In 398 AD St Ninian had established the first Christian Church in what is now Scotland at Canada Casa now Whithorn in Galloway. Although little is known about this great Christian saint of the Novantes or the earliest history of his foundation, it is clear that in the fifth and sixth centuries Canada Casa was an important centre of evangelism to both Britain and the northern part of Ireland. Here was to come St Enda, the founder of Irish monasticism.
For the Irish however the main credit for the introduction of Christianity to Ireland belongs to Saint Patrick. Yet despite Patrick’s pre-eminent place in the history of the Irish Church we do not know just how much of this story is historically accurate. Ironically the only first hand accounts of Patrick come from two works which he reputedly wrote himself, the Confession and the Epistle to Coroticus. The reference to his arrival in the Annals cannot be taken as necessarily factual either, as it is now believed that the Annals only became contemporary in the later part of the sixth century and when fifth century entries were therefore backdated. The question of Palladius and his mission give still more uncertainty with some scholars proposing that the idea that there could have been two Patricks. Francis Byrne suggested that we may suspect that some of the seventh century traditions originally refered to Palladius and have been transferred, whether deliberately or as a result of genuine confusion, to the figure of Patrick.
Douglas Hyde wrote “In the early development of rhyme, their masterly treatment of sound and in their absolutely unique and marvellous system of verse-form,the Irish have created for themselves a place alone and apart in the history of European Literatures”. It was the scribes of the early Church who would help commit the customs and legends of the populace to writing. Proinsias Mac Cana believed it was the cultural dynamic regionating from the monasteries centred around Bangor that made this area of Ulster “the cradle of written Irish Literature”.
The great masterpiece of great Irish saga literature is Tain Bo Cuailgne, “The Cattle-Raid of Cooley” This tells of the invasion of Ulster by the combined armies of the rest of Ireland headed by Queen Maeve. The story is traditionally though to refer to the first few centuries AD, and although it wasn’t written down until the 8th century, it is still the earliest vernacular epic in Western European literature.
The hero of the Tain is the Ulster Warrior Cuchulainn, who for much of the story singlehandedly defends his homeland against his enemies. His death is equally dramatic, tying himself to a pillar stone so that he might die standing as he finally vanquished by his foes. The richness of the Ulster sagas and the legend of Cuchulainn are now an intrical part of the heritage of the people of Ulster and indeed of Ireland.
The Common Christianity that lies at the basis of much of our tradition is centred amongst such as Columba of Iona and Aidan of Lindisfarne. But In 555 AD at Bangor Co Down, Comgall of the CruthIn had founded a Monastery which has given the largest number of names to Irish religious history- Columbanus, Gall, Moluag or Molua, Maelrubha, Dungal, Malachy, to name but a few. As for Comgall, such was his reputation for piety and learning that multitudes flocked to his school from the most distant parts: It is well established that not less than 3000 students and teachers were under his care at one time, including many of the most honourable in the land. The evangelistic seal of Comgall was preeminent – down to the landing place at the reef of rocks he led many a band of his disciples who were to embark on their frail coracles to spread the gospel in European Countries. And it was his disciples who provided the unique European legacy, especially for France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy.
One of these disciples was Columbanus who in 589 AD set off on his great missionary journey through Europe, eventually dying at Bobbio in Italy in 615 AD. The monasteries he established were the inspiration of hundreds of others. Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister whose energies contributed to the setting up of the EEC said that “St Columbanus is the patron saint of those who seek to construct a united Europe.” Pope Pius XI wrote “The more light that he shed by scholars in the period known as the Middle Ages the clearer it becomes that it was thanks to the initative and labours of Columbanus that the rebirth of Christian virtue and civilisation over a great part of Gaul, France, Germany and Italy took place.” The French poet Leon Cathlin concluded: He is, with Charlemagne, the greatest figure of our early Middle Ages”.
The monasteries founded by Columbanus and Gall became great ecclesiastical centres attracting some of the finest intellectual minds of the day. The Library at Biobío contains some 700 manuscripts some of which were original creations while others were copies of books borrowed from other libraries in a regular system of exchange.
The majority of manuscripts were produced in the scriptorium of the monasteries. Many of the original scribes who devoted themselves to the pain staking task were Irish. In the artistic manner in which they set about their work they further extended the Irish contribution to European culture. John Romer has said that these monastic settlements formed the high culture of Europe in the reign of Charlemagne,while others asserted that the influence of the Irish in European culture it can hardly be over emphasised.
Another monk was made teacher-in-residence at one of Charlemagne’s palaces. At Liege was yet another Irish scholar Johannes Scottus Eriugena who, according to Duncan Norton-Taylor, may have influenced the course of humanism in the Middle Ages, even more than Columbanus. Johannes view of God and the world were incorporated into a scholarly treatise, De Divisione Naturae, which has been called the first great philosophical work of Western Europe.
So important did the Irish Church consider its position within European Christianity that it did not hesitate to oppose any matters with which it felt in disagreement. Pope Honorius I had to write to the Irish, “earnestly exhorting them not to think their small number, placed at the utmost borders of the earth, wiser than all the ancient and modern churches throughout the world.”