Christian History Home > Issue 60 > Patrick and Celtic Christianity: Did You Know?
Patrick and Celtic Christianity: Did You Know?
posted 10/01/1998 12:00AM
 2 of 2
The CH Timeline: Celtic Christianity
390 B.C. Celtic tribes (called the "Gauls") sack Rome
58-50 B.C. Julius Caesar is victorious in Gallic Wars. Surviving Celts retreat to British Isles
415 Patrick born in Roman Britain's northern frontier
430/31 Irish slavers capture Patrick
431 Pope Celestine I sends Palladius to Ireland
437 Patrick escapes, returning to Britain in the 440s
460/61 Patrick arrives in Ireland as a bishop and missionary
492/93 Patrick dies
c. 500 Brigit founds Kildare
557 Columba leaves Ireland for Iona
c. 590 Columbanus begins mission to the Continent
597 Augustine, on a mission from Rome, arrives in Britain
635 Aidan begins mission to the English at Lindisfarne
664 Synod of Whitby: Celtic Christians agree to abide by Roman traditions.
793 Vikings attack Lindisfarne, one of their earliest raids
1014 Irish defeat Vikings at Clontarf
1170 Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.
Patrick dates are the estimates of Liam de Paor, Saint Patrick's World (Notre Dame, 1993)
"Interminable Fun"
Irish monks belie the notion of monasticism as a joyless life separate from creation. In fact, Irish monks enjoyed both the created world and their scholarly task, as indicated in a poem written around A.D. 800:
Myself and White Pangur are each at his own trade; he has his mind on hunting, my mind is on my own task.
Better than any fame I prefer peace with my book, pursuing knowledge; White Pangur does not envy me, he loves his own childish trade.
A tale without boredom when we are at home alone, we have—interminable fun—something on which to exercise our skill …
The job he does every day is the one for which he is fit; I am competent at my own job, bringing darkness to light.
Copyright © 1998 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian History magazine.
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