He established his first abbey among the Cenel Connaill at Derry in 545, the same year that Ciaran founded his last abbey at Clonmacnoise the year before his death. Colmcille’s most prominent abbeys were at Doire (Derry) and Raphoe in Tir Connaill, Kells in Meath, and Iona in the Sea of the Hebrides in the sphere of influence of the Pictish kingdom of Fortrenn. The last became the single-most important and revered center of Christianity in Ireland and northern and western Britain until the Viking Age. No other see or abbey came close.
Besides manual labor and missionary work, one of the chief occupations of the Irish monks and nuns was collecting and copying literary works, not just Scripture or those of Christian theologians, but of classical authors shunned on the Continent. Had it not been for the Irish, along with the scholars of the Islamic Caliphate on the other side of the still extant Roman Empire, many of the most treasured of ancient works would have been lost entirely.
Ui Neill
After the Ui Neill rose to power, they dominated the provinces of Ulster and of Meath until the early modern era and with few exceptions held the high kingship until the English conquest.
In the North (Ulster), there were two main branches, the Cenel nEoghain and the Cenel Connaill, plus a third. The Cenel nEoghain were the senior and ruled as Kings of Aileach. The Cenel Connaill ruled Tir Connaill (roughly the modern Co. Donegal). Sometimes one or the other of these branches also held the high kingship. A smaller branch, the Cenel nEndai, ruled Airtech in modern Co. Roscommon (then part of Ulster).
In the South (Meath), the main branches of the Ui Neill were the Sil nAedo Slaine of Brega and the Clann Colmain of Uisneach (anciently considered the center of the island). Other dynasties of the Southern Ui Neill included the Cenel Corpri of North Tethba, the Cenel Maini of South Tethba, the Caille Folamain (Lough Lene), the Cenel Loegairi (on the River Boyne), and the Cenel Fiachach of Fir Cell (aka Moycashel).
Conal Gulban, progenitor of Cenel Connaill, was reputedly the first Christian convert among the Ui Neill, and his great-grandson born Crimthann mac Felimid became Ireland’s greatest saint. With the Christian name Colmcille (‘Dove of the Church’), this prince known to history as St. Colmcille (Ireland) and St. Columba (Scotland) studied at the abbey of Clonard in Ossory under St. Finnian before founding abbeys at Derry (his first and his seat), Kells, and Fingal (Swords).
Muintir Colmcille in Ireland
Now let’s take a look at one of those monastic federations mentioned earlier.
By far, the largest and most widespread of these was that founded by St. Colmcille of Iona and his disciples and their successors. As such, it provides the best example of the interlocking nature of these ecclesiastical “families”. This family centered around the Abbey of Iona, founded in 563 on an island in the Sea of the Hebrides off the coast of Airthair (eastern) Dal Riata.
Until the relics of the revered Colmcille were divided and removed from his chief abbey on the island of Iona off the coast of the eastern Dal Riata, sometimes called Earr a’ Gaidheal, in 878, Iona held the unquestioned precedence of not only the Columban houses but of all abbeys, churches, and other institutions connected with the Irish church, including those in what is now Scotland. The see of Armagh and its abbey were hardly even a blip on the radar screen, except locally. Such was also the case with Armagh’s later rivals at the abbey of Emly and see of Cashel in Munster.
Colmcille’s first house, after he finished his training, was at Derry among the Cenel Connaill of the northern Ui Neill in roughly what is now Co. Donegal in the province of Ulster. He founded the abbey at Derry in 545 CE, the same year Ciaran founded Clonmacnoise as the cap of a long life of teaching, only to die the next year. The likelihood that Colmcille and Ciaran were students together as portayed in the legend of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland is not very great.
Other houses Colmcille founded among his immediate cousins were at Raphoe, Clonegagh, Clonleigh, Clonmany, Desertegny, Fahan, Gartan, Glencolmcille, Templedouglas, Kilbarron, Tory Island, and Kilmacrennan.
Among his more distant cousins of Cenel nEoghan, Colmcille founded houses at Ballymagrorty, Ballynascreen, Bovevagh, Desertoghill, Errigal, Drumragh, and Termonmaguirk.
Near the capital of the Ulaidh at Emain Macha, Colmcille founded the house of Regles Colmcille, in the same vicinity as the mother house of the Muintir Padraig at Ard Macha (Armagh). Later, beginning in the 7th century, Armagh lay in the territory of the Airghialla.
A little further south in the province of Meath, Colmcille founded the houses of Mornington, Kells, and Skreen in the region of Brega, and the house of Durrow in Tethba.
In the province of Leinster, Colmcille founded the houses of Donaghmore, Moone, Lambay Island, Inistioge, Kilcolm, Killermoge, Lynally, Swords, Moore, and Clonmore,
In Connacht, Colmcille established more houses and churches than in any other province in Ireland, including Ulster.
Among the Ui Amhlaigh, the leading sept in North Connacht, he established the abbey of Drumcliffe. Among the Ui Fiachrach Muiaidhe to their east, he established Drumcolm, while among the Cenel Feidhlimidh to their west he established an abbey on the island of Inishkea.
South of the Cenel Feidhlimich in the territory of the Ui Mhaille, Colmcille established the abbey of Oughaval.
In the northeast of Connacht, Colmcille established the abbey of Cloone among the Ui Briuin Beifne. Among their cousins to the Muintir Maoilmhordha, in the territory that several centuries later became East Breifne, he established the abbey of Drumlane. For their subjects the Muintir Annaly, a tribe of the Conmaicne Magh Rein, he founded the abbey of the island of Inchmore on Loch Gawna.
On Inishmaine Island in Loch Measg, in the territory of the Partraige Locha and bordering that of the Partraige an-t Sliebh, Colmcille founded an abbey that spawned at least three churches on other islands in the loch and more on its shores.
In Teora Connacht, the central district politically of Connacht province, Colmcille founded an abbey on Inishmacnerin Island in Loch Key for the Sil Murray. Among the Ui Briuin Magh Ai, he established the abbey of Assylyn.
Just south of these, in the territory of the Conmaicne Dunmore, he established the abbey called Glencolmcille not far from that of St. Jarlath at Tuam.
In the 6th century, the Delbhna Cuile Fabhair ruled the eastern shores of Loch Orbsen (Loch Corrib) and in its hinterland, Magh Seola, that gave its name to its later conquerors, the Ui Briuin Seola, who later became the Muintir Murchada. Among this tribe Colmcille founded the abbey of Kilcoona, placing over it his disciple St. Cuana.
Among the Meadhraighe at the head of Loch Lurgan (Galway Bay), Colmcille established the abbey of Kilcolgan.
West of Loch Corrib and on the northern shore of Loch Lurgan, Colmcille established the abbey of Cloghmore among the Delbhna Tir Da Locha, cousins of the Delbhna Cuile Fabhair on the east side of the loch. It lay a few miles west of the abbey founded by St. Enda of Aran in Ballynspiddal at the site of the later town of Spiddal.
Except for the foundations in the southern part of the territory of Ui Fiachrach Aidne that later became part of the kingdom of the Eoghachta in the 8th century, Muintir Colmcille does not seem to have had any houses in Munster. Here, Colmcille founded the abbey of Drumcliff among the Ui Cormaic and another named Glencolmcille among the Corco Mruad.
The Muintir Colmcille added a new member in Connacht in the second half of the next century, when St. Colman, former abbot of Lindisfarne and former bishop of Northumbria, established the abbey of the island of Inishbofin in 667 at the northwest corner of the territory ruled by the Conmaicne Mara.
Due to conflict over daily living habits among his Irish and Saxons exiled from Lindisfarne after the Synod of Whitby, Colman decided to set up another abbey for his Saxon followers some distance away. He therefore founded an abbey at Magh Eo among the Ciarraighe Uachtair that soon became the central institution for all the Ciarraighe. The abbey was universally known as Mayo-na-Saxon because all its monks were from England until the 12th century.
Battle of Cooldrevny (Cul Dreimhne), 561
All accounts agree that the Battle of Cul Dreimhne in 561 was the event that led to Colmcille’s self-exile to the land of the Picts, but they do not agree on the cause.
The battle was fought between the southern Ui Neill under Diarmait mac Cerbhaill of Clann Cholmain, high king of Ireland, king of Meath, and king of Uisneach, and the northern Ui Neill under Domhnall Ilchealgach of Cenel nEoghan, king of Aileach.
Diarmait mac Cerbhaill, Ireland’s last pagan high king, was the last to be inaugurated at a full Royal Feast in which he married the land. Marrying the land involved ritually mating a horse then slaying it and taking a bath in its blood. Colmcille’s Christian cousins in Aileach and Tirconnell, meanwhile, continued the practice for centuries, until it was outlawed after the English conquest in the 12th century.
The more hagiographic sources tell the story that Colmcille secretly copied a Psalter belonging to fellow Clonard alumnus Finnian of Moville, which led to the battle. Afterwards, a council judged Colmcille in the wrong, according to the legend, in spite of the fact that fellow classmate St. Brendan of Birr had spoken in his favor. Due to the censure, Colmcille chose self-exile.
The truth has more to do with dynastic rivalry and violation of the laws of hospitality.
Cunan, son of Aed mac Echach of the Ui Briuin, king of Connachta, accidentally killed the son of Diarmait’s steward during a hurley match (nearly as dangerous as Cherokee stickball) at a feast at Tara. Realizing his peril, Cunan sought refuge at the nearby abbey of Kells, whose abbot was Colmcille. Diarmait’s warriors dragged Cunan outside the abbey and killed him. Colmcille sought redress from his cousins, thus leading to the battle at which the slaughter was reportedly enormous. The northern Ui Neill of Aileach were victorious.
Ironically, Colmcille’s cousins had earlier invited him to become their candidate for the high kingship when it came open, but he declined because he didn’t want to give up his work with the church. Had he accepted, it would have been he who was high king rather than Diarmait.
Muintir Colmcille in Scotland and Northumbria
The Cruithni, of whom there were also groups in Ireland, were the non-Romanized Britons of northern Great Britain, by then gathered into two confederations divided by the Mounth: Verturiones or Fortrenn and Caledonii or Caledon. The rivalry between these two groups and their rulers and their descendants dominated the politics of Scotland down to the mid-13th century. St. Colmcille, St. Columba to the Scots, worked among the people of Fortrenn.
Colmcille’s self-imposed exile led to the founding of the house that was to become the leading house in the Isles and one of the most prominent in all Christendom, the Abbey of Iona, which became the local “Rome” for Ireland, Fortriu and its dependencies, Northumbria, Strathclyde, North and South Wales, Cornwall, Devon, etc. If the occupants of any see of Insular Christianity could be deemed worthy of the designation “Patriarch”, it would be the “Coarb of St. Colmcille in Ireland and Scotland”.
In the east of the Irish Sea, Colmcille founded an abbey on Loch Colmcille on the island of Skye, which lay in the territory of Pictish kingdom called Fortrenn. Fortriu had become the dominant of the two major Pictish realms, the other, Caledon, being pressed hard by the Angles to the south in pagan Northumbria.
Some of the major foundations of the Muintir Colmcille in the territories of Fortrenn were Dunkeld in province of Atholl; Scone in the district of Gowrie; Deer in the province of Buchan; Kilrymont (later St. Andrews), Inchcolm, and Aberdour in the province of Fife; and Deerness and Birsay in the Orkney Islands.
In 634, Oswald, king of Northumbria, appealed to Fergno Britt mac Failbi, abbot of Iona where he had been educated, for missionaries to convert his pagan subjects. Later that year, St. Aidan established an abbey and the seat of his bishopric on the island of Medcaut, later called Lindisfarne, near the kingdom’s capital at Bamburgh. The abbey and its daughter churches remained part of the Muintir Colmcille until the Synod of Streonshalh in 664.
Celtic monasteries on northern Great Britain
Fortrenn was the kingdom which grew out of the Verturiones confederation occupying the north of the Mounth. Caledon was the kingdom(s) of the Picts south of the Mounth. The Dal Riata of Irish origin occupied Argyll and the Isles. Northumbria arose from the union of the crowns of the Anglian realms of Bernicia and Deira along with its semi-autonomous district of Laudian (Lothian) in the former British kingdom of Gododdin.
In contrast to the previously mentioned difficulty of distinguishing between local churches and actual convents in Ireland, doing so in Scotland is easier.
The Columban, Culdee, and other Celtic monastic houses in Scotland, minus those of Lothian, included Aberlady, Abernethy, Applecross, Arberdour, Ardchattan, Artchain (on Tiree), Airlie, Blairgowrie, Bledach (on Tiree), Brechin, Brough of Birsay (Orkney), Cella Diuni (on Loch Awe), Clova, Colonsay, Culross, Deer (in Buchan), Deerness (in Orkney), Dornoch, Dull, Dunblane, Dunfermline, Dunkeld, Edzell, Govan, Hinba, Hoddam, Inchaffray, Inchcolm, Inverlunan, Iona, Kettins, Kilmichael, Kilrymont (St. Andrews), Kilspindie, Kingarth (on Bute), Kinghorn, Kinkel, Kirkcaldy, Lindores, Lismore, Lochleven (St. Serf’s Inch), Madderty, Isle of May (in Firth of Forth), Melginch (St. Martin's), Monifeith, Montrose, Monymusk, Morfie (was Ecclescraig, now St. Cyrus), Muthill, Portmoak, Ratho, Rosemarkie, Rossie, Scone, Turriff, and Whithorn.
That’s fifty-six; there were probably at least a few others.
In Northumbria, which at the time included southeast Scotland, Columban houses included St. Aidan’s Abbey of Lindisfarne (Medcaut) and its daughter houses at Abercorn, Coldingham, Heretu (Hartlepool), Mailros (Old Melrose), Streoneshalh (Whitby), and Tyningham, at least until the synod in 664.
All these abbeys and other monastic houses and their daughter churches followed the lead of the Coarb of St. Colmcille in Ireland and Scotland until the changes of the 12th century.
The primacy of Iona
Though the See of Armagh has long held the primacy of Ireland, recognized as the first of all the metropolitan (a bit of a misnomer until the 20th century) sees of Ireland since the councils of the 12th century, Iona held not only the primacy of the Columban houses but the precedence of all the Irish church until the late 9th century. To varying degrees, its authority extended over the Cruithni of Fortrenn and of Alba as well, Northumbria and Mercia until the 664 Synod of Whitby, Strathclyde, and the kingdoms in Wales and southwest Britain (Dumnonia; i.e. Somerset, Devon, & Cornwall).
One can clearly see from Adomnan’s presiding at the Council of Birr in 697 the ranking of Iona vis-à-vis all other sees. The town, then a small village, of Birr is near Uisneach, the geographic center of Ireland, and the council made decisions not only for all the Irish church but for laws of the whole land. Unlike the fictitious committee of twelve plus its head St. Patrick alleged to have codified Irish law, the Council of Birr is well-documented by records that are both contemporary and external as well as internal.
Armagh’s star did not really begin to rise until the relics of St. Colmcille were removed from the island of Iona to Kells and Dunkeld in 878. Most of the hagiography of and exaggerated claims about St. Patrick by backers of his cult, and of the power of Armagh, began near the end of the 9th century, or at least only began to gain traction then. Its rise greatly accelerated in 891 when the abbot of Armagh and coarb of St. Patrick, Mael Brigte mac Tornain, became abbot of Iona and coarb of St. Colmcille as well.
In 878, according to contemporary annals, the abbot of Iona at the time, Feradach mac Comaic, divided the remaining relics of St. Colmcille between the abbey of Kells in Meath, which had been revived around 814, and the abbey of Dunkeld in Atholl. Although the coarb remained head of the Muintir Colmcille, the primacy of the national churches of Ireland and Scotland was divided. The “Coarb of St. Colmcille in Ireland and Scotland” lost his unchallenged precedence within the Irish church.
In Scotland, the primacy of the Columban houses, and of the kingdom, remained at Dunkeld, but in Ireland fluctuated back and forth between Raphoe and Iona, then between Derry and Kells, depending on where the coarb at the time stayed. Armagh, taking advantage of the Columban monks’ turn of affairs, had begun to advance its claims to power.
In Scotland, the Fine Erluma, or Kindred, of St. Colmcille (the literal translation of Muintir Colmcille) became Kings of Scots with the accession of Duncan I, whose father Crinan was Abbot of Dunkeld, Mormaer (Earl) of Atholl, Abthane of Dull, Kirkmichael, and Madderty, and Seneschal of the Isles as well as head of the Kindred of St. Columba in Scotland.
The succession was interrupted by the reigns of Macbeth and his step-son Lulach of the Cenel Loairn, descendants of the Oengus I mac Fergus of the Eoghanachta Magh Geirginn who was the actual first king of the united north in the 8th century, more than a hundred years before Kenneth mac Ailpin of the Cenel nGabhrain and Dal Riata.
After the death of Lulach, Malcolm III mac Duncan ascended
to the throne, and his son Aethelred became Abbot of Dunkeld, as well as
Abthane of Dull, Kirkmichael, and Madderty after his brother Edgar’s ascension
to the throne of Scone. Aethelred
married the daughter of Lulach and became Mormaer of Moray, where he altered
his name to Aodh and became progenitor of one of two families that
interconnected and were the banes of the existence of the eastern branch until
the 13th century (MacHeth and MacWilliams).
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