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1. How Did Orthodoxy Reach Ireland?
How did Orthodox Christianity come to this small green island off
the shores of the European continent in the uttermost West? Unknown
to many, Christianity in Ireland does have an Apostolic foundation,
through the Apostles James and John, although the Apostles
themselves never actually visited there.
The Irish people were the westernmost extension of the vast
Celtic civilization—whose people called themselves the Gauls—which
stretched from southern Russia through Europe and eventually into
the British Isles. The vastness of Celtic/Gallic civilization is
evident in the names used to designate countries within its entire
territory: the land of Galatia in Asia Minor, Gaul (France), Galicia
(northwest Spain), and the land of the Gaels (Ireland). The Celtic
peoples (like the Jews) kept in very close contact with their
kinfolk across the Eurasian continent. When Christianity was first
being spread by the Apostles, those Celts who heard their preaching
and accepted it (seeing it as the completion of the best parts of
their ancient traditions and beliefs) immediately told their
relatives, traveling by sea and land along routes their ancestors
had followed since before 1000 b.c.
The two Apostles whose teachings had the greatest influence upon
the Celtic peoples were the brothers James and John, the sons of
Zebedee. After Pentecost, James first preached the Gospel to the
dispersed Israelites in Sardinia (an island in the Mediterranean Sea
off the east coast of Spain, which was used as a penal colony). From
there he went on to the Spanish mainland and traveled throughout the
northern part of Spain along the river Ebro, where his message was
eagerly heard by the Celtic/Iberian peoples, especially those in
Galicia. This area continued to be a portal to Ireland for many
centuries, especially for the transmission of the Good News.
John preached throughout the whole territory of Asia Minor
(modern-day Turkey), and the many peoples living there accepted
Christianity, including the Celtic peoples known as the Galatians
(in Cappadocia). These people also communicated with their relatives
throughout the Greco/Roman world of the time, especially those in
Gaul. By the middle of the 2nd century the Celtic Christians in Gaul
asked that a bishop be sent to them, and the Church sent St.
Irenaeus, who settled at Lyons on the Rhone river. Among the many
works St. Irenaeus accomplished, the most important were his mastery
of the language of the local Celtic people and his preaching to them
of the Christianity he had received from St. Polycarp, the disciple
of St. John the Theologian.
By the 4th century Christianity had reached all the Celtic peoples,
and this "leaven" was preparing people's hearts to receive the
second burst of Christian missionary outreach to the Celts, through
St. Hilary and St. Martin.
The seeds that St. Irenaeus planted bore abundant fruit in the
person of St. Hilary of Poitiers, who, having lived in Asia Minor,
would be the link between East and West, transmitting Orthodoxy in
its fullness to the Celtic peoples. He was not only a great defender
of the Faith, but also a great lover of monasticism. This Orthodox
Faith and love for monasticism was poured into a fitting
vessel—Hilary's disciple, St. Martin of Tours, who was to become the
spiritual forefather of the Irish people. What Saints Athanasius and
Anthony the Great were to Christianity in the East, Saints Hiliary
and Martin were to the West.
By the 4th century an ascetic/monastic revival was occurring
throughout Christendom, and in the West this revival was being led
by St. Martin. The Monastery of Marmoutier which St. Martin founded
near Tours (on the Loire in western France) served as the training
ground for generations of monastic aspirants drawn from the
Romano-Celtic nobility. It was also the spiritual school that bred
the first great missionaries to the British Isles. The way of life
led at Marmoutier harmonized perfectly with the Celtic soul. Martin
and his followers were contemplatives, yet they alternated their
times of silence and prayer with periods of active labor out of love
for their neighbor.
Some of the monks who were formed in St. Martin's "school"
brought this pattern back to their Celtic homelands in Britain,
Scotland and Wales. Such missionaries included Publicius, a son of
the Roman emperor Maximus who was converted by St. Martin, and who
went on to found the Llanbeblig Monastery in Wales—among the first
of over 500 Welsh monasteries. Another famous disciple of St. Martin
was St. Ninian, who traveled to Gaul to receive monastic training at
St. Martin's feet, and then returned to Scotland, where he
established Candida Casa at Whithorn, with its church dedicated to
St. Martin. The waterways between Ireland and Britain had been
continually traversed by Celtic merchants, travelers, raiders and
slave-traders for many centuries past, so the Irish immediately
heard the Good News brought to Wales and Scotland by these disciples
of Ninian.
About the same time that the missionaries were traveling to and
from Candida Casa amidst all this maritime activity, a young man
named Patrick was captured by an Irish raiding party that sacked the
far northwestern coasts of Britain, and he was carried back to
Ireland to be sold as a slave. While suffering in exile in
conditions of slavery for years, this deacon's son awoke to the
Christian faith he had been reared in. His zeal was so strong that,
after God granted him freedom in a miraculous way, his heart was
fired with a deep love for the people he had lived among, and he
yearned to bring them to the light of the Gospel Truth. After
spending some time in the land of Gaul in the Monastery of Lerins,
St. Patrick (†451), was
consecrated to the episcopacy. He returned to Ireland and preached
with great fervor throughout the land, converting many local
chieftains and forming many monastic communities, especially
convents.
It was during the time immediately following St. Patrick's death,
in the latter part of the 5th century, that God's Providence brought
all the separate streams of Christianity in Ireland into one mighty
rushing river.
While St. Patrick's disciples continued his work of preaching and
founding monastic communities—it was his disciple, St. Mael of
Ardagh (†481), for example, who tonsured the great
St. Brigid of Kildare
(†523)—several other saints who were St. Patrick's younger
contemporaries began to labor in the vineyard of Christ. These
included Saints Declan of Ardmore (†5th c.), Ailbhe of Emly (†527),
and Kieran of Saighir
(†5th c.).
Then came young Enda from the far
western islands of Aran (off the west coast of Ireland). He studied
with St. Ninian at Whithorn, and thus received the flame of St.
Martin's spiritual lineage with its ascetical training and mystical
aspirations. Having been fully formed in the Faith, St. Enda (†530)
returned to the Aran Islands, where he founded a monastery in the
ancient tradition. It was on the Aran Islands that the traditional
founder of the Irish monastic movement,
St. Finian, drank deep of the
monastic tradition established by St. Martin. Before Finian's death
in a.d. 548, he founded the monastery of Clonard and was the
instructor of a whole generation of monks who became great founders
of monasteries throughout Ireland, and great missionaries as well.
The most famous of his disciples were named the "Twelve Apostles of
Ireland," and included Saints Brendan the Navigator, Brendan of
Birr, Columba of Iona, Columba of
Terryglass, Comgall of Bangor, Finian of Moville, Mobhi of Glasnevin,
Molaise of Devenish, Ninnidh of Inismacsaint, Sinnell of Cleenish,
Ruadhan of Lorrha, and the great monastic father Kieran of
Clonmacnois. By the middle of the 6th century these men and their
disciples had founded hundreds of monasteries throughout the land
and had converted all the Irish. And that was only the beginning...
2. Why was Christianity Received so Quickly in Ireland?
Why were the Celtic peoples able to receive Christianity so
readily and so eagerly? The Church Fathers state that God prepared
all peoples before the Incarnation of Christ to receive the fullness
of Truth, Christianity. To the Jews He gave the Israelite
revelation. Among the pagans, faint foreshadowings of the coming
revelation were present in some of their beliefs and best qualities.
The Celtic peoples were no different—in some ways they were better
off than most pagans.
On a natural level, the Celtic peoples had a great love of beauty
which found overflowing expression as the Christian Faith, arts and
culture developed in Ireland. Their extreme and fiery nature, which
had previously been expressed through war and bloodshed, now
manifested itself in great ascetic labors and missionary zeal
undertaken for love of God and neighbor.
Their great reverence for knowledge, especially manifested in
lore, ancient history and law, made it easy for them to have great
respect for the ancient forms and theology of the Church, which were
based in ancient Israelite tradition. They had a great love for, and
almost religious belief in, the power of the spoken word—especially
in "prophetic utterances" delivered by their Druid poets and seers.
These perceived manifestations of "the wisdom of the Other World"
were held in great respect and awe by the Irish, as transmissions of
the will of the gods, which could only be resisted at great peril.
When many of their Druid teachers wholeheartedly accepted
Christianity, and as Christians spoke the revealed word of God from
the Scriptures or from the Holy Spirit's direct revelation, the
people listened and obeyed. The Irish possessed an intricate and
detailed religious belief system that was primarily centered in a
worship of the sun, and a tri-theistic numerology—often manifesting
itself in venerating gods in threes, collecting sayings in threes
(triads), etc.—which led to the easy acceptance of the true
fulfillment of this intuition in the worship of the Holy Trinity.
They also treasured a very strong belief in the afterlife, conceived
as a paradisal heavenworld in the "West" to which the souls of the
dead passed to a life of immortal youth, beauty and joy.
Even the societal structure of the Celts in Ireland prepared its
peoples for Christianity. In contrast to the urban-centered and
highly organized mindset which prevailed in the lands under Roman
rule, Ireland (which was never conquered) preserved the ancient
family- and communal-based patterns of rural societies. They did not
build cities or towns, but settled in small villages or individual
family farm holdings. The only recognized "unit" was the tribe and
its various family clans, centered around their king's royal hill
fort. The economy remained wholly pastoral, in no way resembling the
Roman urban and civil systems. There were no city centers. The
original apostolic family-based model of an ascetic community, and
its later monastery-based form, manifested themselves in Ireland as
a natural completion of what was already present. Finally, the
leadership and teaching roles previously held by the Druids, poets,
lawyers and their schools were naturally assumed by the monks and
bishops of the Church and their monasteries.
3. How Christianity Manifested Itself in Ireland
It was precisely because the monastic communities were like
loving families that they had such a long-lasting and complete
influence on the Irish people as a whole. These schools were the
seedbeds of saints and scholars: literally thousands of young men
and women received their formation in these communities. Some of
them would stay and enter fully into monastic life, while others
would return to their homes, marry, and raise their children in
accordance with the profound Christian way of life that they had
assimilated in the monastery. Some of the monks, either inspired by
a desire for greater solitude, or by zeal to give what they had
received to others, would leave the shores of their beloved homeland
and set out "on pilgrimage for Christ" to other countries. Once
again they would travel along paths previously trodden by their
ancestors—both the pagans of long ago, and Christian pilgrims of
more recent times.
Because these monastic communities were centers of spiritual
transformation and intense ascetic practice, they generated a
dynamic environment which catalyzed the intellectual and artistic
gifts of the Irish people, and laid them before the feet of Christ.
In these monasteries, learning as well as sanctity was encouraged.
The Irish avidly learned to write in Latin script, memorized long
portions of the Scriptures (especially the Psalms), and even
developed a written form for their exceedingly ancient oral
traditions. When the Germanic peoples invaded the Continent (a.d.
400–550), the Gallic and Spanish scholars fled to Ireland with their
books and traditions of the Greco-Roman Classical Age. In Ireland
these books were zealously absorbed, treasured and passed on for
centuries to come. Many Irish monks dedicated their whole lives to
copying the Scriptures—the Old and New Testaments, as well as
related writings—and often illuminated the manuscript pages with an
intricate and beautiful art that is one of the wonders of the world.
4. The Significance of the Orthodox Church in Ireland for
Today
Much has been written about Ireland's wandering missionary
scholars (see Thomas Cahill's bestselling book, How the Irish Saved
Civilization). The vibrant, community-centered way of life and the
deep, broad, ascetic-based scholarship of the Irish monks
revitalized the faith of Western European peoples, who were both
devastated by wave after wave of barbarian invasions and threatened
by Arianism. More than this, the Irish monks evangelized both the
pagan conquerors and those Northern and Eastern European lands where
the Gospel had never taken root.
For Orthodox Christians, however, there are further lessons to be
gained from the examples of the Irish saints. These saints were
formed in a monastic Christian culture almost solely based on the
"one thing needful" and the otherworldly essence of Christian life.
They represented Christ's Empire, and no other. They were Christ's
warriors, motivated solely by love of God and neighbor, acting in
accordance with a clear and firmly envisioned set of values and the
goal of Heaven. Such selfless embodiments of Christian virtues are
all the more important to us today, who live in an age characterized
by the absence of such qualities. The unwavering dedication of the
Irish monks drew the Holy Spirit to them. And when He came, He not
only deepened and established their already-present resolution, but
also filled them with the energy and grace to carry it out. This is
what is needed and yearned for today.
The task of the Orthodox Christian convert in the West today is
to bridge the gap between our time and the neglected and forgotten
saints of Western Europe, who were our spiritual forebears. As St.
Arsenios of Cappadocia (†1924) said: "Britain will only become
Orthodox when she once again begins to venerate her saints." In this
task we are very fortunate to have had a living example of one who
did this: St. John Maximovitch. During his years as a hierarch he
was appointed to many different lands, including France and Holland.
One of the first things he set out to do upon reaching a new country
was to tirelessly seek out, venerate and promote the Orthodox saints
of that land, that he might enter into spiritual relationship with
those who did the work before him, and enlist their help in his
attempts to continue their task. He considered the glorification and
promotion of local Orthodox saints as one of the most important
works that a hierarch could do for his flock.
We too must actively labor to venerate our ancestral saints, and
must enter into spiritual relationship with them as St. John did.
While we should not merely "appreciate" their lives and their
example as an intellectual or aesthetic exercise, neither should we
selectively reinterpret their examples and way of life in the light
of modern fashions and "spiritualities." We should, through our
efforts, strive to bring these saints into as clear a focus as
possible before our mind's eye, reminding ourselves of the fact that
they are alive and are our friends and spiritual mentors. The saints
are, according to St. Justin Popovich of Serbia (†1979), the
continuation of the life of Christ on earth, as He comes and dwells
within the "lively stones" (cf. I Peter 2:5) that constitute His
Body, the Church (cf. Eph. 1:22–23). Therefore, honor given to the
saints is honor given to Christ; and it is by giving honor to Christ
that we prepare ourselves to receive the Holy Spirit.
May the saints of Ireland come close to us and bring us to the
Heavenly Kingdom together with them. Amen.
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Short Lives of Irish Saints Found in the 2003 St. Herman Calendar
ST.
KIERAN OF CLONMACNOIS
September 9 (†545)
The great St. Columba of Iona (June 9, †597) described St. Kieran
as a lamp, blazing with the light of knowledge, whose monastery
brought wisdom to all the churches of Ireland. This earthly angel
and otherworldly man was born in 512, the son of a carpenter who
built war chariots. He was spiritually raised by St. Finian in
Clonard (December 12, †549) and was counted among his "twelve
apostles to Ireland." After spending some time in Clonard, the
childlike, pure, innocent, humble and loving Kieran set off to dwell
in the wilderness with his God. After three years, when more and
more disciples began to come to him, he finally established a
monastery in obedience to a divine decree shortly before he reposed.
He was taken by his Lord to dwell with Him eternally at the age of
33. "Having lived a short time, he fulfilled a long time, for his
soul pleased the Lord" (Wisdom 4:13).
ST.
KENNETH OF KILKENNY
October 11 (†600)
St. Kenneth was the son of a scholar-poet from Ulster. By race he
was an Irish Pict and spoke the Pictish language. He was a disciple
of the great monastic Saints Finian of Clonard (December 12, †549),
Comgall of Bangor (May 11, †603), Kieran of Clonmacnois (September
9, †545) and Mobhi of Glasnevin (October 12, †544). After the death
of St. Mobhi he took counsel from St. Finian. As a result (says the
Martyrology of Oengus), St. Kenneth sailed off to Scotland. There he
lived for a while on the isle of Texa, according to The Life of St.
Columba by St. Adamnan of Iona (September 23, †704). While there he
often visited his old friend St. Columba (who had lived with him in
Glasnevin before departing for Iona) and helped him in his
missionary labors to the Picts. Later, he traveled back to Ireland,
where he founded the Monasteries of Aghaboe and Kilkenny before his
death in the year 600.
ST.
FINIAN OF CLONARD
December 12 (†549)
St. Finian, known as the "Tutor of the Saints of Ireland," stands
with St. Enda of Aran at the head of the patriarchs of Irish
monasticism. He showed great zeal and piety for God from his youth.
He had already founded three churches before he set off for Wales to
study at the feet of St. Cadoc at Llancarfan (September 25, †577).
In Llancarfan he became close friends with St. Gildas (January 29,
†ca. 570), another of St. Cadoc's disciples. Upon his return to
Ireland, he founded the great Monastery of Clonard during the very
same year the great St. Enda (March 21, †530 ) reposed in Aran. A
multitude of illustrious and holy men studied under St. Finian,
including the famous "Twelve Apostles of Ireland." St. Finian
founded many other monasteries during his lifetime, including the
famous island monastery of Skellig Michael off the southwest coast
of Ireland.
ST. ITA OF KILEEDY
January 15 (†570)
The gentle and motherly St. Ita was descended from the high kings
of Tara. From her youth she loved God ardently and shone with the
radiance of a soul that loves virtue. Because of her purity of heart
she was able to hear the voice of God and communicate it to others.
Despite her father's opposition she embraced the monastic life in
her youth. In obedience to the revelation of an angel she went to
the people of Ui Conaill in the southwestern part of Ireland. While
there, the foundation of a convent was laid. It soon grew into a
monastic school for the education of boys, quickly becoming known
for its high level of learning and moral purity. The most famous of
her many students was St. Brendan of Clonfert (May 16, †577). She
went to the other world in great holiness to dwell forever with the
risen Lord in the year 570.
ST.
BRIGID OF KILDARE
February 1 (†523)
The well-known founder and abbess of the Monastery of Kildare has
been revered and loved throughout Europe for almost fifteen hundred
years. While she was still a young woman, her unbounded compassion
for the poor, the sick and the suffering grew to such proportions as
to shelter all of Ireland. St. Brigid's tonsure at the hands of St.
Mael of Ardagh (February 6, †488) inaugurated the beginning of
women's coenobitic monasticism in Ireland. St. Brigid soon expanded
it by founding many other convents throughout Ireland. The gifts of
the Holy Spirit shine brightly upon all through her—both men and
beasts—to this day. After receiving Holy Communion at Kildare from
St. Ninnidh of Inismacsaint (January 18, †6th c.) she gave her soul
into the hands of her Lord in 523.
ST. GOBNAIT OF BALLYVOURNEY
February 11 (†7th c.)
The future abbess and founder of the Ballyvourney Convent was
born in the 6th century in the southern lands of Ireland. To escape
a feud within their family, her household fled west to the Aran
Islands and dwelt there for some time. It is possible that her
family accepted Christianity while living in the islands. Gobnait
began to zealously manifest her faith through her deeds, founding a
church on the Inisheer Island. When she returned east with her
family, she encountered St. Abban of Kilabban (March 16, †650), who
became her spiritual mentor. Her family, greatly moved by their
daughter's faith, gave her the land on which she and St. Abban
founded the Monastery of Ballyvourney. In Ballyvourney her sanctity
quickly revealed itself, especially through the abundant healings
God worked through her prayers. Even the many bees that she kept
paid her obedience, driving off brigands and other unwelcome
visitors.
ST.
OENGUS THE CULDEE
March 11 (†824)
While still a youth St. Oengus entered the Monastery of
Cluain-Edneach, which was renowned for its strict ascetic life and
was directed by St. Malathgeny (October 21, †767). He had an
especially great love for the Lives of the Saints. After his
ordination to the priesthood, he withdrew to a life of solitude. For
his holy way of life many called him the "Céile Dé" (Culdee) or "the
friend of God." After many people disturbed his solitude, he slipped
away secretly and entered the Monastery of Tallaght, which was then
directed by St. Maelruin (July 7, †792). He entered the monastery as
a lay worker, laboring at the most menial tasks for seven years
until God revealed his identity to St. Maelruin. There he mortified
his flesh with such ascetic feats as standing in icy water. St.
Oengus wrote the Martyrology of Tallaght with St. Maelruin. After
Maelruin's death in 792, St. Oengus returned to Cluain-Edneach and
wrote many more works in praise of the saints, including his
well-known Martyrology and the Book of Litanies. He reposed in 824
and became the first hagiographer of Ireland.
ST.
PATRICK OF IRELAND
March 17 (†451)
The most famous of all the saints of the Emerald Isle is
undoubtedly her illustrious patron St. Patrick. Reared in Britain
and the son of a deacon, St. Patrick was captured and enslaved by
Irish raiders while still a youth. Thus, he was carried off to the
land he would later enlighten with the Gospel: Ireland. During his
captivity, the faith of his youth was aroused in him, and shortly
thereafter he miraculously escaped his servitude. Some years later,
he received a divine call to bring his new-found faith back to the
Irish. For this task, he prepared as best he could in Gaul, learning
from St. Germanus of Auxerre (July 31, †448) and the fathers of the
Monastery of Lerins. While in Ireland he ceaselessly traveled and
preached the Christian Faith to his beloved Irish people for almost
twenty years until his blessed repose in 451.
ST. ENDA OF
ARAN
March 21 (†530)
St. Enda is described as the "patriarch of Irish monasticism."
After many years living as a warrior-king of Conall Derg in Oriel,
St. Enda embraced the monastic life. His interest in monasticism
originally grew as a result of the death of a young prospective
bride staying in the community of his elder sister, St. Fanchea
(January 1, †ca. 520). St. Fanchea suggested that he enter the
Whithorn Monastery in southwestern Scotland. After some years in
Whithorn he returned to Ireland and settled on the fallow, lonely
Aran Islands off her western shores. During the forty years of his
severe ascetic life there, he fathered many spiritual
disciples—including Sts. Jarlath of Cluain Fois (June 6, †560) and
Finian of Clonard (December 12, †545)—and laid the foundation for
monasticism in Ireland. St Enda reposed in the year 530 in his
beloved hermitage on Aran.
ST.
DYMPHNA, WONDER-WORKER AND MARTYR OF GHEEL
May 15 († early 7th c.)
St. Dymphna was the daughter of a pagan king and a Christian
mother in Ireland. When her mother died, her father desired to take
his own daughter to wife. Dymphna fled with her mother's instructor,
the priest Gerberen, to the continent. Her father followed and
eventually found them. When Dymphna refused to submit to his unholy
desire, he had them both beheaded at Gheel in what is today Belgium.
Throughout the centuries she has shown special care and concern from
the other world for those suffering from mental illnesses and is
greatly venerated throughout Europe and America.
ST.
KEVIN OF GLENDALOUGH
June 3 (†618)
The path of St. Kevin's early life was well laid. When St. Kevin
was between the ages of seven and twelve, he was tutored by the
desert-loving St. Petroc of Cornwall (June 4, †594), who was then
studying in Ireland. After St. Petroc left for Wales, the
twelve-year-old St. Kevin entered the Monastery of Kilnamanagh.
There his humility and the holiness of his life amazed all. After
his ordination to the priesthood he followed his tutor's
desert-loving example and set out to establish his own hermitage. He
settled in an ancient pagan cave-tomb on a crag above the upper lake
of Glendalough. For many years he lived in this beautiful desert
wilderness like another St. John the Baptist. All the animals
behaved toward him as with Adam before the Fall. Disciples soon
gathered around him and St. Kevin was constrained to become the
founder and Abbot of the famous Glendalough Monastery. He died at
the great old age of 120 in 618 and went to his Lord.
ST.
COLUMBA OF IONA
June 9 (†597)
St. Columba (or Columcille) is one of the greatest of all the
saints of Ireland. Born into an exceedingly prominent noble family,
the Ui-Niall clan, he forsook his wealth and all earthly privileges
and laid his ample natural gifts at the feet of the Lord, becoming a
monk at a young age. He studied under some of the holiest men of his
day, including Saints Finian of Clonard (December 12, †549) and
Mobhi of Glasnevin (October 12, †545). After St. Mobhi's death,
St.Columba went on to found the monasteries of Derry and Durrow. He
traveled as a missionary throughout his beloved Ireland for almost
20 years. In 565 he settled on the island of Iona, off the west
coast of Scotland, where he remained for 32 years and brought about
the conversion of many. He reposed on Iona in great holiness on June
9, 597.
ST. COWEY OF
PORTAFERRY, ABBOT OF MOVILLE
November __ (†8th c.)
St. Cowey is a little-known monastic saint who lived near the tip
of the Ards Peninsula in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. For
many years he labored there as a hermit, sending up his prayers to
God during his long nightly vigils in the depths of the forest.
Three holy wells are still to be found where he labored, as well as
an ancient church built amidst them, which looks eastward over the
Irish Sea. Beside the church, an ancient cemetery completes the view
that greets the pilgrim's eye. St. Cowey's holiness attracted many
to his quiet, little hermitage. Tradition holds that he was made
abbot of the great Moville Monastery further north on the peninsula
in 731, possibly shortly before he reposed around the middle of the
8th century. His memory has been kept and treasured by the local
inhabitants of the nearby town of Portaferry for over twelve hundred
years.
ST.
SUIBHNE OF DAL-ARAIDHE
(† late 7th century)
Both the early Church of Syria and the early Church of Ireland
were famous for their extraordinary ascetics—men and women who were
so affected by the touch of Divinity that they fled from all that
might interfere with their struggle, even renouncing their reason.
Syria gave the Church the stylites, and also the "grazers": severe
ascetics who lived almost like animals, having no dwellings and
eating whatever vegetation grew in their vicinity. The Irish
manifested a similar form of sanctity in the geilt, who were a cross
between fools-for-Christ and the Syrian grazers. The most famous of
all the geilt was St. Suibhne of Dal-Araidhe, formerly a violent
Irish chieftain whose murdeous ways brought the curse of God upon
him. In his profound repentance, he took upon himself the extreme
ascetic way of life of the geilt, living in the open-air wilderness.
Before St. Suibhne died he gave a life confession to his spiritual
father, St. Moling (†722). St. Moling preserved this account in the
form of a long poem. This poem has come down to us today, having
been only slightly altered over the years (in very obvious places).
It is not only very beautiful poetry but also a spiritually
instructive autobiographical document. The Saint foresaw that since
he had previously lived by the sword, he would die by violent means.
He was murdered at the end of the 7th century in St. Moling's
monastery and buried nearby.
From 2003 edition of The Saint Herman Calendar. Copyright 2001 by
the St. Herman of Alaska
Brotherhood, Platina, California. Used with permission.
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