Celtic Christianity

The Celtic cross is a symbol for Celtic Christianity.

Celtic Christianity refers to the early Christian practice that came about in Ireland in the 4th century. Before Christianity, the Irsh had practiced a religion as complex as that of the Romans; both were polytheistic, with many gods. Celtic Chritianity grew during the 5th and the 6th centuries and was one of the most spiritual churches in the world during the Middle Ages.

Introduction

Christianity arrived late in Ireland because the Roman Empire never invaded the island. Consequently, Roman culture and its brand of Christianity had little influence on early Irish Christianity. The Celts' educated class, the Druids, had a long history of educational excellence and philosophic curiosity and so welcomed the new religion into Ireland, like for all other new information. The ancient Greeks had student exchanges with the Druids and considered them to be the other great philosophers in Europe. Perhaps the most famous Greek scholar to study under the Druids was Pythagoras.

Ireland is the only place to have no martyrs when Christianity came to its territory. That prompted the Irish Christians of later years to develop the "white martyrdom" of monks, who lived austere lives as "living martyrs." Christian worship had reached Ireland around 400 AD. Ireland was still a Celtic nation, which the Roman Church called pagan.

Contrary to common myth, the Irish did not abandon their Celtic culture for Christianity. Rather, Christianity was woven into their culture in what is called syncretism.

The Celtic cross reflects the mixture of the two cultures. Celtic culture, unlike the very linear philosophy of Rome and Greece, was built upon a very cyclical philosophy. It patterned itself after the seasonal cycles and life cycles that the Celts observed in their beloved natural world. The Celtic cross includes the cross to represent Christianity and the circle to represent the Celtic worldview.

Successes

Roman Christianity, like Roman culture, was a city-based culture. All of the letters of Saint Paul that made it into the official Roman canon of the New Testament were written to new churches in various Roman cities. The Latin word for Celt was Galli. Paul's Epistile to the Galatians was written to a Celtic settlement that was uncharacteristically urban in what is now Turkey.

For most of its early history, the Roman Church paid little attention to the country dweller, whom they called paganus, which is equivalent to the contemporary "redneck" or "country bumpkin." That meant that Roman missionaries did not Christianize the vast majority of the Europe. Instead, it was the monks from Ireland who were comfortable with the nature-loving ways of the paganus. They traveled to Continental Europe and taught Celtic Christianity to the country dwellers.

Perhaps the best-known myth about Celtic Christianity is that Saint Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland. However, Christianity had already become established there when Patrick began his ministry.

Despite Rome's later philosophic battles against it, like at the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD, Celtic Christianity remained the dominant form of Christianity in terms of numbers of adherents for the first years of the Christian era. Most modern Christians do not know that because Rome converted, suppressed, or killed the adherents of what they saw as a heresy. They removed all reference to Celtic Christianity's legacy from the libraries of Europe except the Irish libraries, whose material has been translated only since Irish independence in the early 20th century.Legends

Legend

Legend says that Celtic Christianity in Britain was founded by St. Joseph of Arimathea and that King Arthur is buried in his ruined abbey. According to legend, Joseph was a tin merchant who often came and went to the tin mines of Roman Britain. The cegend continues that he may have taken his nephew, Jesus, with him on some of those trips. Joseph then became the first keeper of the Holy Grail.

Celtic Christianity Media

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  A Celtic Cross in Knock, Ireland

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  Modern icon of Aristobulus of Britannia

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  Amphibalus baptizing converts, from The Life of St. Alban, written and illustrated by Matthew Paris († 1259)

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  The discovery of St. Alban's bones, illustrated in The Life of St. Alban

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  Columba at the gate of Bridei I's fortress, book illustration by Joseph Ratcliffe Skelton (1906)

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  A portrait of Augustine of Canterbury from an 8th-century manuscript of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

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  Statue of Saint Patrick at the Hill of Tara, Co. Meath, Ireland.

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  The Roman tonsure, in the shape of a crown, differing from the Irish tradition, which is unclear but involved shaving the hair from ear to ear in some fashion

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  Excerpt from the Martyrology of Oengus

Sources

• Dillard, John R. "The Celtic Apostolic Church - Brief History" (North Carolina, 2007).
• Cahill, Thomas "How the Irish Saved Civilization"
• Beresford Ellis, Peter CELTIC INHERITANCE, London: Constable, 1992. (A scholarly study of Celtic Christianity and of its history in each of the Celtic lands of northwestern Europe.)