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Celtic Christianity

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Celtic Christianity is a term used for the form of Christianity practised in Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany from the missions of Saint Patrick and Saint Ninian in the 5th century (also known as Old British Church, Celtic Catholic Church, Culdee Church), in Scotland from the mission of Ninian in the 5th century and Columcille from 563, and in Anglo-Saxon England from 635 until the Synod of Whitby in 664, where an attempt was made at reconciliation with the Roman rite.

Contents

What Celtic Christianity is

Christianity was first brought to the British Isles sometime after the Roman conquest, probably during the Christianizing of the empire under Constantine in the fourth century. Celtic Christianity, or The Celtic Church, is thought to be a form of Christianity as it was first received and practised by communities within Britain and Ireland that spoke Celtic languages. The debate about the existence of the Celtic Church centres primarily around two issues arising from the early Christian experience in Britain and Ireland:

  1. Was its ecclesiastical structure enough to justify giving the church recognition as an organized Christian body?
  2. What role did Celtic Christianity have in influencing the Roman Catholic Church?
There is little debate that early Celtic Christians observed practices divergent from those in the rest of Europe. The debate about the existence of Celtic Christianity is important because the existence of a separate Christian Celtic Catholic Church, if verified, counters the Roman Catholic Church's claim to supremacy in Europe, making it the third body of practising Christians in Europe, along with the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Church. However, it should be noted that this "third body" model requires accepting a primarily Roman Catholic view of Church history, wherein the Church is portrayed as a single, completely centralized hierarchy from its beginning. If the Eastern Orthodox view of ecclesiology is accepted, the Celtic Church would merely be another ordinary administrative expression of Christianity.

The issue of church supremacy and antiquity was first raised in the Synod of Whitby in 664 by the Roman Catholic Church, which protested the Celtic Christian practices that differed from the Roman practices. Additionally, a series of follow up synods, ending with the Synod of Cashel in 1172, were organized to deal with the differences between the churches, and resulted in the theology and practices of the Celtic church being brought into line with Roman theology and practices.

The debate about the Church's existence

There are several theological issues raised by the antiquity of the Celtic Church and the influence its existence may have had on Roman Catholicism. Once these issues are joined in the context of renewed nationalism in modern church movements, Celtic revivalism and neo-paganism, the debate becomes complicated.

At the heart of the debate between the two churches, and the issues that made this a theological one, was the Roman Church's claim that the Apostle Peter founded the Roman church. The Celtic claim was that Christ himself founded the Culdee church when [he sent] the Apostles to Britain. Theologically, the pro-nationalists claim, Christ would trump Peter; but how one apostle of Christ would trump Peter, another apostle of Christ, and one renamed "Kepha" (Rock)(Simon Peter) in the Gospel according to Matthew, is not explained. The following sections will attempt to distinguish legend from fact.

Differences from the rest of Roman Catholicism

Due to the difficulties in communications at this time, it was inevitable that variations between the local churches would arise. Although the practice by Bishops, upon their ordination, of circulating a statement of their beliefs did minimize these differences somewhat, this help was lost to the congregations in the British isles and Armorica with the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West. When missionaries from the Mediterranean met with those local congregations that did survive, they found differences in practice, doctrine and government. These differences were addressed in synods, from the Synod of Whitby in 664 to the Synod of Cashel in 1172. Exactly in which practices the Celtic church varied from the rest of Roman Catholicism differ from source to source. A list of those proposed include the following:

The Celtic cross, in which a symmetrical cross is superimposed on a circle, is a characteristic and distinctive Celtic Christian symbol. Use of this continued well past any separate organisation of Celtic Christianity, and has indeed never ceased to be common in the Celtic countries and among their emigré communities.

The Easter problem

The Easter problem — that is, the proper method to be used to calculate the date Easter will fall on in a given year — is a long and tedious story that extends beyond the topic of Celtic Christianity. As it applies to this topic, the Celtic peoples had lost contact with Rome when Victorius of Aquitania created the tables that were adopted as approved practice in 457. But as they learned of the current practice, the various communities of the Celtic church gradually returned into harmony with the predominant practice: southern Ireland agreed to this at a Synod in 632; northern Ireland at the Council of Birr around 697; the Northumbrian Church at the Council of Whitby in 664; the island of Iona celebrated Easter on the Roman date in 716; and Wales in 768. Various other churches founded or influenced by clerics trained in Ireland or Wales came to celebrate Easter on the Roman date at later times.

Although historians often relegate the importance of the Easter problem, it actually had a major effect on the Catholic world at that time. Because Celtic Christianity considered itself separate and distinct in relation to Rome, Rome diligently made efforts to bring the Celtic church under its authority for many years. The submission of the Celtic church to Rome on this issue effectively expanded Rome's spiritual and political strength throughout Europe for centuries.

There is, of course, a very different perspective from which to evaluate this matter, one that does not presuppose Roman "domination" of all of Christianity except for a hardy and daring band of Celtic rebels. Both the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox adopted a Paschalion that was in agreement with Rome. They did not do this in submission but, rather, in accord, as equals. The matter was not determined on the basis of "domination" of Rome but on the matter of unity in celebration, it being deemed unseemly for some Christians to be celebrating Easter while others were still undergoing the severe fasting of Lent.

Celtic saints

Some scholars, such as J.N.L. Myres and John Morris, have argued that Pelagius had have a direct effect on the early development of the Celtic church in Britain. Others, including Charles Thomas,Charles Thomas. 1981. Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500. University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0520043928 have countered that this belief is incorrect and based on projecting a modern point of view upon an earlier age.

Christianity was present in Britain from earliest times and was certainly practiced at the abbeys of Glastonbury and Whithorn at the turn of the 5th century. Its expansion to become the accepted religion of the Britons was due primarily to a succession of princes who became monastic priests during the fifth and sixth centuries, founding many abbeys and churches, and becoming honoured as "saints" after their death. Christianity was also present in Ireland and there was significant social intercourse between the churches of the two islands. The most famous Irish saints to preach extensively in Britain were Saint Brigit (variously spelt Bride, Brigid, Bryd) (439–524) and Saint Columba (Colum Cille) (520–593). In the inverse direction, Saint Patrick (d. 492/3) was a Briton who established himself in Armagh and became 'apostle of Ireland'.

The earliest clearly British Christian leader recorded after the departure of the Roman legions from the island was Saint Dyfrig (Latin, Dubricius). He is said to have been a son of Eurddyl and her husband King Pabai or Pepiau of Ercych (now Herefordshire). He founded monasteries at Henllan ("Old Church"), now Hentland-on-Wye, 7 kilometers northwest of Ross-on-Wye; at Mochros, now Moccas, in the Wye Valley 16 kilometers west of Hereford; at Ynys Pyr (English, "Caldey Island"), off Tenby in the Dyfed county of Pembrokeshire; and possibly churches in Porlock and near Luscombe on the Exmoor coast of Somerset. He was a bishop, but it appears that he was so for the purpose of ordaining priests, not as administrative head of the church over a geographical area. There is a legend that he solemnised the marriage of King Arthur and Guinevere.

Dyfrig taught Saint Illtud (c. 425 to c. 505), the founder of the great school/seminary/abbey of Llan Illtyd Fawr (English, "Llantwit Major") in the west of South Glamorgan. Illtud was considered the most learned person in Britain, expert alike in Maths, Grammar, Philosophy, Rhetoric and Scripture. He was “by descent a Druid and a fore knower of future events”, the writer implying that there was a Druid caste. In an age when any schooling was available only to a very few privileged people, perhaps Illtud's seminary was the closest approximation in existence to an institution of higher education. Among Illtud's pupils were Saints Pol Aurelian (in Latin, Paulinus Aurelianus), Samson, Gildas and Dewi (English, David).

Pol, son of a British chieftain and one of the seven founder saints of Brittany, founded churches near Llandovery in the Dyfed county of Carmarthenshire, and before 518 had founded an abbey at Yr Henllwyn ("Old Bush") called Ty Gwyn ("White Church"). He later founded monasteries in Brittany and was first bishop of the city of Saint-Pol-de-Leon. His sister was St. Sidwell of Exeter.

Samson was born in Dyfed. He was a first cousin of Illtud and a great-grandson of King Tewdrig (Tudor) of Morganwg (Glamorgan). He studied as a boy at Llan Illtyd Fawr and was then sent to Ynys Pyr, presently becoming its abbot. Some time after 545 he temporarily took over the abbacy of Llan Illtud Fawr from Illtud. When Illtud resumed charge of his abbey, Samson travelled first to Cornwall and then to Brittany, founding churches in both places and an abbey at Dol, where he died c.565. He is also celebrated as the evangeliser of Guernsey.

Gildas, c.491 to c.570 was educated by Saint Illtyd and like his mentor acquired renown as a scholar. He was called "Gildas Sapiens" (English "the Wise"). He became a bell-maker by trade. He made a pilgrimage to Rome in 520, spent seven years at the Abbey of Rhuys in Brittany, then a year in charge of the Abbey of Llancarfan while the Abbot, Saint Cadoc was away. After 528 he moved to Street (near Glastonbury) and built himself a lan (hermitage comprising a church and enclosure). He later (c.544) returned to Rhuys, where he remained until he died, apart from a visit to Ireland dated by the Annales Cambriae to 565.

Saint David, c.512 to 587, was a son of a king of Ceredigion -- presumably King Gwyddno. He was educated at Ty Gwyn. He became its abbot before 528 while still a youth. Later he moved this abbey to Glyn Rhosyn, where it became the city and cathedral of St. David’s in Pembrokeshire. He devised and operated an austere Monastic Rule. He is credited with founding churches over a large area of south and mid Wales, in Kernyw, and in Brittany. He also attended the Synod of Llanddewi Brefi.

A prominent Christian leader, contemporary with and in some respects rival to David, was Saint Cadoc, a son of Gwladys and her husband King Gwynllyw of Gwynllwg (E. Glywysing), a grandson both of King Brychan of Powys and of King Glywys of Glwysing (Gloucestershire), and a nephew of Saint Keyne the hermit who lived first at Keynsham (Somerset) and later at St. Michael's Mount (Cornwall). Cadoc was apparently educated by Pol. He built himself a hermitage at Llancarfan (now in the south of Glamorgan) that soon grew into a monastery, and later one at Llanspyddid (3km W of Brecon). He is also credited with founding churches in Dyfed, Cornwall and Brittany. About 528, after his father's death, he built a stone monastery in Scotland below “Mount Bannauc” (generally taken to be the hill SW of Stirling down which the Bannockburn flows). It has been suggested that the monastery was where the town of St. Ninians now stands, 2 kilometers south of Stirling. Cadoc went on pilgrimages to both Jerusalem and Rome and was distressed that the Synod of Llanddewi Brefi was held during one of these absences. He came into conflicts with kings Arthur, Maelgwn of Gwynedd, and Rhain of Brycheiniog. He was killed in 580 at 'Beneventum'. Beneventum is not firmly identified. One scholar has suggested it is the Roman burgh of Bannaventa (5 kilometers east of Daventry in Northamptonshire), proposing the hypothesis that it was overrun by Saxons at this time as an explanation both for both the killing of Cadoc and for the prohibition on Britons entering the town to recover his body. Cadoc, with Illtud, is one of the three knights said to have become keepers of the Holy Grail.

A brother of this King Gwynllyw was Saint Petroc. Petroc was educated in Ireland where he perhaps learned esoteric Druid wisdom as well as Christianity. He spent most of his adult life based at Padstow in Cornwall, and founded churches in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset (all then part of Dumnonia / Kernyw) including North and South Petherton (places named after him in west and south Somerset respectively). He converted King Constantine of Dumnonia (in 586) and died in 590. With Saint Piran he is among the best-known of the Cornish saints.

The principal contemporary leader of the church in the north of Romanised Britain was Saint Kentigern / Mungo, a son of King Urien Rheged (ruled c. 560 to c. 590), the founder of Glasgow Cathedral and its first bishop.

Although its impact continued, Celtic Christianity officially ended in 1172 when the Synod of Cashel ended the Celtic Christian system and brought them under Rome.

Celtic Christianity today

The phrase Celtic Christianity has come into current use to describe a modern revival of what is believed to be a more spiritually free form of Christianity abandoned after the Synod of Whitby enforced Roman Catholicism as the standard form of Christianity in the British Isles (see Culdee.) Many believe that this older worship more closely resembled Eastern Orthodoxy. It is also considered very close to Anglicanism in many respects.

Celtic Christianity is at present undergoing something of a revival: in the North of England at the Community of St. Aidan and St. Hilda on Lindisfarne, and in Scotland at the Iona Community. It currently embraces both Charismatic and neo-Evangelical Christians, as well as some pagan elements. Celtic Christianity has become increasingly popular in the United States, for example in the Celtic Catholic Church, and an annual conference on the subject is held every year.

Its main features are claimed to be:

However, it is difficult to document that these particular features were unique to "Celtic Christianity" lands or that they even predominated there in earlier centuries.

See also

References

External links

 

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