amongst the pagan Picts and others in these islands and Europe. The late 6th century monastic approach Columba developed became widely adopted. Its rule of life required that the monks lived only for God, praying constantly, with regular study of the scriptures (the Psalms were held in deep veneration), owning no luxuries, eating only when hungry, sleeping only when tired. Novices studied in preparation for taking their monastic vows. The Venerable Bede in his “Ecclesiastical History of the English People” (completed in 731 AD) wrote that “the Iona community was characterised by their purity of life, love of God and loyalty to the monastic rules”.

When he died in 597 AD he left behind a well-organised network of monasteries (part of his family’s Paruchiae), all subordinate to Iona. This provided a stable structure for the survival of his monastic system, and subsequent Abbots came from his wider family. As a result Iona retained a long-term, central place within the Churches in Celtic lands, particularly in the Scottish Highlands and islands and later through Lindisfarne to Northumbria and wider to include European countries.

Monasticism

Monasteries often started in a small way with a group of monks, as did Iona. Others started as a lonely hermit’s prayer cell, which grew as other monks joined, until it became a monastery. Bradley describes the evolving monastic system within the Celtic areas as a “network of largely autonomous monasteries taking over many of the functions of schools run by Druid Filid or Bards”, and that this “fitted the scattered rural nature of the country much better than a highly centralised system of parishes and Dioceses which were designed for urban society.”

The Abbot was head in an authoritative as well as a spiritual sense. There was a mixed pattern in that some were celibate leaders (as in Columba’s Iona ‘Paruchiae’) but others included married people. Daily life revolved around the basic activities of prayer, study and work. There was usually a banked or walled enclosure within which would be built (depending on the size of the monastery) a church that was likely to have been constructed of wood; an Oratory; cells for the monks; storage buildings; a granary for food; cells for scribes; a teaching cell for adults and children. This was the context within which Christian faith in the Celtic era was mainly located.

Whilst Bishops continued to exercise their normal liturgical role, they were overshadowed as administrators and usually as spiritual leaders by powerful Abbots whose monasteries were linked to their own family (usually aristocratic) group known as a Paruchiae. The word refers to the family’s sphere of influence. Some Paruchiae were scattered over wide areas and yet formed an integrated unit of daughter monasteries.

The overriding importance of the Paruchiae monastic system was that it related to the central institution of tribal society namely: Kinship and local small Kingships known as Tuahs, with an over-lord as High King; and the Clan. Ian Bradley refers to Celtic society as “non-hierarchical and decentralised, being made up of a series of loosely organised and largely autonomous communities bound together by family ties much along the lines of the clan system in the Scottish Highlands.”

J. N. Hillgarth suggests that because of the fusion of the monastic system with tribal kinship and the kingship structure, particularly in Ireland, Christianity was able to triumph over Paganism. The 4th-7th centuries; the era of the Sancti, the Celtic Saints, was the critical period when Christianity became accepted, yet reflected its pagan background among the people. Pagan holy sites and even pagan gods had their association and attributes transferred to the incoming religion of Christianity.

The Celtic Saints during these centuries became the Christian equivalent of the pagan Celtic war-lord heroes. Hillgarth gives Columba as a classic example through his involvement in aristocratic feuds in Ireland, leading to the battle of Cul Dreimne. He is celebrated in praise psalms in old Irish, which catch key aspects of his life – the danger of sea voyages which he undertook with Irish monks when they “swept over the sea in boats…”. Adomnan, Columba’s biographer writing a century after his death, called Columba, ‘The Island Soldier’.

Nora Chadwick suggests that with the death of Columba in AD 597 and the widespread development and influence of the monastic system in Ireland and the British Isles during the 6th-7th century the era of the Sancti ended. The monastic system provided the main centres of Church life, deeply integrated into the tribal social structures of the Celtic rural world.

Peregrinatio

Peregrinatio originated in the 4th century, with a rapid development in the 5th to become a central principle widely practised within the Celtic Church by the 6th century. In order to identify the unique characteristics of this form of wandering pilgrimage, it is important to identify that it is not pilgrimage per se. The Biblical background to Peregrinatio was stated within the source material entitled, the Old Irish Life of Columba. It was regarded as a spiritual and practical challenge for Christians and its key characteristics were its wandering nature, pilgrimage with a personal and spiritual aim, and for many either mission or evangelism or both.

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Joanne Hogg - I Am The Great Sun.