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Things Celtic are the rage today, whether it's Celtic spirituality, Celtic music, or Celtic history. A September 1998 search on Amazon.com, an online bookstore, turned up 1,200 books that have something to do with the word Celtic.

A search of "Jesus Christ" on Yahoo.com revealed only 896 web sites, but a search of "Celtic" turned up nearly a thousand (976).

The original Celts were tribes that emerged from central Europe about 1000 B.C. and spread over much of Europe by 300 B.C. They shared a common language and, in large degree, a common culture—but not a common name. They were called Keltoi or Galatians by the Greeks and Gauls or the Galli by the Romans, who thought of them as a brutal, militaristic people.

Maybe that's because Rome, and Julius Caesar in particular, spent a lot of money and men repelling their incessant attacks (recorded in one of the most famous Latin works, Caesar's commentary on the Gallic Wars).

When the Romans finally proved victorious, the Celts retreated to what was then considered the edge of civilization: areas we now call England, Scotland, and Ireland.

The Celts who defeated Greek armies in Asia Minor liked what they saw and settled down in an area that became Galatia. It is possible that some of the converts the apostle Paul scolds in his letter ("You foolish Galatians!") were descendants of Celts.

The Celts of Ireland were the first major people group to be evangelized successfully without violence. For a culture so reputedly bloodthirsty and "barbarian," this was some accomplishment.

Patrick, the Catholic patron saint of the Irish, was so designated as a result of popular devotion and long-standing custom, not an official canonization process. (The Roman Catholic church has made official designation of relatively few patrons.)

Also, Patrick wasn't Irish but came to Celtic Ireland as a British missionary. He so loved the Irish, though, by the end of his life, he often made himself one, saying "We have been born in Ireland."

Finally, did Patrick really use the shamrock to explain the Trinity to the Irish? It is impossible to know historically if he did or didn't.

The Irish Celts are famous for their story telling, and that's partly because of the countless legends and fables that have arisen about their saints.

Surrounded as they were by water, many stories had to do with the sea and sea monsters.

Brendan the Navigator celebrated Mass on the back of a whale, which he thought was a small island until it swam away. Columba is said to have confronted Scotland's Loch Ness Monster, the first reported sighting in history.

Celtic Christianity is renowned for its monasticism, and its monasticism for its rigorous asceticism, which resulted in, among other things, "The Penitentials." These were handy guides for abbots and pastors to determine the appropriate spiritual discipline for various offenses. Correct punishments for thievery, sorcery, lying, etc., were all detailed.

Close to a third of the Irish penitentials covered sexual infractions. For example, a cleric who lustfully dreamed of a woman had to live on bread and water for seven days—but it was six years of the diet for impregnating a nun.

Today Celtic language and culture are still alive in such places as Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. But confusion, at least about how to pronounce the name, persists. The French call them selts, Italians prefer chelts, whereas most of the English speaking world (except basketball fans from Boston) says kelts.

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