One of the most dramatic transformations of culture in the history of Western civilization was accomplished by humble, poor, foreign missionary teachers. Irish monks\u2014C. S. Lewis\u2019 forebears\u2014trudged their way across Scotland, England, and the European Continent. And in their wake they left a lasting legacy of faith, of learning, and, indeed, of civilization.<\/p>\n
Over the centuries between A.D. 550 and 1300, scores of Irish monks left their homeland and spread out across Europe, preaching the Gospel to violent, lawless pagans, teaching Scripture, literature and the arts and sciences to kings and peasants alike and establishing monastic communities which served as centers for not only evangelism and discipleship, but for education and culture. Their teaching brought God\u2019s Word and civilization back to a Europe which had been conquered and ruined by barbarians.<\/p>\n
These selfless, passionate, learned Irish scholars provide a model for Christian academicians transforming culture in the twenty-first century. They exemplify the role and impact Christians with advanced degrees can have, especially in cross-cultural contexts, or as we might say, when they are serving as academic missionaries\u2014teaching and doing academic work in a culture not their own. Celtic Christianity was flawed and suffered from theological oddities, with imperfect leaders and followers, and with an inadequate understanding of grace, among many other problems. But the Irish monks provide a prime historic example of how educated Christ-followers are uniquely suited to be God\u2019s tool for bringing Scripture and truth back to our world.<\/p>\n
This paper will briefly review the historic backdrop and development of Celtic Christianity, describe the Irish missions movement and the two primary hallmarks of the movement, examine what motivated them and what made them successful and finally, look at some lessons we can learn from them for our day.<\/p>\n
St. Patrick and Ireland<\/strong> But there was one corner of the globe which had neither been conquered by Rome nor devastated by the Vandals, too obscure and remote for conquering armies to bother with\u2014the little island called Ireland.<\/p>\n Patrick was the definitive force in Christianizing Ireland.2<\/sup> He was the first missionary since St. Paul and other apostles of the first century, and was, according to Thomas Cahill in his popular book How the Irish Saved Western Civilization<\/em>, \u201cthe first missionary to barbarians beyond the reach of Roman law.\u201d3<\/sup> Patrick tirelessly ministered all across Ireland from 432 until his death in 461.<\/p>\n His ministry was marked by evangelizing, by preaching and by teaching. As the people were converted, he would begin teaching them, beginning with the basic skills of reading and writing, and moving on eventually to theological training. In this way, \u201cthe first Irish Christians also became the first Irish literates.\u201d4<\/sup><\/p>\n Tens of thousands of Irish came to faith in Christ. Patrick\u2019s evangelistic results were solidified and established through his work of founding monasteries all across the country, which shaped Ireland for centuries. These monasteries were quite different from those in Europe in that they nurtured not only devotion to God, but also a cultivation of the mind. As one scholar summarizes it: \u201cWhilst culture was sinking in the West, each of these centers was lighting a torch\u2026a torch whose flame would soon be carried everywhere.\u201d5<\/sup><\/p>\n These monasteries became the centers for education, both theological and general, in Ireland. An integral part of the Irish monastery was study and development of the mind. During the sixth century, some of the Irish monastic schools became well known for their scholarship. Some such as Clonard, established in 520, attracted thousands of students, including many foreign students, some of whom came from as far away as the Orient.6<\/sup><\/p>\n A broad and thorough education was assumed as a requirement for service to God. John Ryan, in his classic work on Irish Monasticism<\/em>, asserts that, \u201cThe danger of knowledge was well known, but the danger of ignorance was considered to be incomparably greater. To the Irish mind an illiterate monk was a contradiction in terms.\u201d7<\/sup> Latin, including reading the classical authors required for a liberal education, theology (including canon law) and Scripture, with Scripture holding the highest priority, comprised the three major divisions of an Irish monastic education.<\/p>\n Ireland represented the apex of learning in the Western world; across the island, \u201cthe standard of learning was much higher than with Gregory the Great and his followers.\u201d8<\/sup> Several monasteries gathered impressive collections of manuscripts of the New Testament as well as classic literature and the early Church fathers. The transcription of books, primarily Scriptures but also the classical writers, became a primary mission of most of the monasteries beginning in the sixth century.9<\/sup><\/p>\n But the higher level of education was only one of several ways in which Celtic Christianity was quite distinct from Roman Christianity. The Irish Church openly differed from Rome in several respects. Celtic Christianity generally focused more on \u201cthe good, the true and the beautiful\u201d than Roman Christianity which tended to focus more on systems of governance, domination and oversight. Roman Christianity<\/strong><\/p>\n Celtic Christianity<\/strong><\/p>\n IRISH MONKS BECOME MISSIONARIES<\/strong><\/p>\n These distinctives led the Irish Church to reach out to other peoples. The desire to extend the church\u2019s mission led some who were educated in Ireland to not be content with scholarship. They wanted to translate their education into blessing for others. They wanted to teach others. They wanted to spread the Good News about Christ\u2019s Kingdom. Thus, the missionary movement, which would take Christianity back to Europe, sprang from the monastery schools scattered across Ireland.<\/p>\n These Irish missionary-monks are strategic in the history of the Christian movement. Daniel-Rops states: \u201c\u2018The Irish miracle\u2019 as we like to call it, is this second setting out of Christianity, from a country which had only just been baptized, and which was immediately dreaming of giving Christ back to the world. Ireland, between the fifth and the eighth century, was like a second Palestine, like a new cradle of the Christian faith.\u201d11<\/sup><\/p>\n William Marnell points out that,<\/p>\n History has often recorded the sweep of military might across the face of Europe\u2026.Only once in history has there been a quiet, all but imperceptible flooding of Europe by the Word of God, preached by ascetics at once rude and inspired\u2026.Never in human history has another nation as small as Ireland done so much missionary work in so many lands over so many decades as did the Irish in what, save for them, would indeed have been the unrelieved Dark Ages.12<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n These monks taught Scripture as well as the arts, languages, literature, history, the sciences and the classic writers. Zimmer says they \u201cwere instructors in every known branch of science and learning of the time, possessors and bearers of a higher culture than was at that period to be found anywhere on the Continent, and can surely claim to have been the pioneers\u2014to have laid the corner-stone of Western culture on the Continent.\u201d13<\/sup><\/p>\n These early Irish missionaries were called peregrini<\/em>, or those on a pilgrimage, usually a life-pilgrimage. Most of them walked everywhere they went. Because of their commitment to self-denial, they refused to ride any vehicle or animal overland. Not traveling on foot could bring excommunication and was considered as important as \u201ccontinence and abstinence.\u201d14<\/sup> They usually traveled in groups of twelve plus a leader, just as Christ and his disciples did. Fiaich describes the monks in this way: \u201cEach wears a white tunic covered by a cowl and is tonsured from ear to ear. Many carry the pilgrim\u2019s staff, a leather water-bottle hanging from a belt and perhaps a gospel-book in its leather case slung across the shoulder.\u201d15<\/sup> Clark, among others, reports that the hair that was left behind the tonsure was long and flowing, and that they \u201ctattooed certain parts of the body, especially the eyelids.\u201d16<\/sup><\/p>\n Columba<\/strong> Iona can rightly be called the birthplace of the Church in Scotland and northern England. Monks from Iona were instrumental in the conversion of many across Scotland and Britain. By the time Columba died in 597, he and his followers had established 23 missions in Scotland and 38 in Britain.18<\/sup> Eventually Irish missionaries converted more than half of England.19<\/sup> Iona remains one of the most famous Irish monasteries in the world today. From his writings it is obvious that he received a thorough education. His Latin is excellent and he refers with ease and authority to both pagan authors and Christian authors.21<\/sup> Dubois describes Columban, \u201cOrdained to the priesthood, fully versed in things human as well as divine, humanist and theologian, he learnt to unite and make inseparable two seemingly conflicting sides of spiritual life\u2014contemplation and action.\u201d22<\/sup><\/p>\n Marnell describes the unique environment of Bangor in which Columban was molded:<\/p>\n It was a life that drew the more gifted of Ireland\u2019s youth away from the violence rampant then in Irish life, as it was in life throughout the western world, and gave them a life of the spirit and the intellect, a life of prayer, and a life of work, but a life in which, by some formula lost in the mists of time and never quite recaptured, the asceticism of the anchorite was combined with the missionary\u2019s service to the people.23<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This was in contrast to most of the non-Celtic monasticism of that time which was definitely \u201cnot missionary\u201d and \u201cdid not seek to save the world but to flee from it. The primary objective of the monk was his own salvation, not that of others.\u201d24<\/sup> Marnell\u2019s description of \u201cthe asceticism of the anchorite\u2026combined with the missionary\u2019s service to the people\u201d truly captures the heart of the Irish academic missionary movement.<\/p>\n Late in the sixth century, Columban left Ireland with twelve disciples and sailed to Brittany. When they disembarked, they immediately began preaching to the pagans in that region. So many people responded to their evangelism that King Sigebert summoned them to his court. Columban persuaded the king that he could teach them about the Christian faith as well as culture and civilization.25<\/sup> The king provided land for the missionaries where they established a monastery. It grew so rapidly that soon they had to search for a site to establish another monastery.<\/p>\n Thus, in 590, Columban established a monastery at Luxeuil, which, in Dubois\u2019 words, \u201cwas to become the most brilliant center of learning and virtue in the Middle Ages.\u201d At Luxeuil a stellar group of brilliant scholars in a variety of fields, as well as a host of skilled artisans and craftsmen, gathered. For Columban, it was important to teach both secular subjects and religious subjects.26<\/sup> The Irish commitment to a full-orbed Christian worldview, and to a broad education (not only theological education for the priesthood) is evident throughout Columban\u2019s work.<\/p>\n With growth came more distractions to the life of prayer and solitude, which Columban craved. So he would often hide away in a nearby cave for long periods of time. He is the only sixth-century theologian to leave an extensive collection of writings on devotional practices and prayer. One of his most famous prayers is: \u201cInspire us with Thy charity, O Lord, That our loving quest for Thee may occupy our every inmost thought; that thy love may take complete possession of our being, and divine charity so fashion our senses that we may know not how to love anything else but Thee.\u201d27<\/sup><\/p>\n Eventually Columban was forced to leave Luxeuil and the other centers he had established in the region, because he had offended the king with his preaching. So he and many of his disciples began another long trek, eventually ending up in Italy, where he established the famous monastery at Bobbio which \u201cbecame from the first century of its foundation, an intellectual center of incomparable radiance; the learning and the holiness of the monks illuminated Northern Italy; the richness of its library astonished the world of the humanists, and for nearly a thousand years this privileged abbey experienced a marvelous extension.\u201d28<\/sup><\/p>\n Marnell states: \u201cOf all the Irish peregrini<\/em> on the Continent there can scarcely be any doubt that Columban had the most widespread and lasting impact. Within a generation France was dotted with monasteries, founded by men who had been trained in Luxeuil. Most of their founders were natives of France\u2026.Columban supplied the inspiration, the Franks supplied the personnel.\u201d29<\/sup> More than sixty disciples of Columban fanned out across Europe wielding wide influence over the Continent.30<\/sup> More than thirty monasteries were founded as a direct result of monks trained at Luxeuil, and another two hundred monasteries had some indirect linkage to Luxeuil.31<\/sup><\/p>\n Marnell colorfully describes Columban as,<\/p>\n A microcosm of the entire Irish monastic movement: he was a missionary to the pagan; a theologian who debated with bishops and even with a pope; a public figure feared and therefore courted, without success, by a regent and a king; a poet who could versify his faith but also write a rowing song; the sort of man who could fell a tree with one blow of an axe and then strangle a bear. Such men have messages for popes and barbarians alike.32<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Gall was a man of intense piety who lived an austere, disciplined life. The abbey he established eventually became a center for education, beginning with a few individuals who gathered informally to be his pupils. Over the years, more Irish monks came to Gall\u2019s abbey, among them, many scholars and teachers. The Abbey of St. Gall became one of the great educational centers of Europe for more than a thousand years. By the mid-800\u2019s, according to Zimmer, St. Gall \u201cwas the most celebrated monastery in Germany at that time and for more than three hundred years it was looked upon as the chief nursery of learning of the whole kingdom. It owes its reputation greatly to its connections with Ireland and the work of learned Irish monks in its university.\u201d33<\/sup><\/p>\n With its growing reputation and educational quality, the abbey became the beneficiary of several generous bequests and a growing circle of wealthy individuals supported the work. This freed the more scholarly monks to devote themselves to study, writing and teaching. Gall gathered the greatest library in Europe.34<\/sup><\/p>\n One of the most noted Irish teachers in Gall\u2019s history was Moengal (or Marcellus) who arrived at Gall in 850. According to Zimmer, he \u201cseems to have made a powerful impression upon the monks by his great learning, both in theology and the secular sciences.\u201d35<\/sup> An early history by Ekkehard, a Gall monk from the next century, notes that Moengal was \u201cmost learned in both divine and human matters.\u201d36<\/sup> He specialized in theology but also taught music.<\/p>\n According to Zimmer, \u201cMoengal\u2019s residence at St. Gall produced an unwonted impetus to composition among the inmates of the monastery\u2026.In my opinion there were very few men who, in the middle of the ninth century exerted such a beneficent influence upon the German mind in the cultivation of the higher arts and sciences as Moengal and his followers.\u201d37<\/sup> But Moengal was not only an outstanding academic; he also lived an exemplary life of devotion to God. Heiric, a contemporary of Moengal, writes that he was \u201cthe only philosopher of our time who is a man of perfect holiness.\u201d38<\/sup> He was an example of a scholar with high standards in both academic work and personal holiness.<\/p>\n Moengal was an excellent educator and demonstrated a commitment to the importance of a broad education. Moengal provided an education in what were the classic seven liberal arts of that day: the trivium<\/em>\u2014grammar, dialectic and rhetoric\u2014and the quadrivium<\/em>\u2014arithmetic, music, grammar, and astronomy. A description by Notker, one of Moengal\u2019s students who himself later taught at Gall, indicates that during the first three years of education, the student focused on Christian doctrine and memorized Scriptures and some of the creeds. They memorized the entire book of Psalms. Then they studied reading, writing and arithmetic, along with music and Latin grammar. Later they studied such books as Aesop\u2019s fables and the classical writers, such as Virgil, Homer, Ambrose and others. Since there were few books, the teacher mostly read to the students while they copied the text on wax tablets and then memorized it. Students were also taught in free composition.39<\/sup><\/p>\n The abbey itself provided education across the entire age spectrum, from primary to \u201cuniversity\u201d level. Clark describes the plethora of academic and cultural activities at St. Gall around the middle of the ninth century:<\/p>\n Books were written, copied, and illuminated in the scriptorium. Musical works were composed, and the theory of music was taught. The monks observed the sun and stars to calculate the dates of church festivals. All the sciences known in that day were diligently studied, nor were the more practical arts and handicrafts neglected: painting, architecture, sculpture in wood, stone, metal and ivory, weaving, spinning, and agriculture were all the object of assiduous attention. Among the monks of St. Gall there were historians, theologians, artists, poets, and musicians.40<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Clark also reflects on the unique combination of asceticism, self-sacrifice and scholarship which the monks at the Abbey of St. Gall possessed:<\/p>\n The calm of the cloisters was conducive to study, and many men whose natural aptitudes led them to love learning found a congenial home in conventual surroundings. Such men\u2026united in their persons the piety of a monk and the accomplishments of a scholar\u2026.The scriptoria of the Benedictines are therefore the channel through which the intellectual treasures of classical antiquity passed into our modern world\u2026.The community was essentially aristocratic in its nature; the abbots were invariably nobles. This aristocracy of birth became in the ninth century an aristocracy of intellect. The monastery became an academy of scholars, poets, artists, and musicians. Not content with copying the works of antiquity, they studied them diligently and amassed a very respectable store of erudition.41<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n From its inauspicious beginnings, the Abbey of St. Gall had become \u201cthe intellectual center of the German world.\u201d42<\/sup> For another hundred years after Moengal, Irish scholars continued to influence education at Gall. Gall scholars in turn went out to found and to lead other monastic centers across Europe.<\/p>\n By 800 devoted Irish monks had scattered all over Europe. But Columba, Columban, Gall and scores of other monks were only the first wave of Irish academic missionaries to Europe. IRISH TEACHERS IN THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE<\/strong><\/p>\n Charlemagne (A.D. 742-814), who did much to lay the foundation for modern education, received many Irish scholars into his court. When he first began to gather scholars, he invited some from Italy, Spain and Britain. Two Irishmen joined this group around 782, Clemens and another one whose identity is not certain. The story from Gesta Caroli Magni<\/em>, of the arrival of these two Irishmen, is intriguing.<\/p>\n Two Irish monks landed on the coast of Gaul along with British traders. It was obvious that these monks were knowledgeable in a broad range of subjects. Although they had nothing to sell, they stood up in the market as if they were hawking wares. They shouted, \u201cAnyone who hungers for knowledge should come to us and receive it, because it can be bought here.\u201d They had observed that most people value what they pay for, more than something they are given without cost.<\/p>\n When Charlemagne heard about these two monks, he summoned them to the palace, and asked them if they indeed possessed true wisdom, as he had heard. They replied, \u201cYes, we do, and we will gladly teach those who ask for it in the right way and in the Lord\u2019s name.\u201d When the king asked what their price was, they answered, \u201cWe only ask, O King, for a place to live, for good and intelligent men to teach, and for food, drink, and clothing\u2014the basics necessary for life.\u201d When Charlemagne saw their sincerity, dedication and breadth of knowledge, he was convinced that they must join the growing band of scholars in his court.43<\/sup><\/p>\n Earlier Irish monks had often found a welcome at the courts of the Merovingian kings for their teaching and preaching. Zimmer notes that \u201cas in the early part of the seventh century, the Merovingian kings welcomed the Irish apostles who spread Christianity and the first elements of culture among the German tribes,\u201d so that later in the ninth century, \u201cin schools and monasteries all over France, the Carolingian kings employed Irish monks as teachers of writing, and tutors in grammar, logic, rhetoric, astronomy, and arithmetic.\u201d44<\/sup><\/p>\n Charlemagne\u2019s association with the monks was ironic, because, he \u201cwas not especially interested in furthering asceticism. He founded a few monasteries, but to him they were not important for the practice of the full Christian life, but rather as centers of education and civilization.\u201d The monks brought added value to the educational enterprise and thus were welcomed because of their credentials and expertise.45<\/sup><\/p>\n A long list of Irish monks and scholars played strategic roles in training leaders and in the development of the educational structure in the Carolingian empire.46<\/sup> Alcuin wrote from his position at Charlemagne\u2019s court school that all the outstanding and best-educated teachers in Britain, Gaul and Northern Italy were from Ireland.47<\/sup> In 876, Hierac of Auxerre, who was himself trained by Irish teachers at Laon, declared, \u201cHere we have almost the whole of Ireland, despising the sea and its dangers, transporting itself to our shores with a company of its philosophers; the more a Scot [as the Irish were known then] is well instructed and able, the more readily does he decide on this exile, knowing it to respond to the wishes of a new Solomon.\u201d48<\/sup> How interesting that the higher the credentials, the more likely the scholar was to serve overseas, leaving his homeland.<\/p>\n The extensive travel of the Irish missionary-monks is all the more amazing in this era when most people never traveled more than a few miles from their birthplace. But the Irish were traveling as far north as Iceland and Greenland, as far south as Italy and eventually, east as far as Jerusalem and Kiev.49<\/sup> And they did it all for the sake of education and evangelism.<\/p>\n MOTIVATION OF THE MONKS<\/strong><\/p>\n What was it that motivated these scholars\u2014many of them from noble, wealthy families\u2014 who by nature enjoyed the reclusive life of study and prayer, to abandon the security and the predictable schedule of the large, well-established monasteries of their homeland and leave it all to become missionaries to strange lands and pagan people?<\/p>\n Love For Christ<\/strong> Christ had set their hearts on fire, and even today, after the lapse of so many centuries, our souls burn within us when we read the brief phrases that embody the great motive which led to the wanderings of these saintly exiles\u2026.These are, it is true, varied in form, but are generally crystallized in such words as \u2018for the love of God,\u2019 \u2018for Christ,\u2019 \u2018for the Name of the Lord,\u2019 and \u2018for the love of the Name of Christ.\u2019\u2026.they were indeed \u2018of Christ enamoured wholly\u2019 and had in full and bounteous measure that personal affection which\u2026lit up their hearts with the white heat of a great passion that no sacrifice could satiate and no suffering subdue\u2026.They yearned to win all to Christ.50<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n These were truly academicians who loved God with their total being, including their minds, as Scripture commands.<\/p>\n Passion For Evangelism<\/strong> The Irish monastic movement, which was admirable in itself, would have been no more than a purely local phenomenon and of no universal importance if [it] had been confined in its action with the island. This was not the case. On the contrary, the numbers of monks from Ireland, fresh from the great monastic schools, strike us as impetuous apostles, eager to carry the Gospel to the four corners of Europe, and to implant at all the latitudes monasteries submitted to their iron rule!\u2026Ireland gave 115 missionaries to Germany, 45 to France, 44 to England, 36 to Belgium, 25 to Scotland and 13 to Italy. If one may accept the testimony of Jonas, the biographer of Saint Columban, no less than 620 missionaries had left Luxeuil to swarm over Bavaria alone. Naturally they would not all have been Irish, but a good number among them must surely have been.51<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Even the practice of always walking was more than a legalistic commitment to self-denial for many. Walking made it easier for the monk to meet people and evangelize them. Walking brought the missionary closer to the people he was trying to reach.52<\/sup> But it seems more accurate to say that, in contrast to Roman asceticism, Celtic asceticism was not focused primarily on saving one\u2019s own soul, but on saving others as well. Thus, academic-missionary monks found their drive for asceticism pushing them to strange and pagan cultures. All who have ministered cross-culturally know the death to self this requires. Christ\u2019s words to the rich young ruler served as the divine call for many Irish missionaries: \u201cGo, sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.\u201d The Irish monk realized that this mortal life is not lasting; eternal life is to be our true goal and focus. We reach that goal by denying ourselves in this life and seeking eternal values. Cayre points out that it was \u201ccomplete detachment\u201d from this life and \u201cabsolute abnegation\u201d that led many monks to commit their lives to overseas mission service. \u201cSelf-denial is above all the road to sanctity\u2026.\u201d54<\/sup> What greater level of self-denial could a monk reach than to voluntarily exile himself from his homeland?<\/p>\n No doubt Patrick\u2019s own example and testimony in leaving his native Britain to become a missionary to Ireland influenced many. He declared, \u201cWhence came to me that gift so great, so salutary, the knowledge and love of God so intense that I might part with fatherland and relations?\u201d55<\/sup><\/p>\n Ireland was, according to Cahill, the \u201conly land into which Christianity was introduced without bloodshed. There are no Irish martyrs\u201d [in the first eleven centuries of Irish Christianity]\u2026.This lack of martyrdom troubled the Irish, to whom a glorious death by violence presented such an exciting finale.\u201d56<\/sup> Clare Stancliffe adds, \u201cThe Irish revered as martyrs not only those who died for their faith, but also those whose ascetic discipline made their lives a kind of daily immolation for Christ.\u201d57<\/sup><\/p>\n So the Irish developed a new kind of martyrdom. They called it Green Martyrdom, as opposed to Red Martyrdom. If they couldn\u2019t lose their lives for Christ, they could die to their lives as they were. They would leave the comforts of home, go to the green hills and mountains or to an island and study Scriptures, copy Scriptures and commune with God. Gougaud states that \u201cVoluntary exile appealed to them as the supreme immolation, and as being specially adapted to perfect the act of renunciation they had undertaken.\u201d Phrases such as \u201cfor the welfare of the soul\u201d and \u201cto gain the heavenly fatherland\u201d are used to describe their motivation.58<\/sup> For many this Green Martyrdom led them to become missionaries.59<\/sup><\/p>\n BALANCED LIVING AND LEARNING\u2014TWO HALLMARKS OF THE IRISH MONKS<\/strong><\/p>\n Cultivation of Holy Living<\/strong> While this focus on holiness sometimes developed into a graceless legalism, many of the monks were truly in love with a holy God and were seeking to be conformed to His holy image. One Irish tract from the eighth century entitled \u201cPractices of Piety in Sinchell\u2019s School\u201d in the Book of Leinster<\/em> is filled with practical guidance for living a holy life. \u201cWho is nearest God? He who meditates on Him\u2026In whom does the Holy Spirit dwell? In him who is pure without sin. Then it is that a man is a vessel of the Holy Spirit when the virtues come to replace the vices. Then it is that desire for God increases when desire for the world withers.\u201d62<\/sup><\/p>\n It was said of Columban that, as Daniel-Rops expresses it, \u201cHis passing through the country started a real contagion of holiness.\u201d63<\/sup> In fact the holiness of their lives was one of their primary means of evangelism. The pagan people with their debauched lives were attracted to the simple, pure lives of the monks. They saw something in these monks they wanted. Hertling asserts that \u201cWhat induced the heathens to become Christians\u2026was, perhaps, not so much the sermons these monks preached as the example of their lives entirely devoted to God.\u201d64<\/sup><\/p>\n Cultivation of the Mind<\/strong> Alcuin, the famous Briton who headed Charlemagne\u2019s Palatine School, wrote a letter to \u201cthe Brothers who in the Isle of Ireland devoted themselves in various places to the service of God.\u201d In this letter he \u201csketches out a science of teaching of profane letters oriented towards a study of the sacred Scriptures\u201d; i.e., how to teach the entire range of academic disciplines from a biblical or Christian worldview.69<\/sup> Sedulius, an Irish scholar at Liege, was known for his capability of \u201capplying himself with success to the most diverse disciplines.\u201d70<\/sup> FACTORS IN THE SUCCESS OF THE IRISH ACADEMIC MISSIONS MOVEMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n Daniel-Rops summarized the impact of the Irish missions movement: \u201cThere is scarcely a country in the whole Christian West of the period which has not more or less borne the mark of these men, there is scarcely one which does not owe to them the awakening among their people of faith which was to be that of the great Christian middle ages.\u201d71<\/sup> What was it that caused obscure monks from the remote island of Ireland to wield such influence which would endure over the centuries? Several factors contributed to the breadth, depth and the longevity of their impact.<\/p>\n 1. Christian Worldview<\/strong> 2. Breadth of Learning<\/strong> 3. Global Vision<\/strong> 4. Provided Added Value to Secular Leaders and Institutions<\/strong> 5. Exemplary Lives<\/strong> 6. Established Educational Institutions<\/strong> 7. High Standards of Excellence<\/strong> 8. Training National Leaders<\/strong> 9. Second Language Acquisition<\/strong> 10. Produced Books and Libraries<\/strong> Tragically, over the centuries, the quality of the Irish missionaries changed and their motives became mixed. A general flabbiness spread across the movement as evidenced by an unwillingness to sacrifice and a focus on personal fulfillment. Greed became widespread, with some monks \u201cdemanding money for their services.\u201d Avarice was especially pronounced at institutions that had grown wealthy because of their growing fame and reputation. Intemperance, particularly drunkenness, and other vices also took their toll on both the credibility and the effectiveness of the Irish monks.80<\/sup> Eventually, the great movement that had brought Christianity and civilization back to Europe died away. LESSONS FOR CHRISTIANS TRANSFORMING CULTURE IN THE 21ST CENTURY<\/strong><\/p>\n There are uncanny parallels between the times of these medieval missionary monks and our day. The spiritual and intellectual darkness of Europe in their time was staggering and pervasive. Today we do not have the scarcity of learning and education that existed in the Europe of those earlier centuries, but there are parallels and lessons nevertheless.<\/p>\n The concept of truth is being exterminated in the great halls of learning around the world. A deep darkness is settling over our planet. This darkness declares there is no God, there are no absolutes, there is no right and wrong, there is no intrinsic value in human life. Truth is deconstructed into relative bits of data with no meta-narrative to give meaning to life. This darkness has spread from university classrooms into entertainment and news media, into high schools and grade schools, from Columbine to Jeddah to Amsterdam to Prague. It has reached into the highest offices of our land and other nations of the world. Truth not only does not matter, truth does not even exist. God\u2014if He is even there\u2014is irrelevant. This spreading darkness seeks to still any voices that dare to disagree.<\/p>\n The darkness today comes in many forms and is known by many names\u2014paganism, relativism, naturalism, deconstructionism, humanism, secularism. But it is darkness by any name\u2014a darkness that threatens, if unchallenged by the Light, to make the twenty-first century a Dark Age of its own, indeed possibly the darkest century of all. Once again, we need Christians who can bring the good, the true and the beautiful back to a world that has denigrated these and has exalted the evil, the false and the ugly. So there are certainly lessons we can learn from these medieval monks.<\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> As Christians we must realize that we are called to a significant role to not only lead individuals to Christ and to guide their spiritual formation but also to transform culture and society, even in our Dark Age. You are not merely a pawn in a cosmic chess game between God and Satan. You can make choices. You can make choices to respond to God\u2019s call for significant service. As Ephesians 2:10 says, you are God\u2019s masterpiece, his work of art, \u201ccreated in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for [you] to do\u201d (NIV). You were created by God to make a significant difference in this world\u2014whether in the home, in politics, in education, in business, in the arts, in law, in the media. It may not be prominent. Your impact may never be publicized, but just as surely as those faithful, humble monks walked with God and quietly invaded and changed their world, you<\/em> can make a lasting difference in your<\/em> world.<\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Transformation of culture requires engagement with the culture. Just as the monks of the Roman Church withdrew from society in order to save their own souls, there are many Christians today who retreat and withdraw\u2014and tragically, sometimes, still lose their souls and those of their families. But the Celtic monks chose to pursue both godliness and<\/em> engagement with their world. They did not retreat. They engaged and transformed their world.<\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> We must be patient. Transformation of culture takes time, sometimes generations. Yet the insistence on \u201cimmediate results\u201d is constant in many sections of evangelicalism today. Many Christians and ministry organizations who are conscientiously seeking to be faithful to God\u2019s calling are pressured to continually give evidence of their \u201cevangelistic effectiveness\u201d for any given period of time, with the assumption that this is the only activity of Christian value. Yet those faithful Irish monks rarely experienced immediate results nor mass conversions. The monthly or even yearly \u201csuccesses\u201d they could chalk up were often sparse. But the quiet, steady proclamation and teaching of Christian truth eventually worked. As Marnell expressed it, \u201cThe army of Rome could not defeat the Franks, but the army of Christ could, and it was defeat in the name of Christ that was victory for the Franks.\u201d81<\/sup> When my wife, Teri, and I were sitting in the cathedral at Iona, we were struck by the fact that the place where we were sitting, was there as a result of one man\u2019s obedience to God in A.D. 563. Aim for significance, but work with patience and dream with a long vision.<\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Significant living often requires sacrificial living. We must embrace God\u2019s priorities for our lives and not the normal American dreams of comfort, security and affluence\u2014basically a self-centered life. We must renounce those as life goals. When my son Lance was young, we were sitting in the car at a Dairy Queen one hot summer evening, listening to the deep voice of George Beverly Shea singing, \u201cI\u2019d rather have Jesus than silver or gold.\u201d Lance piped up from the back seat, \u201cBut Dad, I\u2019d rather have both.\u201d These poor monks freely chose Jesus\u2014and Jesus alone. They made choices to walk away, often from wealth and comfort and security, leaving their country and their people and their culture, to live in strange and inconvenient and uncomfortable places. And in many respects we are here today as inheritors of their sacrifice, in bringing the Gospel to our forbearers.<\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> Your education is a gift that is given to you to bless others, and not for your own pride or wealth. Our calling is to use our education to make a difference for God\u2019s Kingdom. Education is important in God\u2019s kingdom. Well-educated Christians, especially those with graduate degrees, are uniquely suited to be effective in both life-transforming and culture-changing impact.<\/p>\n 6.<\/strong> We must communicate with both hearts and minds in our pagan post-modern culture. In some Christian circles today there is a narrow view of what God has called His followers to do in the world. This view, which has gained wide currency in some parts of evangelicalism, holds that the only truly worthy purpose of Christian ministry is to evangelize and plant churches. This truncated view of God\u2019s message and his purpose for our world actually hinders effective evangelism and the full impact of the Gospel on the world, especially in the great centers of culture and education. This myopic perspective reveals a narrow view both of God\u2019s kingdom and of the breadth of impact He calls us to have on the world as salt and light.<\/p>\n Had these Celtic monks brought a truncated message, aiming only for individual conversions, without also teaching and raising the level of knowledge about the world God created, their impact would have been greatly limited. Although their initial results in terms of conversions might have been greater had they focused only on evangelism, the long-term enduring results and historic changes would no doubt have been diminished. Europe would certainly not have been fundamentally transformed in the way that it was. Their efforts would probably have produced isolated individuals following Christ, but without the broad cultural, institutional and societal changes occurring. But in fact, their evangelism was enhanced and more effective, because of the authority with which they spoke on such a wide range of subjects.<\/p>\n Charles Malik, former president of the UN General Assembly and Security Council, made this declaration at the dedication of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College: “Christ being the light of the world, His light must be brought to bear on the problem of the formation of the mind….The problem is not only to win souls but to save minds. If you win the whole world and lose the mind of the world, you will soon discover you have not won the world. Indeed it may turn out that you have actually lost the world\u2026.Responsible Christians face two tasks\u2014that of saving the soul and that of saving the mind.”82<\/sup><\/p>\n 7.<\/strong> Finally, teaching is strategic in God\u2019s kingdom. God has ordained that teaching impacts not only individual lives, but whole cultures and nations as well, as the Irish missions movement so powerfully demonstrates. Education and scholarship\u2014learning and teaching about all of God\u2019s truth and all parts of His world\u2014is a divine calling and should be embraced as a holy task worthy of the Church\u2019s best energies and resources.<\/p>\n The story of these Irish monks should encourage Christian professors and students to be faithful in their academic calling. Education is slow, it is costly, but it is certain to bring change. The impact of our lives, especially as academicians, will not be fully measured during our lives. But if done in humility and accompanied by a holy life, teaching, though slow, has significant, indeed, eternal impact.<\/p>\n My prayer is that the example of these medieval monks will inspire a growing movement of academicians with a global vision\u2014those who voluntarily leave their homeland to teach in other nations. My primary vocation is to motivate and recruit individuals with academic credentials to serve in secular universities around the world through the work of the International Institute for Christian Studies. Thankfully, once again there are men and women who are responding to the call of the living God: a call not to a \u201cRed Martyrdom\u201d with firing squads and torture chambers, but to a martyrdom nevertheless\u2014a martyrdom which compels them to leave parents and grandparents, friends and supportive churches, to leave comfortable homes, to leave academic and professional positions, financial security and emotional fulfillment to teach in secular universities overseas\u2014where, if they were not present, no Christian voice would be heard.<\/p>\n They are leaving all of this to take on a martyrdom in which they die to an easy career path, tenured positions, camaraderie with valued colleagues, comfortable salaries and the warm fellowship of a loving church. In this martyrdom, they die to pride and financial independence by accepting a salary that is not only meager, but which often they have to raise themselves; a martyrdom which sometimes costs them the respect of family members and colleagues who don\u2019t understand doing something as \u201cstupid\u201d as leaving all this, for that\u2014just for the chance to teach in a university in another country. This is a martyrdom, which at its deepest level, can rend the dearest relationship with family and friends who shake their heads in utter amazement, \u201cWhy, why would you do this to us\u2014and to yourselves\u2014and to your children?\u201d<\/p>\n I hope that the example of these humble monks will inspire you to follow a truly biblical model for dynamic living and learning: simultaneously cultivating the heart and cultivating the mind; focusing on both living a holy life of passionate love for God, and thinking and learning under the Lordship of Christ, realizing that no subject and not the smallest detail of life escapes his dominion.<\/p>\n Literacy and Scripture and ultimately Western civilization were preserved by faithful and sacrificial Irish monks who spent their lives cultivating mind and heart, salvaging Scripture letter by letter, walking across Europe, preaching and teaching, establishing centers for spiritual, artistic and intellectual growth, and in the process, salvaged a dying civilization\u2014all because their hearts and minds were aflame for Christ. Let us too, in our day, with hearts and minds aflame for Christ, be faithful to treasure truth, transform culture and save both hearts and minds. Christians in general and scholars and artists in particular can model and articulate the good, the true and the beautiful and in so doing, once again \u201csave Western civilization.\u201d We can once again demonstrate that Christ truly makes all things new.<\/p>\n Dr. Daryl McCarthy is the President of the International Institute for Christian Studies<\/a>. <\/em>T<\/em>his paper was presented at the C. S. Lewis Foundation\u2019s triennial Summer Institute, Oxbridge<\/a>, in the summer of 2005.<\/em> 1<\/sup>\u201cThroughout the Middle Ages there was probably not a more barbarous period in Western Europe than the hundred years which ran from 650 to 750. Classical and clerical studies had fallen into utter decay. With very few exceptions, even the best instructed laymen scarcely knew how to read and write. The clergy, indifferently skilled in Latin letters, despised the national tongue which was in truth still undeveloped, and were totally ignorant of Greek.\u201d (Louis Gougaud, Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity<\/em>, trans. by Victor Collins. [Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, 1923], 42).<\/p>\n 2<\/sup>The Nicois Frenchman Antoine Pagi (1624-1699) said of Patrick, \u201cIt is to him that the Irish owe the fact that their country has become the Island of the Saints<\/em> and even, during our time, the center of influence in letters and sciences.\u201d (Quoted by Christiani Chanoine, \u201cSaint Patrick and the Christian Origins of Ireland,\u201d in The Miracle of Ireland<\/em>, ed . M. Daniel-Rops, trans. by the Earl of Wicklow. [Baltimore: Helicon Press, 1959], 20).<\/p>\n 3<\/sup>Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization \u2013 The Untold Story of Ireland\u2019s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe<\/em> (New York: Doubleday, 1995), 108.<\/p>\n 4<\/sup>Cahill, 151.<\/p>\n 5<\/sup>M. Daniel-Rops, The Miracle of Ireland<\/em>, trans. the Earl of Wicklow (Baltimore: Helicon Press, 1959), 10.<\/p>\n 6<\/sup>H. Zimmer, The Irish Element in Medieval Culture<\/em>, trans. and notes by Jane Loring Edmands (The Knickerbocker Press, 1891; reprint, New York: G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons: 1969), 45-46 (page citations are to the reprint edition).<\/p>\n 7<\/sup>John Ryan, Irish Monasticism \u2013 Origins and Early Development<\/em> (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1972), 378.<\/p>\n 8<\/sup>Zimmer, 17-18.<\/p>\n 9<\/sup>John Ryan, ed., Irish Monks in The Golden Age<\/em> (Dublin: Clonmore and Reynolds Ltd., 1963), 380.<\/p>\n 10<\/sup>From Brian D. McLaren, \u201cWhy Leaning Back Can Help Us Move Forward,\u201d paper presented at EFMA Executive Retreat, Kansas City, Missouri, September 17, 2002.<\/p>\n
\nIn A.D. 500 the state of civilization across Europe was bleak. Instability and chaos ruled. The greatest empire on earth had been looted by massive invasions of numerous tribes, including the original Vandals and the real Attila the Hun, as well as by the unrest of its own citizens. Libraries were destroyed. Thousands of books were burned. Education at all levels had declined. Even many priests, normally the most educated in the society, could barely use Latin. The foundations and superstructure of Western civilization were largely destroyed.1<\/sup><\/p>\n
\n
\nComparison of Roman Christianity and Celtic Christianity<\/strong>
\nAlthough the following is an over-simplification of two movements that encompassed a great deal of diversity, this comparison highlights some of the general distinctives of these two styles of medieval Catholic Christianity.10<\/sup><\/p>\n\n
\n
\nColumba, or Columcille, as he is sometimes called, born in A.D. 521, was the first noted Christian leader to leave Ireland to minister elsewhere. He had founded more than forty monasteries in Ireland. But in 563, Columba sailed to Iona, a small island off the coast of Scotland with twelve followers where he established a monastic center. Columba became very influential, even inaugurating the king of Scotland which, according to Ryan, was \u201cthe first recorded example in European history of the inauguration of a civil rule by an ecclesiastical one.\u201d17<\/sup><\/p>\n
\n
\nColumban<\/strong>
\nColumban, or Columbanus (not to be confused with Columba\/Columcille of Iona), born in A.D. 540, is considered to be the first truly great Irish missionary, because even more than Columba, \u201che was the pioneer who inspired the mass exodus later.\u201d20<\/sup><\/p>\n
\nSt. Gall and the Abbey<\/strong>
\nWhen Columban was driven away from Luxeuil, Gall, his lifelong friend and disciple who had left Bangor with him, accompanied him. In A.D. 610 they stopped at Lake Constance in what is today Switzerland where Gall established a monastery. He was in his early 50\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nThe foremost motivation, especially for the early monks, was simply their love for Christ. As Gougaud eloquently states:<\/p>\n
\nMany of these monks, especially those during the first century of the movement, were genuinely seized by a desire to win the lost to Christ and the Church. Cerbelaud-Salagnac said:<\/p>\n
\n
\nAsceticism<\/strong>
\nAsceticism was prominent in Celtic monasticism and played a major role in the missions movement. In fact, some scholars such as Fiaich believe that asceticism, not evangelism, was the primary motivation of most monks in leaving Ireland.53<\/sup> He claims that many monks left Ireland and went to pagan lands, not so they could evangelize, but so they could find seclusion and fulfill the ultimate self-mortification of leaving one\u2019s beloved homeland.<\/p>\n
\nThe monks and their movement were characterized by the dual cultivation of a holy life and the cultivation of the mind. Emerging as they did from the intense environment of the Irish monasteries, the early missionaries were intent on the holiness of God and on practicing holy lives themselves. In Ireland, according to Gougaud, \u201choliness so flourished there that soon it deserved the name of the island of the saints.\u201d60<\/sup> But Marnell points out that \u201cin most cases, these saints were not such by virtue of formal canonization in the Catholic Church. They were holy men of God, honored for their holiness and wondered at for the self-discipline and self-denial of their lives.\u201d61<\/sup><\/p>\n
\nA commitment to the cultivation of the mind and to education lies at the center of this great missions movement. They were deeply committed to, in Aigram\u2019s words, \u201cthe double formation, intellectual and spiritual.\u201d65<\/sup> They did not conceive any bifurcation between mind and heart. Their belief was, according to Ryan, that \u201cScholarship was only one degree less necessary to the Church than sanctity.\u201d66<\/sup> They were equally committed to cultivation of personal holiness through prayer and penance and cultivation of the mind through learning.67<\/sup> As Ryan expressed it, \u201cTo the Irish mind true knowledge was a most valuable aid to holy living. To love God surely one must begin by knowing God. And the argument might continue: the fuller the knowledge of God, the greater the love of God in the heart should be.\u201d68<\/sup><\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nThey articulated a full-orbed, holistic Christian worldview. They generally viewed all of living and learning under the Lordship of Christ and made no dichotomy between the sacred and the secular. This made it possible for them to see no contradiction between teaching the Bible and teaching the classics of Western civilization from a Christian worldview. Celtic prayers are alive with the dynamic presence of God in all of creation. There is no dualism or two-storied universe for the Irish. This is all God\u2019s world.<\/p>\n
\nThe parallel aspect of their full-orbed, Christian worldview, was the fact that they promulgated a breadth of learning across many disciplines. Even though Gougaud\u2019s research supports the thesis that they often viewed other disciplines as useful only insofar as they served theology, nevertheless they embraced a full breadth of knowledge about God\u2019s world.72<\/sup> The breadth of their teaching insured the breadth of their audience. They impacted not only monks and nuns, but laypersons as well through their teaching across Europe.<\/p>\n
\nOften island inhabitants tend to be insular, narrow and provincial in their perspective and outlook. And that was certainly true of most of the population of the island of Eire. But it was most certainly not the case for these Irish monks. Their passion for Christ led naturally to a breadth of vision\u2014if not global, then certainly far broader than most of their compatriots possess\u2014which encompassed a large portion of their world. They took the Gospel as far south as Italy, as far east as Kiev and as far north as Iceland and the Faroe Islands. They assumed that the Lordship of Christ should be proclaimed in the farthest reaches of the globe.<\/p>\n
\nAs academic missionaries, the Irish monks often found that their educational credentials and their ability to teach both \u201csecular\u201d and \u201csacred\u201d subjects opened doors to them that would have otherwise been closed, particularly in the courts of pagan rulers. The rulers were willing put up with some theology, in order to take advantage of the other subjects the monks could teach.<\/p>\n
\nThe monks, especially in the early years, generally matched their teaching of a Christian worldview with dedicated and sacrificial lifestyles. Granted, they were often, from our vantage point, legalistic, but most were earnestly devoted to God and to living a holy life. The Irish academic missionaries demonstrate that intellectual skill does not have to be divorced from spiritual devotion nor from missionary zeal.<\/p>\n
\nThey established centers and institutions of learning which long outlived them. Many of these monasteries and schools continued to serve as centers of learning for centuries after the Irish founders had passed on. Not only did they bring Christianity and civilization back to the Continent, the institutions they founded continued to disseminate education across Europe for centuries. Through these institutions, the Irish monks made education widely available. In that Dark Age, a great educational vacuum existed and they responded to fill this vacuum. As they preached the Gospel, they wanted their converts to be able to understand their new faith. This required that they be taught, often beginning at the most rudimentary level of education. In this way they brought education and civilization back to Europe\u2014to both peasant and king. We can only speculate on how differently Europe might have responded to the invasion of Islamic forces had it not been reinvigorated by the evangelism and education of the Irish.73<\/sup><\/p>\n
\nGenerally these monks were not only intense on attaining perfection in their spiritual lives, but they also sought excellence in their academic pursuits. Zimmer describes them as having \u201ca purely Christian training and severely simple habit of mind, joined to the highest theoretical attainments based upon a thorough knowledge of the best standards of classical antiquity. These Irishmen had a high mission entrusted to them, and they faithfully accomplished their task.\u201d74<\/sup><\/p>\n
\nThe goal of the early monks was to, as Zimmer puts it, make themselves \u201csuperfluous\u2026 so that, in many instances, the second generation of monks\u2026\u201d would be native to that country.75<\/sup> And it worked. This provided a strength and resilience that carried the institutions far beyond what they would have been had they aimed to establish purely \u201cIrish\u201d institutions which would be mere monuments to their own national heritage. Marnell refers to one of their main objectives as being \u201cself-liquidation.\u201d76<\/sup> For all of their love and loyalty to their homeland, these Irish monks were decidedly non-ethnocentric; they were ethnically inclusive. The Irish monks seized every opportunity to train leaders at the highest levels, leaders who would shape Europe. They seemed to instinctively understand the \u201ctop-down principle,\u201d\u2014that by shaping the heart and mind of a leader, one is able to multiply his influence through the many individuals and institutions that the pupil in turn will influence. Teaching kings and emperors and their sons earned them credibility and a reputation as teachers and also enabled them to wield broad influence across Europe.<\/p>\n
\nFortunately for a people so committed to propagating the faith in other cultures, many of the Irish monks apparently had a keen facility for language learning. As Fiaich says, \u201cWherever they went, language difficulties never seem to have caused them a problem.\u201d77<\/sup> Columban worked in an area with three languages with relative ease. Gall quickly learned the language around Lake Constance. Many of these academic missionaries could write poetry in either Latin or Irish, some in Greek.78<\/sup><\/p>\n
\nLibraries played a central role in the institution-building process. At each monastery the monks copied manuscripts, thus literally producing their own library\u2014all this on a Continent where most libraries and books are been destroyed centuries earlier. As they painstakingly copied manuscripts not of Scripture but of many of the Greek and Latin classics, they preserved the literary treasures of Western civilization. Their libraries in turn attracted more scholars and enhanced the reputation of the monasteries as centers for learning. At the end of the tenth century the library at Bobbio held 700 volumes, including 220 volumes presented by various scholars in the ninth century (40 from Dungal alone). By 850 the library at Gall held 428 volumes and by the end of the ninth century, 533 volumes. The books in both libraries, while primarily theological, also included a good collection of works in other fields as well, such as grammar, astronomy, medicine and literature.79<\/sup> These libraries served as two of the largest repositories for the treasures of civilization in the Western world.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nNotes<\/strong><\/p>\n