A leading Irish medieval historian has challenged the popular romantic idea of a Celtic ‘golden age’ of monasticism, arguing that early Irish Christianity was far more conflicted and human than its mythology suggests.
Speaking at the John Main Seminar in Balally parish, which explored ‘The Vision of Celtic Christianity for the Crisis of the 21st Century’, Bro. Colman O’Clabaigh OSB said he approaches the subject “as a Celtic sceptic.”
“When I was asked to speak on this, I’ll admit I was a little nervous,” he said. “I’m a Celtic sceptic, as a medieval historian. So that’s really the reason for the title of this talk.”
He warned that Irish cultural memory has often idealised the early monasteries as places of purity and perfect prayer.
“We can sometimes look back with rose-tinted spectacles at the past,” he said, “and like Lot’s wife, become paralysed by the thought that things were once wonderful, instead of realising we have to move into the future.”
In reality, early monasteries functioned as large, socially mixed settlements, containing not only monks but families, craftsmen and even criminals seeking sanctuary.
“All human life is present in the monastery,” he said. “There is nothing that you will not find in some monastery somewhere.”
Historical records also reveal conflict. Some monasteries even fought each other.
“Right from the beginnings of Christianity in Ireland,” Bro. Colman noted, “you have flawed leadership, you have scandal, and you have cover-up.”
Even the Book of Kells reflects this human reality. Though celebrated for its beauty, it contains hundreds of errors and unfinished sections, likely the result of disrupted work and Viking violence.
During the Q&A, when asked whether recovering the ‘Celtic’ view of nature might guide today’s ecological crisis, he was cautious:
“I doubt that Celtic society can say anything directly to our ecological crisis. I think this is something we have to work on ourselves.”
Ultimately, he said, the past should not be used as a refuge or a model of lost perfection. “Perfection has no need of God and no age was perfect.”
