Everything about Celtic Christianity totally explained
Celtic Christianity, or
Insular Christianity (sometimes commonly called the
Celtic Church) broadly refers to the
Early Medieval Christian practice that developed around the Irish Sea in the 5th and 6th centuries: that is, among Celtic/British peoples such as the
Irish,
Scottish,
Welsh,
Cornish,
Manx,
Cumbrians, and
Gallic. It generally excludes the
Anglo-Saxons and some
Picts. In this sense, Celtic (or Insular) Christianity may be distinguished by certain unique traditions (especially matters of liturgy and ritual) that were different from those of the greater sub-Roman world.
The term “Celtic Christianity” is sometimes extended beyond the seventh century to describe later Christian practice in these areas; however, because the history of Irish, Welsh, Scots, Breton, Cornish, and Manx Churches diverges significantly after the eighth century (resulting in a great difference between even rival Irish traditions), historians generally avoid this use of the term in this context. Furthermore, historians don't employ the term “Celtic Church”, since that entails a sense of there being a unified and identifiable entity separated from greater Latin Christendom.
Identity and terminology
It is easy to exaggerate the cohesiveness of the
Celtic Christian communities. Scholars have long recognised that the term “Celtic Church” is simply inappropriate to describe Christianity among
Celtic-speaking peoples, since this would imply a notion of unity, or a self-identifying entity, that simply didn't exist. As Patrick Wormald explained, “One of the common misconceptions is that there was a ‘Roman Church’ to which the ‘Celtic’ was nationally opposed.” Celtic-speaking areas were part of Latin
Christendom as a whole, wherein a significant degree of liturgical and structural variation existed, along with a collective veneration of the
Bishop of Rome that was no less intense in Celtic areas. Nonetheless, it's possible to talk about certain traditions present in Celtic-speaking lands, and the development and spread of these traditions, especially in the sixth and seventh centuries. Some scholars have chosen to apply the term ‘Insular Christianity’ to this Christian practice that arose around the
Irish Sea, a cultural nexus in the sub-Roman period that has been called the ‘Celtic Mediterranean’. The term “Celtic Christianity” may also be employed simply in the sense of different Catholic practices, institutions, and saints amongst the Celtic peoples, in which case it could be used meaningfully well beyond the seventh century.
History
As the most remote province of the
Roman Empire,
Britain was reached by Christianity in the first few centuries of the Christian era, with the first recorded martyr in Britain being
St. Alban (during the reign of
Diocletian). The process of Christianisation intensified following the legalization of the religion under
Constantine in the
4th century, and its promotion by subsequent Christian emperors. In 407, the Empire withdrew its legions from the province to defend Italy from
Visigothic attack. The city of Rome would be sacked in 410, and the legions didn't permanently return to Britain. Thus, Roman governmental influence ended on the isle, and, with the following decline of Roman imperial political influence, Britain and the surrounding isles developed distinctively from the rest of the West. The Irish Sea acted as a centre from which a new culture developed among the Celtic peoples, and Christianity acted centrally in this process. What emerged, religiously, was a form of Insular Christianity, with certain distinct traditions and practices. The religion spread to
Ireland at this time, though the island had never been part of the
Roman Empire, establishing a unique organization around monasteries, rather than episcopal dioceses. Important figures in the process were SS.
Ninian,
Palladius, and
Patrick (the "Apostle to the Irish"). Meanwhile, this development was paralleled by the advent of the
Anglo-Saxon (English) migration / invasion into western Britain from
Frisia and other
Germanic areas, resulting in cultural hostility in Britain between the British and the (then pagan) English.
In the sixth and seventh centuries, Irish monks established monastic institutions in parts of modern day Scotland (especially
St. Columba, also known as Colum Cille), and on the
continent, particularly in Gaul (especially
St. Columbanus). Monks from
Iona, under
St. Aidan, then founded the See of
Lindisfarne in
Anglo-Saxon Northumbria in
635, whence Celtic practice heavily influenced northern England. These renewed links with the greater Latin West brought the Celtic-speaking peoples into close contact with other subgroups of Catholicism. Thus, the issue of certain customs and traditions particular to Insular Christianity became, to an extent, a matter of dispute, especially the matter of the proper calculation of Easter. Synods were held in Ireland, Gaul, and England (for example the
Synod of Whitby) where the Easter question was resolved, resulting in the adoption of one method for calculating Easter. A degree of variation continued, and to an extent was encouraged, evidenced by the issuance of a papal privilege by
Pope Honorius to the Columbanus’s monastery of
Bobbio freeing the institution for
Frankish episcopal oversight. Furthermore, the cultural exchange was mutual, evidenced by the spread of a uniquely Irish
penitential system, eventually adopted as a universal practice of the Church by the
Fourth Lateran Council of 1215.
Other important Celtic saints, or saints who influenced the development of Christianity amongst the Celtic-speaking peoples, include
SS. Dubricius,
Illtud,
David,
Cadoc,
Deiniol,
Samson,
Paul Aurelian,
Petroc,
Piran,
Ia,
Brigit,
Moluag,
Kentigern (aka Mungo), and
Germanus of Auxerre.
Distinctive traditions
Because Celtic Christianity is a broad term, it's difficult to define precisely which practices diverged from the remainder of the Latin West except in a general sense. In any specific area there will be exceptions to the list that follows.
Episcopal structure
By the seventh century, the established ecclesiastical structure for
Catholicism on the
Continent consisted of one
bishop for each
diocese. The bishop would reside in a “
see”, or a city able to support a
cathedral. This structure was in part based on the secular administrative organisation of the
Roman Empire, which had subdivided provinces into “dioceses” (see
Roman province).
It was after Christianity had spread throughout the Empire, and especially after the advent of the Christian Emperor
Constantine I, that dioceses had acquired an administrative function within the Church. Most of the Celtic world, however, had never been part of the Roman Empire, and even the notable exceptions of
Wales,
Devon, and
Cornwall were nonetheless without developed cities. Hence, a much different ecclesiastical structure was needed for Insular Christianity, especially in
Ireland.
What emerged was a structure based around
monastic networks ruled by
abbots. These abbots were of royal kin. The nobility who ruled over different tribes, and whose sources of power were rural estates, integrated the monastic institutions they established into their royal houses and domains. Abbots were
monastic, and thus were not necessarily
ordained (for example they were not necessarily
priests or bishops), and so bishops were still needed, since certain
sacramental functions were reserved only for the ordained; however, unlike on the Continent, these bishops had little authority within Celtic ecclesiastical structure.
Liturgical and ritual practices
Easter calculation
A distinguishing mark of Celtic Christianity was its distinct conservatism, even archaism. One example is their method of calculating Easter. Calculating the proper date of Easter was (and is) a complicated process involving a
lunisolar calendar. Various tables were produced in antiquity that attempted to calculate Easter for a series of years. Insular Christianity used a calculation table (Celtic-84) that was similar to one approved by St.
Jerome. However, by the sixth and seventh centuries it had become obsolete and had been replaced by those of
Victorius of Aquitaine and, more accurately, those of
Dionysius Exiguus. As the Celtic world established renewed contact with the Continent it became aware of the divergence; most groups, like the southern Irish, accepted the updated tables with relatively little difficulty, with the notable exception of monks from the
monastery of Iona and its many satellite institutions. For example, the southern Irish accepted the common Easter calculation at the Synod of Mag Léne around
630, as did the northern Irish at the Council of Birr around
697, and Northumbria with the
Synod of Whitby in 664. Nonetheless, in 716 Iona converted its practice.
Monastic tonsure
Irish monks kept a distinct
tonsure, or method of cutting one’s hair, to distinguish their social identity as monks (rather than warriors or peasants, who wore different styles of hair). The ‘Celtic’ tonsure involved cutting away the hair above one’s forehead. This differed from the prevailing custom, which was to shave the top of the head, leaving a halo of hair (in imitation of Christ’s
crown of thorns).
Penitentials
In Ireland a distinctive form of
penance developed, where confession was made privately to a priest, under the seal of secrecy, and where penance was given privately and ordinarily performed privately as well. Certain handbooks were made, called “penitentials”, designed as a guide for confessors and as a means of regularising the penance given for each particular sin.
In antiquity, penance had been a public ritual. Penitents were divided into a separate part of the church during liturgical worship, and they came to mass wearing
sackcloth and ashes in a process known as
exomologesis that often involved some form of general confession. There is evidence that this public penance was preceded by a private confession to a bishop or priest (
sacerdos), and it seems that, for some sins, private penance was allowed instead. Nonetheless, penance and reconciliation was prevailingly a public rite (sometimes unrepeatable), which included
absolution at its conclusion.
The Irish penitential practice spread throughout the continent, where the form of public penance had fallen into disuse.
St. Columbanus was credited with introducing the
medicamenta paentitentiae, the “medicines of penance”, to Gaul at a time when they'd come to be neglected. Though the process met some resistance, by 1215 the practice had become established as the norm, with the
Fourth Lateran Council establishing a canonical statute requiring confession at a minimum of once per year.
Achievement
The achievements of Christianity in the Celtic-speaking world are significant beyond what could be expected. Irish society, for example, had no history of literacy until the advent of Christianity, yet within a few generations of the arrival of the first missionaries the monastic and clerical class of the isle had become fully integrated with the culture of Latin letters. Besides just Latin, Irish ecclesiastics developed a written language for
Old Irish. Likewise, they adapted the Christian episcopal structure to an environment that was wholly different from the prevailing sub-Roman world. Irish monks also founded monastic networks throughout Gaul and
Northumbria, exerting a profound influence greater than many Continental centres that could boast much more ancient traditions. One example is the spread of the cult of
Peter within Gaul, which was largely the product of Irish influence, and the similar veneration for the papacy. Hence the first issuance of a papal privilege granting a monastery freedom from episcopal oversight was that of Pope Honorius I to one of Columbanus's institutions. But perhaps the best example is the development of the Irish penitential practice.
Myths and symbolism
The notion of a "Celtic Church," and its nature, has been a continual source of disagreement and
Symbolism, beginning especially with the
Protestant Reformation. Some Roman Catholic apologists portray the idea of a separate tradition from that of Rome as an anachronism and mythological, for example, authors such as
George Buchanan are suggested to have supplied “the initial propaganda for the makers of the Scottish Kirk” by inventing the notion of a national “Celtic” Church opposed to a “Roman” one. Any notion of a Celtic Church or unique tradition is completely rejected within the writings of some scholars. Patrick Wormald also observed that, “It is difficult to resist the impression that what Protestant
Confessionalism did for the idea of a ‘Celtic’ church until the 1960s is now being done by ‘
new age’ paganism,” based on notions of some sort of "Celtic spirituality" allegedly distinguished by a unique ‘closeness to nature’.
However, what might be accepted or rejected as historically factual doesn't detract from the symbolic nature of a Celtic Church which was overtaken by Romanised Christianity such that the
Reformation and related political events could be interpreted as return to true and original Christian traditions. Ultimately, we know a Celtic church tradition did exist, that a decision was made at Whitby to support the Roman church which resulted in its suppression. In varying degrees since the
Reformation, the basis for an equally historical, but temporarily suppressed Protestant church based on Celtic traditions, has been asserted. The historical legitimacy of this is debatable, but its symbolism is clear and was used by previous anti-Roman movements such as the
Lollards and followers of
John WyclifFurther Information
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