A Brief History of the Irish Orthodox Church
By Monk Nicodemus
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
Lérins, 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.
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 Lérins. 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.
Source: http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/irishorthodoxchurch.aspx
