Posted 218 days ago

Briefly, Eastern Influence on Celtic Saints

by Judy Naegeli, Mustard Seed Associates

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.¹

At MSA, we have always felt a strong affiliation with ancient Celtic Christianity, as seen on our website repeatedly. And on a grander scale, Celtic spirituality has attained some cultural popularity in most Western countries. Like us at MSA, people seem to resonate with the Celtic values like 1) recognizing the importance of little things and everyday spirituality, 2) creating “thin spaces” in which the presence of God is intense and almost tangible, and 3) living into the rhythms of the natural world that inform our Christian life, among other things. These values and Celtic practices are truly unique in the long history of Christianity. But they did not spontaneously develop in the isolated British Isles. They had to come from somewhere.

Father Gregory Telepneff wrote a little book called The Egyptian Desert in the Irish Bogs, a poetic title for a very dry book. In it, he describes how Celtic monastics, like Patrick, Brigid, and Columbanus, were influenced by the writings and practices of the Egyptian monastic movement: “[R]emarkable similarities exist between the monasticism of the Christian Celts and the monasticism of the Orthodox Easterners, similarities which are simply too widespread and extend to too many aspects of ecclesiastical like to be merely coincidental.” ² It makes sense if you think about it. In the early days of the church in the Middle East, communication was easy and common between East and West. They had common language, good roads, and a centralized government. Even after Constantine moved the Empire’s capital to Constantinople and Germanic tribes started raiding Europe, Christian writings travelled west to Italy and Gaul (modern-day France and Germany), most likely intersecting with travelers from farther north and west.

One of the most influential writings of early monasticism was The Life of St. Antony, written by St. Athanasius. St. Antony was famous for his decades spent in the desert being tormented by the devil in his quest for God. Athanasius’ biography of St. Antony was circulated widely throughout the Roman world. In it, Antony is described as “long[ing] for martyrdom . . . hoping thereby to identify with Christ, but he was not given that gift. Still, his commitment to asceticism—that is, vigorous self-denial through the practice of discipline—allowed him to become ‘a bloodless martyr,’ as the desert saints were called.” ³

Another influential Egyptian ascetic was St. Pachomius, the father of cenobitic, or communal, monasticism. He converted to Christianity after a long stint in the army, and was commanded by God “to fashion the souls of men so as to present them pure to God.” ⁴ He followed this command by forming the earliest monasteries in Egypt. “The purpose of these monasteries was not merely to establish a regimen of discipline but to nurture spiritual—and therefore interior—growth. The example of Christ—his incarnation and sacrificial death, love and service, lowliness and kindness—set the pattern for behavior.” ⁵ In the next century, Basil the Great and Augustine of Hippo followed his lead, writing rules and starting monasteries in Caesarea and Hippo, respectively.

St. Patrick is viewed as the father of Celtic Christianity. Most of his life is unknown, but people generally accept that he was sold into slavery in Ireland at 14, escaped to Gaul at 20 and converted to Christianity in Lérins soon after. In Gaul, he was probably exposed to the stories of Sts. Antony, Pachomius, and Augustine. And Patrick probably took them with him when he went back to Ireland as a bishop to preach, convert, and administer sacraments.

The influence of Egyptian ascetic life on Celtic Christians led to the development of the red, white, and green categories of martyrdom. Red martyrdom, of course, is the act of dying for the Christian faith, like the earliest Christians in Roman arenas. White martyrdom is the act of leaving everything you know behind in search of God, like St. Antony, other desert monks, and later, St. Columba, who left behind the British Isles and helped to re-evangelize Europe. Green martyrdom means staying home and living in an intentional way that invites God into one’s life through everyday rhythms and disciplines, much like the monasteries in the East. Celtic Christians are very often credited with these monastic distinctions, but really they just coined the phrases.

The reason I think it is important for us to learn about the influence of the East on Western Christianity is that Western Christians tend to think that Christianity came from the West. In fact, it came from the Middle East, where it is no longer thriving, perhaps, but still there. We also forget that the Apostles went to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel—India, Eastern Africa, and maybe even China. We forget that the Eastern Orthodox Church is even older than the Roman Catholic Church. We forget that the Coptic Orthodox Church has survived for centuries in the midst of Islam. There are traditions outside our Eurocentricism that we would do well to study and learn from, especially now that the greatest influx of missionaries is coming from East and Southeast Asia, instead of Europe and America.

In the Modern era (roughly 1500-1900 AD), Christianity was largely centered in Europe. Thousands of missionaries went to the ends of the earth to preach the Gospel of Christ and perhaps also the Gospel of Commerce. The intellectual Enlightenment in the middle of it all convinced Europeans that they were lords of the earth from which every good thing flowed. So I suppose it’s no wonder that people would cling to Western traditions in order to bolster their collective ego. And today, we have inherited that tendency.

That’s not to say that Western traditions are bad. Celtic Christianity is truly inspirational and God-centered, but there are other Christian traditions out there that can bring us closer to God as well. My hope is that Christians of today can acknowledge the many forms of Christianity out there, and see God working in their midst wherever they go.

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Notes

¹ Excerpt from St. Patrick’s “Breastplate Prayer.”

² Father Gregory Telepneff, The Egyptian Desert in the Irish Bogs: The Byzantine Character of Early Celtic Monasticism (Etna, Calif.: Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 2001), 9.

³ Gerald L. Sittser, Water From a Deep Well: Christian Spirituality From Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries (Downer’s Grove, Ill.: IVP Books, 2007), 78.

⁴ As quoted in ibid., 102.

⁵ Ibid., 103.

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