The Three Martyrdoms of Ireland
Background
The Fifth Century was a terrible century for the Roman Empire.
It was the century of the Barbarian Invasions.
Twice, Pope Leo the Great went to meet a barbarian leader - Alaric the Goth and Atilla the Hun - at the gates of Rome, and turned them aside from the destruction. We do not know what he said to them, but he put the Fear of the Lord into them. Elsewhere the destruction continued.
Most of the mainland of Western Europe lost all contact with Roman administration. Those farms and villas which were not destroyed were forced to look to their own survival. They became the villages and towns of the emerging Middle Ages.
The Romans had to abandon Britain, which was over-run by the Saxons.
The last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was contemptuously deposed by the new barbarian King, who sent the Imperial Insignia back to the Eastern Emperor in the Eastern capital of Constantinople, with the message that the West needed no more emperors.
Yet just as the Roman world was collapsing, a new and amazingly strong Catholic civilization was being built in faraway Ireland.
Early in the Fifth Century, Saint Patrick converted the pagan Irish to the Catholic faith. During the period of the conversions, alone amongst all other nations, there were no martyrdoms at all. Never before or since has a whole nation taken to the Faith so readily and so peacefully.
In the Fifth and Sixth Centuries Christianity brought about a wonderful change in Ireland. For centuries it was to be a land of prayer and learning, the only such place left in the known world. So numerous were its holy men and women, and so great its learning, that it became known all over Europe as The Land of Saints and Scholars.
In the Sixth Century Saint Brigid, ‘The Mary of the Gael’, founded a Monastery in Kildare which soon grew into the largest city in Ireland; a city of monks, nuns and scholars, famous through all Ireland for its hospitality, and soon famous in other countries as well. The Irish, not granted the gift of the Red Martyrdom [shedding their blood for Christ] in Ireland, chose instead the Green Martyrdom [hermit’s huts in remote places in Ireland] and later the White Martyrdom [lifelong exile from Ireland while they brought the Gospel back to the ruined lands of Europe].
Saint Colmcille
Saint Colmcille was one of the first of the famous Irish saints who chose the White Martyrdom of lifelong exile from their beloved Ireland. In so doing they brought the Faith to vast regions of Europe that had been shattered by the collapse of the Roman Empire, or which had always been pagan.
One of the greatest was S. Colmcille, born in 521. He was of a noble clan - the O’Neills - and a direct descendent of King Niall Naoighiallach - Neil of the Nine Hostages - who had captured and enslaved the boy Patrick. ‘Colm cille’ was actually a nickname - ‘The dove of the Church’ - given to him when he was a boy because he spent so long a time each day in the church. At baptism he took the Latin form of his nickname - Columba.
When 42 years old, Colmcille led twelve companions over the water to the island of Iona, planting the Faith for the first time in Scotland. They built a small church and simple huts. But from this humble place the radiance of the Faith shone ever farther into the hills and glens. To this day the island is unspoiled, with a beautiful but very simple stone church, and an air of peace and blessing over the whole island. Iona lies just beyond the isle of Mull, in the Hebrides, the Western Isles of Scotland that seem always to have a special magic from the clean wind and waves, mist and racing skies. Fewer Scots now are Catholic, but they retain a special soft spot for Iona. In the words of the song:
Sing me o’ the Cuillins of Skye,
Of Harris and Eigg, and fair Iona -
Joy of my heart, Isle of Mull.
From this hallowed place the monks sallied forth to bring the Good News to the fierce tribes of Scots and Picts. For thirty years Colmcille preached, and by the end of his life the greater part of the country had been won for the Faith. When he died his followers brought his body back to be buried next to Saint Patrick.
Saint Aidan
Iona was not long in spreading the light of the Faith.
Aidan, from Leinster in the east of Ireland, became a monk at Iona. In the year 635 he built a monastery on the barren but lovely island of Lindisfarne, on the far north-eastern coast of England, to this day known locally as ‘Holy Island’. Britain in the First Century after Christ had been quietly converting to the Catholic Faith, but in Saint Aidan’s time this mixed Roman-and-Celtic civilisation had disappeared in the face of the pagan Angles and Saxons who now ruled the country. In these Dark Ages even the memory of the older days had vanished. The monastery became a famous centre of piety and learning, and ‘The Lindisfarne Gospels’, a beautifully illuminated manuscript in the style of the Book of Kells, has fortunately survived to this day. Aidan’s pupil Saint Cuthbert, later Bishop of Lindisfarne, inspired the Northumbrians for Centuries, and his body remained incorrupt until the Reformation. "Is there a more wonderful chapter in the history of Christianity than this time of ascetic saintliness in desolate places, of chants rising above the booming of the sea and the cries of sea birds, of men intoxicated with holiness moving through the wild country winning souls for Christ?" writes H.V.Morton. He also adds that the two loveliest place-names on Earth are surely Galilee and Lindisfarne.
Irish monks travelled all over England on foot, teaching and converting the people. In the year 662 there was only one bishop in England who had not been consecrated by an Irishman. In later years the pagan Vikings were once again to bring destruction and paganism back to that island, but in Aidan’s time the Saxons and Irish were on very cordial terms, and the Saxon Kings greatly venerated the holy monks from Lindisfarne. The Saxon historian Saint Bede the Venerable spoke of Ireland as "that peaceful nation, which has always been most friendly to the English."
With our next saint the White Martyrdom crosses the water to the mainland of Europe. We should pause to consider the situation there.
By the end of the Fifth Century the whole of the West was ruled by barbarian kings who were either pagan or belonging to the Arian heresy, that claimed Jesus was not truly God. To the East, the Byzantine Emperor followed the opposite heresy of the Monophysites, that Jesus was not truly Man. Far away beyond the Black Sea, the gallant mountain nations of the Armenians and Georgians maintained the True Faith, but in complete isolation. In the West, in Ireland alone was there a Catholic King.
We can clearly see God’s wise providence in the seas encircling Ireland and her remote location, for the collapse of civilised life on the continent was almost total. Even in Italy the native latin Language was being forgotten and mingled with the tribal dialects of the barbarian invaders. It was in Ireland, that had never been under the Roman Empire and whose people had never adopted Latin as an everyday language, that the study of Latin and the Catholic Faith was carried on. This close connexion between the Faith and advanced learning was a marked feature of the Irish for many centuries to come.
Meanwhile, in Europe the first Catholic King - Clovis of the Franks - was crowned five years before the beginning of the Sixth Century. Catholic bishops were always consecrated by other Catholic bishops, maintaining the Apostolic Succession, but the Frankish kings, struggling desperately against the mindless destruction all around, demanded the power of choosing who would be bishop. These men were then given the task of keeping loyalty to the King and controlling lawlessness with the sword, on top of their religious duties. Before we criticise the Frankish kings we must remember how perilously close Europe had come to utter destruction. The Catholic bishops, for their part, seeing the only Catholic Kingdom, gave all the support that was within their power. But the inevitable result was the growth of the Prince-bishops, often brutal and unspiritual men, nominated by the king to keep his subjects under control. It was into this world that the Irish Missionaries brought once again the Gospel of Christ.
Saint Columbanus (543-615)
Columbanus (or Columban) was the most outstanding of the Irish monks who left this country to “be a pilgrim for Christ” in mainland Europe.
In the sixth century, successive waves of Huns, Goths and Vandals had sacked the great schools of Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire. But the monasteries of Ireland, like a Noah's Ark, remained to become the great centres of religious and secular learning of that age. Scholars came, not only from all over Ireland, but from all the ravaged lands of Western Europe. Monasteries – which doubled as refuges where the scholars could stay for extended periods – included Clonmacnois, Clonfert, Devenish, Glasnevin, Clonard, Kildare, Glendalough and Bangor.
Columbanus was a great scholar and leader in Bangor. In his late forties he felt the call to the white Martyrdom. With his abbot’s permission, he set out by sea from Bangor with twelve companions. He landed in Brittany and made his way on foot through the devastated kingdoms of northern France. He was invited to settle in the Vosges area and over the next twenty years founded monasteries at Annegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaine. These monasteries grew rapidly, attracted an abundance of vocations and became important centres of learning.
The bishops and other leaders in Europe did not always welcome the Irish missionaries. Sometimes it was simple jealousy, sometimes it was from fear that they would take over from their own positions of power – which was sometimes true enough, as they were not always worthy leaders. Columbanus was a holy man, a poet, and a fearless defender of faith and morals. He had no hesitation in challenging bishops, kings and even popes, but his unwillingness to compromise meant that he made many enemies. Twice he was expelled from different countries. But he simply moved on, founding other monasteries in present-day Germany, Switzerland and Italy. He died after completing the building of his last great monastery in Bobbio, Italy. Today, almost fifteen centuries after his death, it is astonishing to discover that devotion to Columbanus is still so alive in these European countries.
An inscription on a statue in Luxeuil pays tribute to “the apostle with a soul of fire; tireless traveller, saviour of civilization”.
Robert Schumann, founding father of what became the European Union, called Columbanus “the patron saint of all who now seek to build a united Europe.”
Let us take courage from the examples of S. Columbanus and all the other saints of Ireland, in our time when the Faith is weak even in Saint Patrick's Isle. The Faith is not ours to hoard; we have been commanded by Christ to 'make disciples of all nations'. We need missionaries as in the Ages of Faith, but we can also begin at home. Each of us has his own gifts to bring to the Service of God.