EARLY CHRISTIAN IRELAND

1ST YR

Christianity arrives

• Arrived in 5th C – 400’s!

• St. Patrick came in 432 AD

• Spread Christianity

• Celts converted

• Druids lost their power

• But pagan and catholic rituals existed together

Monasteries

• Set up from 6th C

• First monastery set up

• Monasteries at first were in remote places

• Monks wanted isolation to focus on god

• Skellig Michael off Kerry

monks

• Strict lives of work, prayer and fasting

• Uncomfortable habit of coarse cloth

• Celibate

• Tonsure

Larger monasteries

• Got bigger – closer to other people

• Built beside rivers

• E.g. Clomnacnoise on the Shannon

• Or near homes of kings

• Wanted to convert people

Monastery buildings

• Church

• Refectory – Where they ate

• Guest house for visitors

• Scriptorium

• Beehive huts

• Fruit and veg garden

• Round tower

Round towers

Round towers

• Glendalough in Wicklow• Used as belfries to call monks to prayer• Storage for valuable items – manuscripts and

chalices• Safe hiding place when attacked• Door high above ground• Pulled up rope after them• Vikings started attacking

Life in monastery

• Self sufficient

• Monks farmed the land around them

• Provided food, clothes, raw materials for manuscript

• Some monks were stone masons

• Others scribes

• Head of monastery – Abbot

Services provided by monastery

• Centres of prayer and religion

• Some monks skilled in herbal medicine – so provided care for sick

• Gave alms (food etc.) to poor

• Hospitality and shelter for travelers

• Provided education for boys in religion and Latin

Manuscripts (1)

• Monks – only people who could read or write

• Worked in scriptorium

• Scribes copied manuscripts

• The Gospels or annals

• Used quills

Manuscripts (2)

• Wrote on vellum (calfskin) of parchment (sheepskin)

• Illuminated manuscripts

• Bright inks from crushed berries

• Famous manuscripts – Book of Kells

• The Cathach – Ireland’s oldest manuscript

Stone crosses

• Some monks carved stone crosses

• Pictures from bible carved on cross – why?

• People couldn’t read• Told them stories from the bible• Stone circle joined arms of

cross• Helped support it from breaking

Metalwork

• Some monks made beautiful metal objects

• Chalices, reliquaries, book shrines

• Ardagh Chalice• Silver with glass studs• Engraved writing on metal in

Celtic design…• ..is called filigree

• Spread the word of god to other countries

• Irish monks – famous missionaries

• Set up monasteries

• Columcille – monastery in Iona, Scotland

• Aiden – Lindisfarne in England

Dark ages

• After fall of Roman Empire…• …Dark ages began in Europe• Little civilization anywhere• But the monasteries became great learning

centres• People travelled to them• Period called the Golden Age of Irish Learning• ‘Island of Saints and Scholars’

Revision (1)

• Christianity 5th C• Druids decline• Pagan and Christian rituals mix• Isolated monasteries• Beehive huts• Tonsure• Illuminated manuscripts• Round towers

Revision (2)

• Refectory• Alms• Scriptorium• Vellum• Stone crosses• Metalwork• Filigree• Missionaries