Insular monasticism
Insular monasticism refers to a distinct form of Christian monastic life that developed in the British Isles during the early medieval period—roughly between the 5th and 9th centuries. It is associated especially with Celtic Christianity and the monastic traditions of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and northern England.
There is archaeological evidence of insular monasticism as early as the mid 5th century, influenced by establishments in Gaul such as the monastery of Martin of Tours at Marmoutier, the abbey established by Honoratus at Lérins; the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel; and that of Germanus at Auxerre. Many Irish monks studied at Candida Casa near Whithorn in what is now Galloway in Scotland.
Background
By the fifth century, Martin of Tours had established monasteries at Ligugé and Marmoutier; Cassian, the Abbey of St Victor and the women's Abbey of Saint-Sauveur at Marseille; Honoratus at Lérins; and Germanus at Auxerre. The monastic tradition spread from Gaul to the British Isles shortly thereafter. Lérins was famous for training priests, and a number of its monks became bishops. Benedict Biscop spent two years there and later founded St Peter's monastery at Monkwearmouth in Northumbria under the Rule of St Benedict.As Christianity spread into Ireland and parts of Great Britain during the late 4th and 5th centuries, monastic communities emerged in places such as Iona, Lindisfarne and Kildare. Several early Irish monks were noted for being missionaries, traveling into Great Britain and continental Europe.
History
The Roman, and therefore Saxon conception of ecclesiastical government was territorial and diocesan. The Celtic conception was tribal and monastic.In the British Isles in the 5th century, the earliest monastic communities in Ireland, Wales and Strathclyde followed a different, distinctly Celtic model. It seems clear that the first Celtic monasteries were merely settlements where the Christians lived together – priests and laity, men, women, and children alike – as a kind of religious clan. At a later period actual monasteries both of monks and nuns were formed, and later still the eremitical life came into vogue.
The early Celtic monasteries were like small villages, where the people were taught everything from farming to religion, with the idea in mind that eventually a group would split off, move a few miles away and establish another monastery. In this way, the Celtic way of life, and the Celtic Church propagated its way across Ireland and eventually to Western Britain and Scotland. Irish monks spread Christianity into Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland. St. Ninian established a monastery at Whithorn in Scotland about 400 AD, and he was followed by St. Columba, and St. Aidan, who founded a monastery at Lindisfarne in Northumbria. Columban wandering monks became missionaries. Founding saints were almost invariably lesser members of local dynasties, and their successors were often chosen from among their kin. Ultan, abbot-bishop of Arbraccan, was a disciple and kinsman of Declán of Ardmore, who made him bishop of Ardbraccan.
The Insular observance, at first so distinctive, gradually lost its special character and fell into line with that of other countries; but, by that time, Celtic monasticism had passed its zenith and its influence had declined.
Scotland
"The impact of monasticism on Scotland was profound and long lasting."Whithorn, an early trading center, precedes the island of Iona by 150 years as a birthplace of Scottish Christianity. The oldest Christian monument in Scotland is "The Latinus Stone", a cemetery stone dated to the mid 5th century. Bede recounts a traditional belief that in 397, Ninian established the first Christian mission north of Hadrian's Wall here.
Ninian
According to the traditional account as expanded in the Vita Sancti Niniani, attributed to Aelred of Rievaulx, Ninian was a Briton who had studied in Rome. On his return, he stopped to visit Martin of Tours, who sent masons with him on his homeward journey. These masons built a church of stone, on the shore. Shortly thereafter, upon learning of Saint Martin's death, Ninian dedicated the church to him. Ninian went on to convert the southern Picts to Christianity. There is strong modern scholarly consensus that Ninian and Finnian of Movilla are the same person, whose actual name was "Uinniau".The small stone church, known as the "Candida Casa", was Scotland's first Christian building. Archaeological excavations have suggested that Whithorn was primarily a commercial settlement, whose residents were Christian, and that a more likely location for Ninian's church might have been Kirkmadrine, across the bay. It appears that Rosnat was a double monastery with a separate house for women.
At Whithorn, many monks were trained who later went into the missionary field to become famous apostles of Ireland and Alba, even as far north as the misty Orkney and Shetland Islands. Saint Éogan, founder of the monastery of Ardstraw, was an Irishman who lived in the sixth century AD and was said to have been taken by pirates to Britain. On obtaining his freedom, he went to study at Candida Casa. Enda of Aran first studied with Ailbe of Emly, and then went to the Candida Casa. Enda founded the first monastery in the Aran Islands.
Other monastic foundations
About 528, Cadoc is said to have built a stone monastery probably at Kilmadock, which was named for him, north-west of Stirling. In 565 Saint Kenneth joined Columba in Scotland and then went on to found a monastery in Fife. Kingarth monastery on the Isle of Bute is associated with saints Cathan and his nephew Bláán, who studied under Kenneth.A contemporary of Columba, Moluag, is described in The Matryrology of Óengus, as "The Clear and Brilliant, The Sun of Lismore in Alba". He was ordained by Comgall of Bangor, who may have been a kinsman. Around 562, he and twelve companions embarked on a "white martyrdom", forsaking their homeland to establish a monastery on the island of Lismore in Scotland. Lismore became an important center of Celtic Christianity. Máel Ruba, grand-nephew of Comgall of Bangor,, founded Applecross Abbey in 672 in what was then Pictish territory. A six-mile radius of his grave was designated "A' Chomraich", and accorded all the rights and privileges of sanctuary. According to Adomnán, Donnán of Eigg was martyred with a number of monks at his monastery at Kildonnan.
Shortly before his death in 651, Aidan of Lindisfarne founded Melrose Abbey on the River Tweed, as a daughter house of his own establishment. Cuthbert entered Melrose under Abbot Eata. He studied under Prior Boisil. The sick would come from far distances to Boisil, who was skilled in the healing properties of various herbs and the nearby mineral springs. Around 658 Eata left Melrose and founded a new monastery at Ripon in Yorkshire, taking with him the young Cuthbert as his guest-master. Boisil succeeded Eata as abbot at Melrose.
Between 1994 and 2007, archaeological investigations directed by Martin Carver confirmed the existence of a Pictish monastery at Portmahomack on Tarbat Ness in Easter Ross. The monastery began around 550 AD and was destroyed by fire in about 800 AD. It had a burial ground with cist and head-support burials, a stone church, at least four monumental stone crosses and workshops making church plate, vellum and early Christian books.
In the Eighth Century a monastic community was founded at Cennrigmonaid, which later became St. Andrews, perhaps by the Pictish king Óengus son of Fergus. The clergy at the time were the Céli Dé. The Irish annals record the death of one of their abbots, Túathalán, in 747. One version of the foundation legend states that the monastery was defined by free-standing crosses.
Physically Scottish monasteries differed significantly from those on the continent, and were often an isolated collection of wooden huts surrounded by a wall. St. Donnan's monastery at Kildonnan was located within an oval enclosure, surrounded by a ditch, housing a rectangular chapel in the center, and a handful of smaller buildings either side.
England
On his second visit to Britain, around 446, Germanus of Auxerre accompanied by Severus of Trier, established schools at Ross-on-Wye and Hentland. "By means of these schools", says Bede, "the Church continued ever afterwards pure in the faith and free from heresy". In the 6th century, Dubricius/Dyfrig, who was born in Herefordshire, of a Welsh mother, founded a monastery at Hentland and then one at Moccas.The earliest monastic site in the United Kingdom appears to have been at Beckery, near Glastonbury. Excavations conducted in 2016, revealed what archaeologists say is a monastic cemetery dating to the 5th century. The monastery, consisting of a few wattle and daub buildings, was situated on an island surrounded by wetlands.
Augustinian mission
By the time the Roman Empire recalled its legions from the province of Britannia in 410, parts of the island had already been settled by pagan Germanic tribes who, appear to have taken control of Kent and other coastal regions no longer defended by the Roman Empire. In the late 6th century Pope Gregory I sent a group of missionaries to Kent to convert Æthelberht, King of Kent, whose wife, Bertha of Kent, was a Frankish princess and Christian. Soon after his arrival, Augustine founded the monastery of Saints Peter and Paul on land donated by the king. Later, it was renamed St Augustine's Abbey.Probably the earliest monastery established in England for women was Saint Peter's Abbey in Folkestone, having been traditionally founded in 630 by Eanswith, the daughter of King Eadbald of Kent, the son of Æthelberht of Kent.
The spread of Christianity in the north of Britain gained ground when Edwin of Northumbria married Æthelburg, a daughter of Æthelbert, and agreed to allow her to continue to worship as a Christian. The missionary Paulinus of York accompanied Æthelburg north. After Edwin's death in the Battle of Hatfield Chase, his immediate successors reverted to paganism, His widowed queen Æthelburg fled, with members of her family, to her brother, King Eadbald of Kent. Æthelburh founded Lyminge Abbey about four miles northwest of Folkestone on the south coast of Kent.
After Paulinus left Northumbria with Queen Æthelburg, his assistant James the Deacon remained and continued his missionary efforts, primarily in the Kingdom of Lindsey. James, was a trained singing master in the Roman and Kentish style, and taught many people plainsong or Gregorian chant in the Roman manner.
Among those who went to Kent was Edwin's niece, Hild, who had been baptized by Paulinus. Some time later, her sister, Hereswith became a nun at Chelles Abbey in Gaul, but Hild returned north with some companions, and was trained in Celtic monasticism by Aidan of Lindisfarne, part of the Hiberno-Scottish mission to northern Britain. The double monastery of Hartlepool Abbey, a walled enclosure of simple wooden huts surrounding a church had been founded in 640 by Hieu, an Irish recluse in Northumbria. In 649, Aidan sent Hieu to establish a monastery at Healaugh near Tadcaster, and named Hild abbess at Hartlepool. Around 657, Aidan asked her to found a monastery at Streoneshalh. Hild served as abbess of both monasteries, but resided at Streaneshalch.
In 670, Eadbald's granddaughter, Domne Eafe, founded the double monastery of St. Mildred's Abbey at Minster-in-Thanet. The East Anglian princess Æthelthryth founded a double monastery at Ely in 673.
With the Gregorian missionaries, a third strand of Christian practice was added to the British Isles, to combine with the Gaulish and the Hiberno-British strands already present. The Gregorian missionaries had little lasting influence in Northumbria, where after Edwin's death the conversion of the Northumbrians was achieved by missionaries from Iona, not Canterbury.