How the Irish monks and saints helped save Europe
Only Ireland, on the outer fringe of Western Europe, was left unconquered by the mighty Roman Empire. The weather was too rough (the Romans referred to the island as “Hibernia, Land of Winter”), and its Celtic warriors too fierce, to make a military expedition there worth it. One saint, however, was braver than the Roman generals; St. Patrick was able to conquer the remote island nation for Christ during his missionary labors there from 432 to 461.
When Patrick was laying the foundations of the Irish Church, no one could have foreseen the vital role it would play shortly after his death in preserving the light of faith and learning in the midst of Europe’s dark age. Thomas Cahill’s 1995 bestselling How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (Nan A. Talese, 1995) tells this little known but remarkable story.
Cahill’s book details what can be considered Ireland’s “Golden Age,” which lasted from the sixth century until the Viking invasions of the ninth century. During that time, 500 recognized saints came from the Emerald Isle, and its many monasteries produced a flourishing of art and learning that missionaries took to a suffering European continent in the wake Rome’s collapse. How the Irish Church came to the rescue of civilization is Patrick’s greatest legacy.
The church founded by Patrick had three distinct characteristics: it was Celtic, monastic, and missionary.
Patrick showed great respect for the native spirituality and traditions of the Irish, which were incorporated into Christian practice. The native Celtic culture was transformed by the Gospel from within without being eradicated. “In becoming an Irishman, Patrick wedded his world to theirs, his faith to their life…,” Cahill writes. “Patrick found a way of swimming down to the depths of the Irish psyche and warming and transforming Irish imagination—making it more humane and more noble while keeping it Irish.”
Patrick’s importing of Christianity brought writing to Ireland. The only alphabet the Irish had previously known was prehistoric Ogham—the twenty characters of its alphabet simply consisted of parallel strokes on either side of or across a continuous line. Within a generation, the Irish would master Latin, Greek and even some Hebrew.
There was a close affinity between the Christian faith and traditional Irish spirituality. The fit was so natural that there were no martyrdoms as Christianity spread throughout the land. Cahill sheds light on this historical anomaly: “Ireland is unique in religious history for being the only land into which Christianity was introduced without bloodshed.”
In contrast to the conventional “Red Martyrdom” by blood, the Irish developed a spirituality of the “Green Martyrdom” of asceticism. The Irish Church soon produced an unprecedented number of monks and missionaries.
In Patrick’s time, the Irish Church already developed a monastic spirit. Many of his young converts, including even sons and daughters of kings, were eager to dedicate their lives to God as monks and nuns.
