Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Coming of Christianity
St Patrick founded the See of Dublin sometime in the mid-5th century and went about the
business of conversion in present-day Wicklow and Malahide, before laying hands on
Leoghaire, the King of Ireland, using water from a well next to St Patrick's Cathedral. Or
so the story goes. Irrespective of the details, Patrick and his monk buddies were successful
because they managed to fuse the strong tradition of druidism and pagan ritual with the
new Christian teaching, which created an exciting hybrid known as Celtic, or Insular,
Christianity.
Compared to new hot spots like Clonmacnoise in County Offaly and Glendalough in
County Wicklow, Dublin was a rural backwater and didn't really figure in the Golden Age,
when Irish Christian scholars excelled in the study of Latin and Greek learning and Christi-
an theology. They studied in the monasteries that were, in essence, Europe's most import-
ant universities, producing brilliant students, magnificent illuminated books such as the
Book of Kells
(now housed in Trinity College) ornate jewellery and the many carved stone
crosses that dot the island 'of saints and scholars'.
The nature of Christianity in Ireland was one of marked independence from Rome, espe-
cially in the areas of monastic rule and penitential practice, which emphasised private con-
fession to a priest followed by penances levied by the priest in reparation - which is the
spirit and letter of the practice of confession that exists to this day.
St Patrick showed a remarkable understanding of Celtic power structures by working to convert chieftains
rather than ordinary Celts, who inevitably followed their leaders into adopting the new religion.
