A Brief History of Irish Monasticism

A BRIEF HISTORY OF IRISH MONASTICISM

by PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS

ST PATRICK was trained as a monk in Gaul.  Christian Gaul was under the influence of the old Greek colonies in south-eastern France and the monasticism of Gaul was of a similar character to the monasticism of Egypt - in the spirit of St Anthony.  The popularity of St Anthony is seen in the copies of St Athanasius' Life of St Anthony in the monastic libraries and more concretely in his image on many high crosses.

St Patrick was particularly influenced by his Gaulish monastic exemplar - St Martin of Tours.  Sulpicius' Life of St Martin was also widely available in Irish monasteries.  The Irish monastic communities followed the spirituality and practice of desert monasticism.  This was ascetic and altogether different from the monasticism that would develop on the continent under the Rule of St Benedict.  Benedictine monasticism paralleled the cenobitic  monasticim of Cappadocia influenced by St Basil.

Egyptian monasticism tended to be eremitic; this phenomenon, beloved of the Irish, was later common in Orthodox Russia.  The great Irish monasteries began as hermitagesw.  Anchorites such as St Enda attracted huge followings and thus laid the foundations of influential monasteries - St Kevin's in Glendalough was a good example of this.

When St Colmcille - whether voluntarily or otherwise - went to Iona in 563, he set a very important precedent in the development of the Irish church.  Ever after, Irish monks would seek to preach the Gospel overseas.

Very soon afterwards, Irish monks left their mark all over the continent.  St Columbanus was particularly influential in France and Italy, and his disciple St Gall established a monastery in a canton that still bears his name in Switzerland.  St Fiachra became particularly associated with Paris taxi-drivers.  All over the German-speaking world, the phenomenon of the Schottenklöster or "Scottish monastery" is indicative no of the Scots, but of the Irish.  Scotus was Latin for Gael.  There is a district in Vienna called Schottentor which is indicative of this Irish invasion.  Irish monks went as far east as Kiev and perhaps Novgorod.  St Brendan the Navigator may well have reached Newfoundland.

In time, the Irish monasteries in Europe adopted the Benedictine rule, but continued to be Irish in character until the Reformation.  The Schottenklöster were known for the asceticism of their monks; St Macarius was the prior of the Schottenkloster in Würzburg in the 1100s and he was said to have changed wine into water.  Würzburg is at the heart of the Franconian wine producing region along the Main.
Strict asceticism
Irish monasteries, as remarkable for their distinctive craftsmanship and scholarship as for their asceticism, fell into disarray due to the political instability of the following centuries.  The Viking raids maid a well-publicised impact; but many monasteries suffered at the hands of Irish nobles.

A reform movement was already in place at this time.  In around 800, the Céle Dé (Slaves of God) were established in Tallaght, Co Dublin, principally by the anchorite St Óengus.  The Céle Dé, also known as Culdees and currently fêted among New Agers, were an incredibly strict monastic movement, analogous to orders which developed later.  Their concept of stabilitas loci was very literal and they lived on a very meagre vegetarian diet - they seem to have anticipated the Carthusians.

The movement spread rapidly and soon had foundations all over Ireland - some more questionable than others.  The ninth century king-bishop of Munster and Cashel, Feilimid mac Crimthaind, was a Céle Dé.  Feilimid was both very able and politically astute.  He set about claiming the high kingship and nearly succeeded until he was killed in battle against the Uí Néill in 847.  During Feilimid's reign, the cause of reform had a momentum unlike at any other period.  Not many abbots would risk taking on his wrath at the time.
Malachy and Bernard
The political upheaval that began after the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 was damaging to the Church in Ireland.  Clontarf was no great victory; when Brian Boru died, the notion of a country under a single high king was established, but it was at least another century before a given dynasty established a claim to the high kingship.

In the late 11th century, the Irish Church faced another threat as the Archbishops of Canterbury began claiming jurisdiction over Ireland.  A movement of Irish Churchmen  saw it was important to for Irishmen to reform the Church here before others would come to reform it.  The star of this movement was St Malachy of Armagh - and the most significant element was the relationship of St Malachy to the most influential churchman of the day - St Bernard of Clairvaux.  The relics of Ss Malachy and Bernard are kept together before the high altar in the monastery of Clairvaux - and it is said they cannot be separated.

St Malachy introduced the Cistercians and the Augustinian canons regular into Ireland, and other orders followed.  When the Cistercian Pope Blessed Eugenius III was in exile, he asked St Bernard for advice and St Bernard told him to model his life on St Malachy.   Blessed Eugenius perhaps made the most significant contribution to the Irish Church in its whole history in 1152, when he sent John Cardinal Paparo as his legate to the Synod of Kells.

The embryonic Irish hierarchy erectic dioceses and petitioned for pallia for Armagh and Cashel.  This was not what Blessed Eugenius granted.  Cardinal Paparo delivered not two, but four pallia to Ireland - recognising Dublin and Tuam as metropolitian sees in addition to Armagh and Cashel.
English Pope's role
It is a tragedy of Irish history that there was rivalry between the Cistercians and Benedictines.  The more ascetic Cistercians held the upper hand in Ireland as they do today.  Blessed Eugenius had difficulties with King Stephen of England who retained the throne after a civil war against the Empress Matilda.  Eugenius was succeeded by the English Benedictine Adrian IV who had no sympathy for Cistercians and a better relationship with Matilda's son Henry II (who was later excommunicated for the murder of St Thomas Beckett).  Adrian issued the Bull Laudabiliter to Henry granting him Ireland as a papal fief, on the condition he would reform the Church.

So, within the space of a few years, a Cistercian pope saw the Irish church as being in such a good condition that it deserved four metropolitans, rather than just the two it had requested; and then a Benedictine pope came to the conclusion that the only hope for the Irish church was to entrust its reformation to a foreign monarch who happened to be a fellow countryman of his!

However, there is no doubt that the post-Norman invasion Irish Church maintained its vigour and continued to journey far afield.  To mention two examples, the tutor of the young St Thomas Aquinas was a teacher called Petrus de Hiberniae (Peter of Ireland).  One imagines he did a good job.  And when the Franciscans sent a mission to China in the mid-13th century, among the friars was Jacobus de Hiberniae (James of Ireland).  The Mongol dynasty was quite amenable to external ideas, including Christianity; and an archdiocese was erected in Beijing.  The Mongols were overthrown by the more inward looking Ming dynasty around the time the Black Death wreaked havoc with the Western Church.  And thus a tremendous opportunity was lost.
The Great Schism
In the later Middle Ages, the Irish Church suffered the decadence that was the lot of the Western Church after the Black Death.  Religious communities were particularly affected - and devastated.  The Great Schism of the West happened soon aftertwards.  It is well worth noting that two canonised saints of the Dominican Order, St Vincent Ferrer and St Catherine of Siena disagreed as to which purported Pope was legitimate.  Every order had at least two claimant superiors-general, based in Avignon and Rome.  And after the schism, there was still much disagreement as to the balance of power between a Council and a Pope.

The fifteenth century saw three of the mendicant orders - the Augustinians, Dominicans and Franciscans - develop reform movements within themselves.  These observantine congregations went back to their original rule, constitutions, spirituality and purposes, and also depended directly on the superior general rather than a local provincial who might have had political biases injurious to the interest of the order.  The observantine Augustinians particularly established themselves in the west of Ireland and principally among the Irish-speaking population.  This one bright spark offered a hope to the church which was standing on the brink of chaos.
Disaster on disaster
One immediate consequence of Henry VIII's schism was the suppression of religious houses in Ireland simply to gratify the avarice of the king's henchmen.  Some houses lasted as late as the reign of James I, but excepting a respite during Mary I's reign, the so-called Reformation led to one disaster after another for Ireland, culminating in the Penal Laws which lasted into the 19th century.

However, attempts were made to run religious houses in Ireland during penal times.  My favourite story relates to the presence of incognito Dominican nuns in Drogheda in the 17th century.  The local sheriff called to the house to discuss rumours of "Popish nuns" living there.  The prioress, an aristocratic Irishwoman, received him in her finest gown and put on all her airs and graces, dispelling the suggestion with the truthful statement: "Sir, the women in this house are no more Popish nuns than I am."
All over Europe
All this time, Irish religious houses were established all over the continent, many to parallel the Irish colleges there.  To this day, there is still an Irish Dominican convent in Lisbon and until the First World War there was an Irish Benedictine convent in Ypres (now Kylemore Abbey).  There were Irish religious houses in Paris, Louvain and Salamanca, all now tragically closed.  At one stage, there was an Irish college in Prague, associated with Charles University.

There were several other centres throughout the Catholic world which also provided Catholic gentlemen with education for vocations in the world.  A relative of Daniel O'Connell once said their clothes, their wine, their education and their religious were all contraband.  O'Connell and his brother were students at Douay at the time of the French Revolution and witnessed the bloodshed first hand - and the anti-religious nature of the revolution.  The Napoleonic era marked much upheaval for the church in Europe, so the relaxation of the penal laws afforded the Irish on the continent an opportunity to come home.

The 19th century was marked not only by the re-establishment of older religious orders in Ireland, or those founded on the continent in the interim, but by the foundation of new religious orders specifically for Irish needs: Blessed Ignatius Rice's Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers; Nano Nagle's Presentation Sisters; Mother Catherine McCauley's Sisters of Mercy; and Mother Mary Aikenhead's Sisters of Charity.  As Cardinal Cullen dominated the Irish church in the mid-nineteenth century, convents and monasteries dotted the country.

Once again the Irish took to the missions, building up the Church throughout the English-speaking world, prior to moving into more difficult territories.  Three endeavours arose from Maynooth  alone in the early 20th century.  Following the failure of the Maynooth Mission to India, the Maynooth Mission to China and the Maynooth Mission to Africa became the Society of St Columban and the Society of St Patrick.
A sudden drought
Religious life continued to expand in Ireland until the late 20th century, when it suddenly slowed down and went into reverse.  Religious houses closed.  Religious were no longer visible.  Religious spokesmen and women sent out mixed messages in a confused age.  The source of religious vocations suddenly dried up where only a short time ago they had been plentiful.

This is not altogether new in the Irish church.  Religious life in Ireland had many dark and bleak periods.  These coincided with a general decline in the health of the Church.  When the Church recovered, religious life was strong - but such a strengthening was evident in the fervour of the religious; the pride in which they wore their distinctive habits, practiced the ascetic life, proclaimed the teaching of the Church  in and out of season, and stuck to the original intention of their founders.

The world is not without such religious houses - more in France than anywhere else.  So when are we going to look once again to continental Europe for guidance?

The Brandsma Review, Issue 65, March-April 2003

Flawed Pedigree or Irish Charlemagne: The Legacy of Brian Boru

FLAWED PEDIGREE OR IRISH CHARLEMAGNE: THE LEGACY OF BRIAN BORU
By PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS

FROM ST PATRICK’S TIME TO the turn of the Millennium, Ireland was dominated by the Uí Néill dynasty. With their power-base in Meath and in Tyrone and Donegal, they effectively dominated the northern half of Ireland for centuries. Their only rivals on the island were based in Cashel. These were the Eóganacht of Munster. A couple of times in the centuries, the Eóganacht would manage to field a champion to rival the Uí Néill, but it did not happen very often. In the early ninth century, this was achieved by Feidlimid mac Crimthainn. Not only was Feidlimid King of Munster; he was also Bishop of Cashel; and he was a monk of the reforming Céle Dé (Slave of God) rule which had its origins in Tallaght in the 800s. Feidlimid was well able to use the secular arm to extend monastic reform. If an abbot proved obstinate, Feidlimid would carry out a raid leading contemporaries to observe that he burned more monasteries than any Norse chief. The presence of Feidlimid in various venues outside Munster at the head of an army was hardly unusual, as he attempted to wrest hegemony from the Uí Néill and almost succeeded. He died in 846.

A century and a half later would bring a more successful challenger from Munster onto a national stage which hardly existed before. One of the sub-kingdoms the Eóganacht maintained were the Déisi in what is now Waterford. Some of these made conquests in East Clare and adopted the moniker the Dál Cais. In 934, Cennétig mac Lorcáin became King of the Dál Cais. The Dál Cais were in the ascendent as their Eóganacht overlords declined. This brought some risk as four of Cennétig’s sons were killed in raids on the Dál Cais from both the Eóganacht and the Uí Néill prior to his own death in 951. But when he died, he was described as king of Thomond. His son Lachtna reigned until he was killed in 953 when he was succeeded by his brother Mathgamain.
Resentful Rivals
Mathgamain mac Cennétig was an extremely able ruler and was aware the kingship of Munster was in his grasp as only one branch of the Eóganachta could rival him. In 964, he occupied Cashel which seriously staked his claim. At this stage, he had allies as far afield as Waterford. Limerick proved a cockpit in the struggle for dominance of Munster and its Norse ruler Ivar was frequently driven out. In 974, Mathgamain was acting as King of Munster, but he had a number of resentful opponents. In 976, he was captured and put to death by his Eóganacht enemy Máel Muad and his allies. He was suceeded by his brother Brian Boruma, known to history as Brian Boru.

Brian’s first target on assuming the kingship of the Dál Cais was the coalition who had killed his brother. The Norse king of Limerick, Ivar was first. Brian killed him with two of his sons in the sanctuary of Inis Scataig (Scattery Island) in 977. Following this, he attacked the Uí Fidgente, an Eóganacht ally based in Co Limerick. In 978, he defeated Máel Muad, killed him and took hostages. At this stage, he consolidated his position in Munster. It would be a mistake to think Brian came from nowhere after his brother’s death. For many years he had been a leading political and martial figure within the Dál Cais and many of the tactics he employed were learned from experience. Brian’s biographer cast him in the light of Alfred the Great of England, fighting Norse here, there and everywhere as a young man. This is unlikely, but there was never any shortage of Norse mercenaries in the forces Brian found himself opposing.
Norse impact
The Norse had made an impact on Ireland in the late tenth century. They were now substantially Christianised and their ports were the centre of trade routes. They minted the first Irish coinage. Irish words for commerce and seafaring are largely derived from Scandinavian languages. Some Irish names betray Viking origin: most people are aware that as Lochlann is the Irish for Scandanavia, O’Loughlin and McLoughlin indicate descent from the Norse or Danes. Less obviously, Doyle is derived from Ua Dubhghaill or “dark foreigner”, as the brown-haired Danes were known (the Norse with the “fionn gall”, the blond foreigner). It is no coincidence that Doyle is most common in Dublin. But consider the name Higgins. In Irish, this is Ó hUiginn. When dealing with a language with neither “v” nor “k” and a people who still turn “ing” into “in’”, it becomes clear that Uiginn disguises the word viking. There are many more. If one were to question the depth of the Christianity of the Irish Norse in Dublin, Limerick and Waterford, one might ask the same question about the rest of Ireland or indeed the bulk of Christian Europe. The absorption of the Gospel was a very slow process. Slavery, plurality of wives among the nobility, and other horrors endured a long time. Pre-feudal western Europe was a warrior society barely aspiring to the civilisation of Byzantium. But the Norse left their mark on Ireland. Even without Norse troops, Norse armour and weaponry were adopted. Brian Boru was quite adept at using a naval arm in a lot of his campaigns, often attacking his enemies by land and sea simultaneously. He learned this from the Vikings.

In 982, Brian moved against the Osraige. This corresponds with the present-day Ossory diocese and if considered part of Leinster now, it was in the Munster sphere of influence in the first millennium. As Leinster emerged as a power in its own right late in this era, the buffer kingdom of Osraige wavered between Munster and Leinster. Brian sought to subordinate it to Munster with success that was clear enough to create conflict with the King of Tara, Máel Sechnaill II. The Uí Néill king invaded Clare, but this was no deterrant to Brian who sent a fleet up the Shannon the following year to attack Connaught. He then allied with the Norse of Waterford to attack Dublin and Leinster. Once again, Brian employed a coordinated amphibious attack against his enemies.  This time he invaded Meath in a direct challenge to Máel Sechnaill.

If Brian was going to challenge to the Uí Néill king, he would have to ensure his own position in Munster and in the late 980s, he did just that. He defeated his Déisi kinsmen and took hostages from Lismore, Emly and Cork. Once again, he sailed up the Shannon, attacking Meath and Connaught, though the detachment in Connaught was defeated. Máel Sechnaill invaded Munster, but in 997 he recognised Brian’s dominance over the southern half of Ireland.  At this stage, Leinster was conceded to the Munster sphere of influence. Leinster rebelled, but Máel Morda was captured and the Hiberno-Norse king of Dublin, Sitric was exiled. Both were forced to submit to Brian who was now challenging the King of Tara. Máel Sechnaill found a way to counter one of Brian’s favourite tactics: allying with Connaught, he bridged the Shannon making navigation difficult. But the following year, Brian defeated Meath and Connaught.
Emperor of the Irish
In 1005, Brian moved against Ulster. It should be remembered that Brian was a politician as well as a soldier and would take a diplomatic solution where possible. Leaving a donation of twenty ounces of gold in Armagh and recognising the Church of Armagh as the primatial see was an example of this. Brian was probably illiterate; most kings were. So his secretary signed the Book of Armagh for him. Brian was Imperator Scotorum, literally “Emperor of the Scots”, but the Latin Scotus is more accurately translated as “Gael”, and the Gael of Dál Riada had yet to give their name to Scotland, so the title is understood as Emperor of the Irish. Brian thus disclosed his admiration for Charlemagne (and his brass neck). The Church in Armagh were not indifferent to his endeavours as a more centralised kingdom along the lines of the Carolignian empire or Anglo-Saxon England was a logic that appealed to them. The administrative framework of centralisation would make things easier for the Church. The person of Brian Boru was another matter. The monks at Cashel very obligingly furnished him with a noble lineage going back to the legendary Eógain Mór who founded the Eóganachta.  Of course, the abbot of Cashel was himself an Eóganacht with strong feelings about a Dál Cais parvenu masquerading as something he was not, so he retained Brian’s authentic genealogy. Which goes to show that the politics of a flawed pedigree has a long history.

One after the other, Brian subdued the three Ulster kingdoms of the Ulaid, the Cenél Eógain and in 1011, the Cenél Conaill. At this stage, he was the undisputed High King, or in his own words, Emperor, of the Irish. One might ask what this meant. He certainly was not the effective ruler of Ireland. But he did, as an outsider, manage to gain what the Uí Néill dynasts claimed in principle for centuries, but never put into practice. He created the concept of the kingship of Ireland and showed how this could be gained and maintained. He was not an heroic figure, least of all for royalist legitimists among us. He was able, ruthless, cunning, ambitious and he thought strategically.  He exploited the divisions of his enemies. He understood the politics of the Irish Church and used it to his advantage: Armagh appreciated this was in its own interest. His horizons were much wider than the island of Ireland, as seen in the policies he employed. It is inevitable that a man like Brian will raise resentment, and this came from Leinster and Dublin in 1013. Sitric sought reinforcements from Man and the Isles and Brian assembled a coalition to counter them. Initially Brian had the numeric advantage, but a disagreement with Máel Sechnall evened the sides. They met at Clontarf on 23 April 1014, which was Good Friday that year. Irishmen and Norse fought on both sides. The main protagonists were all dead at the end of the day and Brian’s dream of a centralised Irish monarchy survived only as an idea thereafter, itself leading to more wars through the eleventh and twelfth centuries. But the possibility of an effective national kingdom died at Clontarf.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 131, March-April 2014