Monasticism in Ireland: Old, New, and Renewed

The early Middle Ages rightly can be called the Age of the Monks and the title fits in Ireland even more than anywhere else. Ancient Ireland did not have cities and, with its tribal organization, the monastery served as a central place of prayer, learning, and social organization. Over time, the Benedictines became the predominant expression of monastic life, but the earlier Celtic expression in Ireland had many unique elements–drawing both from Egyptian monasticism (via France) and Celtic culture.

Here are some of those unique characteristics, which predominated from about 500-1000 AD:

• The monks were more solitary and austere than many other forms of monasticism, including the Benedictines
• They built beehive shaped huts and tall, slender towers. Their monasteries were encircled by a wall, protecting a central church, tower, refectory, school and manuscript buildings, the individual cells of the monks, and buildings to house their animals and workshops.
• The abbots were the central governing figures of the Church. Ireland did not have dioceses until the 1000s. Rather, the abbot ruled the church and one of the monks was ordained a bishop to administer the sacraments under his direction.
• The Irish monks popularized the practice of private Confession and spread it throughout Europe.
• The monks had a unique tonsure (not the circle one you see in old pictures) but cut into the hair above their foreheads. 
• Ireland calculated Easter differently from the Roman custom, which led to serious disputes. St. Columban chastised the pope over the divergence.
• The monasteries were centers of learning, preserving Celtic poetry and epics, as well as the study of Ancient Greek, which they had to reintroduce to Western Europe.
• Many of the Irish monks took vows of perpetual pilgrimage for Christ, embracing exile from their homeland to pray as hermits, evangelize, and to establish new monasteries and schools in England and mainland Europe.

On the Beauty of Faith Pilgrimage to Ireland I led last month, we saw many important sites from the Celtic monastic tradition, associated with the great saints of early Ireland, which I’m happy to share below.

St. Patrick (386-461), the great apostle of Ireland, learned the monastic life at the great Abbey of Lérins off the coast of the French Riviera (which is on the itinerary for my Vine and Cloister pilgrimage next September). In his Confessions, Patrick spoke about learning to listen to the voice of God while serving as an enslaved shepherd, praying on the mountainside through rain and snow. After escaping slavery and studying in France, he returned to Ireland and initiated one of the most remarkable conversions in Church history, converting a nation without any bloodshed. He continued to pray and fast and the holy mountain of Croagh Patrick just outside of Westport provides one example, a place he hallowed by conducting his Lenten exercises on its summit.

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Glendalough, settled by St. Kevin (c.498-618), gave us the best sense of the ancient monasteries, with its circular walls (the double gates still intact), a well preserved stone church, and the site of St. Kevin’s original cell. In addition, the two lakes and waterfalls provide a stunning backdrop, with the monastic ruins blending in seamlessly.

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St. Brigid (c.451-525), the great miracle worker, abbess, and mother of the still young Irish church, provides another towering figure. Her biographer, Cogitosos, relates the importance of her abbey at Kildare: “It is the head of virtually all the Irish churches and occupies the first place, excelling all the monasteries of the Irish. Its jurisdiction extends over the whole land of Ireland from sea to sea.” Although the site of her monastery there has not been well preserved, there is a beautiful Norman church, alongside of the pit where a fire was kept burning in her honor until the Reformation. A few of St. Brigid’s many miracles involved the multiplication of beer, which got her a mention in The Beer Option.

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In the extreme southwest of the country, the Dingle Peninsula, we saw some amazing ruins: the Gallarus oratory (first image above), beehive huts, some carved high crosses, and the home of St. Brendan (484-577)–the main saint of the area, who allegedly discovered America on a voyage through the North Sea and beyond with 12 monks (related in The Voyage of St. Brendan).

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Back in Dublin, we encountered the most famous artifact of Celtic monasticism, the Book of Kells, begun at St. Columba’s famous monastery of Iona of the Scottish coast, and brought to Kells after the Viking raids began. It’s now housed at Trinity College and bears witness to the monks’ dedication to Scripture, scholarship, and beauty. (These are the only photos not from the pilgrimage, as there is no photography allowed in the room where the Book is kept and it is only open to two pages of course.)

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Three things led to the decline of Irish monasticism: Viking raids, Church reforms that reorganized Ireland with dioceses and parishes (especially through the Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1111), and the Norman invasion. The Hiberno-Romanesque church of Kilmalkedar was constructed as a new parish church on the Dingle peninsula, near St. Brendan’s House, surrounded by older monastic stones.

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In the 11th and 12th centuries, Sts. Celsus, Malachy, and Lawrence O’Toole led the charge to reform the Irish Church in accord with Roman practices and they encouraged a new form of monasticism, the Benedictine life which predominated on the continent (though not new in itself of course). St. Malachy, in particular, founded a Cistercian Abbey (reformed Benedictine) at Mellifont in 1142, now in ruins. Henry VIII brought the Reformation to Ireland and, as the first King of Ireland, suppressed monasteries there. Some Benedictine communities fled to the mainland, such as the sisters in Ypres, Belgium. Although Catholic Emancipation in 1829 ended the penal laws and gave more freedom to the Church, it took until Irish Independence for Benedictine monasteries to reestablish in Ireland. Benedictines were “new” again in Ireland in the twentieth century.

For instance, the Benedictine sisters of Ypres, who fled Belgium in World War I, were able to purchase a former English estate in Connemara at Kylemore in 1920. The sisters explained to us that the stunning manor house made for an awkward monastery and the sisters decided to move out of it a few years and to restore it for tourism (in addition to previously restoring the Victorian gardens), a move that makes perfect sense as it is one of the most beautiful sites in Ireland. They are currently building a new monastery, but also seem to be navigating the confusion that hit the monastic life following Vatican II. Beginning in the 1960s, Benedictines across the world embraced progressive liturgy and architecture and watered down the observance of St. Benedictine’s Rule.

Glenstal Abbey, in County Limerick, demonstrated similar dynamics. The monks also came from Belgium, shortly after the sisters in 1927, and also purchased a 19th century English manor house. The monks were not Irish, but came to Ireland to honor their saintly Irish Abbot, Bl. Columba Marmion, who died in 1923 (and whose grave we visited at Maredsous Abbey on the Saints, Monks, and Beer Pilgrimage last year). The monks run a dairy farm, a boarding school (with an excellent boys choir we heard at Mass), and produce chocolate truffles with their own lemon liqueur. The colors in their sparse chapel, however, testify that they also have experienced the confusion and watering down of tradition that hit Benedictines more broadly.

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Finally, we saw a renewal of Benedictine monasticism that embraces the full monastic horarium, the daily schedule of praying the monastic breviary eight times a day/night. Interestingly, Silverstream Priory was founded by a group of American monks in County Mead only in 2012, although they have already received vocations from Ireland and internationally. In fact, they have run out of space and are working on a building project. They have an incredible and timely mission to pray in reparation for the holiness of priests through perpetual adoration. Praying terce with the monks and attending a High Mass at the priory were highlights of our trip. Silverstream offered a glimmer of hope for Ireland and the entire Church.

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Monastic life models Christian culture very powerfully. Having led two pilgrimages that visited monasteries, I have found that the monks provide a compelling witness of dedication to God and prayer. Plus, we benefit from their work to support themselves–cheese, chocolate, soap, books, music, wine, and beer! More importantly, they sustain us by their prayer and offer a glimpse into our own eternal vocation of contemplative and loving union with God.

And finally, a short video from Glendalough, with St. Kevin’s beloved birds chirping in the background: