A St. Brigid's Cross. © 2006 Mysterious World

THE SAINTS
"St. Patrick was the first successful missionary to Ireland, though Christianity already had been filtering in to Ireland through informal channels for some time. As with Rome, the first Christian missionaries were initially repulsed by the Irish, but unlike Rome, there were no Christian martyrs. St. Patrick met with strenuous opposition from the druids at Tara, opposition that included threats of violence and even spectacular feats of magic, but the response of the Druids was not openly violent as was that of the Romans. Instead, the Druids first attempted to discourage the Christians with sanctions, and then by well-reasoned arguments. But eventually the faith of the one God overrode that of the many gods, and one by one the Druids converted to the new monotheism. In practice, however, Druidism was not destroyed by Christianity but rather absorbed, its more practical elements retained, and the pagan elements removed, creating a form of Christianity that was uniquely Irish."

Irish Christianity was not only unique in the way it integrated ancient Irish culture into its fundamental belief system, but it was also unique in that it was, in its earlier period, primarily monastic in character. The uniquely rugged individualistic character of the Irish blended with the Christian ideas of moral and ethical purity and of separating one's self from the world to create a zealous group of warrior monks who were eager to find favor in the eyes of God through the denial of their carnal nature. As a result, monasteries full of young monks trying to purify themselves from the pollutions of the world sprung up all over Ireland, particularly on islands dotting the southwestern coast of Ireland, where the remains of many of the most famous monasteries still remain.

The monastic system had been first introduced to Ireland by St. Patrick, who actually wanted to introduce a hierarchical, ecclesiastical system, but the few monasteries he initially planted caught on so quickly that the ecclesiastical system was not implemented until centuries later. It is small wonder that Patrick did not have time to impose the ecclesiastical system, however, as he had spent much of his initial time in Ireland spreading the Gospel to the four corners of Ireland, coming up against opposition almost everywhere he went.

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