Celtic Christian spirituality: Intimations of the future

Spiritual Life, Fall 1999 by Sellner, Edwards C

Wishing to provide wisely and properly for the souls of her people, and anxious about the churches of the many provinces that had attached themselves to her, Brigit realized that she could not possibly do without a bishop to consecrate churches and supply them with various levels of ordained clergy. So she sent for a distinguished man, known for his virtues, through whom the Lord had worked many miracles, who was then leading a solitary life in the desert. Going herself to meet him, she brought him back into her company so that he might govern the church with her in his episcopal rank, and so that none of the ordained would be missing in her churches. Afterwards, he was anointed head and chief of all the bishops; she, the most blessed abbess of all the women. By their holy partnership and with the helping aid of all the virtues, she built her principal church at Kildare. Because of the talents of them both, her episcopal cathedral and monastery spread-like a fruitful vine with branches growing in all directions-throughout the entire island of Ireland."

In Cogitosus's description of the church that existed about a hundred years after Brigit, we find allusions to the double-monastery of both women and men that Brigit originally built, and how the laity were intrinsic to monastic life, including the liturgy.

From other descriptions of the early Celtic monasteries, we find that both celibate members within the monastic communities as well as lay people experienced the fruits of collaboration. Education, pastoral care, and liturgical leadership were provided by the monks or religious women. In turn, lay people and their families helped the monasteries grow their crops, manage their farms, fish, plant trees, and keep their bees. All benefited from this mutual sharing of gifts.

Appreciation for the Marginalized

A fourth characteristic was the appreciation the Celts had for the marginalized, as well as for the marginalized places in their lives. Celtic Christianity, as Ian Bradley rightly points out,' was a faith that emerged at the margins of Britain, continental Europe, and institutional Christianity. The Celts themselves, once the dominant race in Europe, were originally a nomadic people who experienced little stability and who possessed little wealth. Throughout much of their history, they lived close to nature and the elements, as well as close to homelessness, poverty, and God. Precisely because of this, their Christian spirituality, reflected in the stories of the early saints, reveals a sensitivity toward those whose lives, for whatever reason, were considered of less value, and a genuine outreach toward those whom others treated as outcasts.

This is especially portrayed in the hagiographies of the Celtic women, and, not surprisingly, most pronounced in that of Brigit who, along with Patrick and Columcille, is considered one of the "holy trinity" of Irish saints. Many stories tell of Brigit's compassion and of her friendship with the most rejected in her society. She welcomes a young woman, made pregnant by a despicable man; lepers frequently visit her monastery where they are graciously received; wild boars, ducks, and a fox are taken under her wing. Perhaps the most vivid example of her ministry to the marginalized is the story of her doing precisely what everyone else refuses to do. According to the story, a certain prioress of a church tells her nuns that on Maundy Thursday (a special feastday during Holy Week that celebrates Jesus' washing the feet of his disciples, the symbolic action of Christian ministry), one of them "should minister to the old men and to the weak and feeble persons who were living in the church." The prioress's admonition is not followed: