Culdees

The Culdees (

According to the Swiss theologian Philip Schaff, the term Culdee or Ceile De, or Kaledei, first appeared in the 8th century. While "giving rise to much controversy and untenable theories", it probably means servants or worshippers of God. The term was applied to anchorites, who, in entire seclusion from society, sought the perfection of sanctity. They afterward associated themselves into communities of hermits and were finally brought under canonical rule along with the secular clergy. It was at the time the name Culdee became almost synonymous with secular canon.^[2]

According to François Bonifas, however, the Culdean Church was founded in the 2nd century and restored by Saint Patrick in Ireland in the 5th century.^[3]

History

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Ireland

In the course of the 9th century, nine places in Ireland are mentioned (including Armagh, Clonmacnoise, Clones, Devenish and Sligo) where communities of Culdees were established.^[4]

According to William Reeves, they were analogous to secular canons and held an intermediate position between the monastic and parochial clergy. In Armagh, they were presided over by a Prior and numbered about twelve. They were the officiating clergy of the churches and became the standing ministers of the cathedral. The maintenance of divine service, and in particular, the practice of choral worship, seems to have been their special function and made them an important element of the cathedral economy.^[6]

However, after the death of Maelruan in 792, Tallaght is forgotten, and the name Ceile-De disappears from the Irish annals until 919, when the Four Masters record that Armagh was plundered by the Danes but that the houses of prayer, "with the people of God, that is Ceile-De", were spared. Subsequent entries in the annals show that there were Culdees at Clondalkin, at Monahincha in Tipperary, and at Scattery Island.^[1]

The Danish wars affected the Culdee houses. Clondalkin and Clones disappeared altogether. At Clonmacnoise, as early as the eleventh century, the Culdees were laymen and married, while those at Monahincha and Scattery Island, being utterly corrupt and unable, or unwilling, to reform, gave way to the regular canons. At Armagh, regular canons were introduced into the cathedral church in the twelfth century and took precedence over the Culdees, six in number, a prior and five vicars. These still continued a corporate existence, charged with the celebration of the Divine offices and the care of the church building: they had separate lands and sometimes charge of parishes. When a chapter was formed, about 1160, the prior usually filled the office of precentor, his brethren being vicars choral, and himself ranking in the chapter next to the chancellor. He was elected by his brother Culdees and confirmed by the primate, and had a voice in the election of the archbishop by virtue of his position in the chapter.^[1]

As Ulster was the last of the Irish provinces to be brought effectually under English rule the Armagh Culdees long outlived their brethren throughout Ireland. The Culdees of Armagh endured until the dissolution in 1541 and enjoyed a fleeting resurrection in 1627, soon after which their ancient property passed to the vicars choral of the cathedral.^[4][6]

Scotland

In Scotland, Culdees were more numerous than in Ireland: thirteen monastic establishments were peopled by them, eight in connection with cathedrals. The Ionan monks had been expelled by the

The Culdee chapel in St Andrews in Fife can be seen to the north-east of its ruined cathedral and city wall. It is dedicated to "St Mary on the Rock" and is cruciform. It is used by the local St Andrews churches for their Easter morning service. In the early days there were several Culdee establishments in Fife, probably small rude structures accommodating 30 or 40 worshippers, and possibly such a structure stood at or near the present church. In 1075 AD, the foundation charter of Dunfermline Church was granted by King Malcolm III, and amongst the possessions, he bestowed on the church was the Shire of Kirkcaladinit, as Kirkcaldy was then known.^[9] Crínán of Dunkeld, the grandfather of Máel Coluim III, was a lay abbot, and tradition says that even the clerical members were married, though unlike the priests of the Eastern Orthodox Church, they lived apart from their wives during their term of sacerdotal service.^[4]

The pictures that we have of Culdee life in the 12th century vary considerably. The chief houses in Scotland were at

Nineteenth Century Scottish historian of religion and Presbyterian minister James Aitken Wylie asserted in his History of the Scottish Nation, Vol. III., "The 12th century, particularly in Scotland and Brittany, was a time when two Christian faiths of different origins were contending for possession of the land, the Roman Church and the old Celtic Rite. The age was a sort of borderland between Culdeeism and Romanism. The two met and mingled often in the same monastery, and the religious belief of the nation was a mumble of superstitious doctrines and a few scriptural truths".^{[citation needed]}

A controversial movement to put Scotland's church under the authority of Rome was inaugurated by Malcolm III's wife,

By the end of the thirteenth century, most Scots Culdee houses had disappeared. Some, like Dunkeld and Abernethy, were superseded by regular canons: others, like Brechin and Dunblane, were extinguished with the introduction of cathedral chapters. One at least, Monifieth, passed into the hands of laymen. At St Andrews, they lived on side by side with the regular canons and still clung to their ancient privilege of electing the archbishop. But their claim was disallowed at Rome, and in 1273 they were debarred even from voting. They continued to be mentioned up until 1332 in the records of St Andrews, where they "formed a small college of highly-placed secular clerks closely connected with the bishop and the king".[10]

England

Similar absorptions no doubt account for the disappearance of the Culdees of York, the only English establishment that uses the name, borne by the canons of St Peter's about 925 where they performed in the tenth century the double duty of officiating in the cathedral church and of relieving the sick and poor. When a new cathedral arose under a Norman archbishop, they ceased their connection with the cathedral, but, helped by donations, continued to relieve the destitute. The date at which they finally disappeared is unknown.^{[citation needed]} These seem to be the only cases where the term "Culdee" is found in England.^[4]

Wales

The term "Culdee" is rarely found in Wales. We do not know the fate of the Culdean house that existed at

Hector Boece in his Latin history of Scotland (1516), makes the Culdees of the 9th to the 12th century the direct successors of the Irish and Ionan monasticism of the 6th to the 8th century. Some have suggested that these views were disproved by William Reeves (1815–1892), bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore.^[4] James A. Wylie (1808–1890) makes a strong case that the Culdees (Keledei) of Scotland are related to the Celtic Christian Pelagian spirituality of the monks of Iona.^{[citation needed]}

Reeves suggests that Maelruan may have been aware of the establishment of canons in Metz by Archbishop Chrodegang, (died 766), as an intermediate class between monks and secular priests, adopting the discipline of the monastic system, without the vows, and discharging the offices of ministers in various churches.^[11]

Early Culdee Sites

Tallaght Abbey (Mainistir Tamhlacht)

Tallaght Abbey became the mother house of the Culdee (Céile Dé) movement. Tallaght or Tamlacht in Irish means 'burial ground', it was a pagan plague-burial ground that was connected with the people of

The find in 1953 of the old Irish poems of Blathmac, constituted the largest ever addition of text to the corpus of Early Irish, some parts of it also still remain untranslated and unpublished due to its poor condition. They were discovered among a collection of ancient seventeenth century manuscripts, which had once belonged to the Brehon and scribe Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, it was found by a twentieth century ^{[clarification needed]} Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies scholar, Nessa Ní Shéaghdha. The poems were edited and published eleven years later by James Carney in Vol. 47 of the Irish Texts Society monographs. They date back to the 8th century, possibly earlier and consisted of detailed references to the importance Christ and to the Virgin Mary. Carney had suggested that Blathmac may have originally come from filí and druidic background but later been a convert to become part of the Culdee Reform movement through a detailed study of the structure of his poetry, which resembled in style to the Félire Óengusso.^[18][19]

Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nóis)

An important Culdee monastery was Clonmacnoise: the Annals of the Four Masters mention Conn na mbocht (Conn of the Paupers), who was head of the Culdees and Bishop of Clonmacnoise. Much of the information of Pagan or Pre-Christian Ireland was transferred into text by monks and scholars for the first time at Clonmacnoise from what had previously been Orally passed down generations. With the arrival of the Christian age, the

Soon after Diarmait's death Áed fled to the island of Tiree, where it was said he trained to be a Culdee priest, much to the disgust of both Columba and Adomnán. Columba himself on hearing the news had prophesied by means of a curse that a threefold death would happen to the bloody murderer Áed Dub mac Suibni.^[20][21]

Devenish Island (Damh Inis)

A Culdee (Céilí Dé) community on

Sechnall (Secundinus) was the founder and patron saint of Domhnach Sechnaill, Co. Meath, who went down in medieval tradition as a disciple of St Patrick and one of the first bishops of Armagh. Although modern historians have disputed his connection with St Patrick and suggested this was later tradition in fact invented by Armagh historians in favour of their patron saint and that Secundinus is more likely to have been a separate missionary, possibly a companion of Palladius.

Secundinus was the author of an early Latin hymn in praise of St Patrick, known as Audite Omnes Amantes ("Hear ye, All lovers") or the Hymn of Secundinus written in trochaic septenarius, the earliest copy of which is found in the late 7th-century Antiphonary of Bangor.

Fore Abbey (Mainistir Fhobhair)

The Christian monastery at Fore was founded by

Scattery Island (Inis Cathaigh)

A Céile Dé Monastery existed on Scattery Island or Inis Cathaigh which consisted of a monastery and Round Tower. The island was once the hermitage of

In Scotland a sacred pagan site had existed on the Island of Iona also known as Innis na Druineach (Isle of the Druids) before Saint Columba settled on the island and established a small Culdee hermitage. Later a significant figure in the 9th century Culdee movement in Scotland was Diarmait of Iona. Diarmait took over the abbacy of Iona at time when it was plunged into the depths of turmoil and facing uncertain future during early 9th century with the abbey being continuously attacked and pillaged by Viking Raids, many of the relics of Columba were transferred to Abbey of Kells, an abbacy that was refounded by Diarmait of Iona's predecessor Cellach Cellach mac Congaile. Although Kells Abbey had actually already been founded centuries before by Columba around 550 AD on the permission of the High King Diarmait mac Cerbaill, in the space of only a decade of the abbey's initial establishment, the same High king on the advice of his Brehon, passed a damning judgement against Columba over the copying of a Saint Finnian's book, which sparked the beginning of a period of huge upheaval for the monk, he instigated a bloody rebellion against the king which resulted in many deaths. After a period of deep reflection, Columba travelled to Inishmurray and confessed his guilt to an aged hermit and his Anam Cara called St Molaise, who told him in order to seek penance, he advised the monk to permanently leave his homeland and attempt to convert as many pagan people to the Christian faith as the 300 lives he lost as result of the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne in 561. Not long after, Columba set sail to Dál Riata or Western Scotland and founded Iona Abbey in 563.^[26][27]

In the late 9th century many of the Columban relics of Iona during the Viking raids went to

Diarmait of Iona would have had the

The founder of the Iona Abbey, Saint Columba, before traveling to Scotland, was under the care of Cruithnechán and he developed a deeply religious feeling which was to lead to such great results, and he received the name in Old Irish of Coluim-Cille meaning "Dove of the Cell", the word Cille meant an anchorite's cell, it only became associated with the broader meaning of "church" in a later form of Irish. According to the ancient Irish records in the Leabhar Breac, it was because he so often, he came from the cell in which he read his psalms to meet the children of the neighbourhood and the children would say: "Has our little Colum come today from the cell in Tir-Lughdech in Cinell Conaill?". While living at Iona, he also had his own wooden hermits cell located on the 'Tòrr an Aba' which translates to "the mound of the abbot". Coluim-Cille was later Latinised to Columba, the name is associated with broad categories of doves and pigeons, coincidently also in Hebrew the translation for dove is Iona which derives from the biblical god Yonah .^[29][30]

Dunkeld

Saint Columba was a descendant of the royal dynasty

Some of the first Norse settlers on the Orkney's, Faroe's and Iceland were said to be Norse–Gaels, referred to as Vestmenn. When Scandinavians first set foot on these islands they found a community of Culdee monks, referred to as papar. Numerous place names on the orkneys are named of these same eremitic Gaelic monks such as Pabbay,"Island of the papar (Culdee)" or Pabay.

Culdees in Wales and Cornwall

Although the name ‘Culdee’ is rarely used to refer to the Celtic Saints in Wales and Cornwall, many of them began as hermits, passed on pre-Christian druidic beliefs and traditions into the new Christian age. They originally lived as anchorites and anchoresses, established isolated retreats in the wilderness such as bogs, forests, and small offshore isles, generally in locations and places that held a significance going back to Druidic times, later these sites became major Celtic Christian monasteries. The most famous of the “insular” hubs of monastic life were on Anglesey and Bardsey. The Celtic Christian Church in Wales remained independent of the Holy See up to the late Middle Ages, it resisted any Gregorian reforms that Canterbury and Saint Augustine tried in impose on the early Welsh Church.

Saint David

Before the writings of St David's cult by chronicler

An important Celtic saint of Llŷn Peninsula called Saint Beuno was first registered as a Celtic Saint with a feast day 21 April in the ninth-century in both the Irish martyrologies of Tallaght and of Gorman. He established the monastery of Clynnog Fawr which translates into English to 'the place of the holly-trees', according to legend it was said on his death bed to have had visions of the ‘all the saints and druids’. St Beuno's well was traditionally used for the treatment of sick children, after bathing the treated child was carried to St Beuno's chapel and laid on rushes overnight on Beuno's tomb. Holy wells dedicated to Celtic saints or monasteries, in fact, would have once been connected with a Celtic goddess or female deity.^[41]

Bardsley Island seems likely to have been a seat of the Culdees, or Colidei, the first religious recluses of Great Britain, who sought Islands and desert places as hermitages, so they might in security worship the true God. The Convent at Bardsey (Enlli) was one of the most ancient religious Institutions in North Wales, established by the king of Llŷn Einion Frenin, who also founded a College on that Island, about the middle of the 9th Century. Dubricius, Archbishop of Caerleon, who had resigned in favour of St Davids, retired to Bardsey, where he died about the year 612, from which circumstance, it is evident that there must have been a religious establishment here prior to that period. Gerald of Wales writing in Speculum Ecclesiae about 1220, used the term “coelibes sive coli dei” translates as “celibate or to worship God” to refer to the hermit Celtic monks of both Enlli as well as for the monks of Beddgelert, Coli dei (Anglicised as Culdees) "is not Latin as Gerald assumes, in translating it as worshipers of God. It comes from the Old Irish of Céilí Dé, meaning "servants of God".^[42][43] In the old orchard next to the 13th century Christian monastery on the island was discovered in 1998 by Ian Sturrock what was later classed as ‘the rarest apple trees in the world’.

Historians such as

He became the first Bishop of Ferns after King Brandub of the Uí Ceinnselaig, a royal dynasty of Leinster granted him lands in the area, before Aidan's appointment the parish previously came most likely under the jurisdiction or see of Saint Sletty of Fiach. The monastery of Saint Marys Abbey in Ferns was built by the king leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada, who was a Gaelic king noted in Irish history for his shady dealings with the Normans and the Earldom of Pembroke which ultimately lead to the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. In Pre-Norman times, Ferns was once the ancient capital of Leinster and the seat of Diarmait Mac Murchada and his descendants.^{[citation needed]} where he established a monastery.^[52]

A story about a

Saint Máedóc (Aidan) was also connected with the Welsh parish of Llanhuadain, the name translates as the "monastic enclosure (Llan) of St Aidan", the village is part of the broader community of Narberth, which was steeped in Welsh Pre-Christian history and mythology. Llanduadain and Robeston Wathen formed part of the ancient administrative area of Narberth Hundred. On one side of Narberth is Clynderwen, there is a bilingual Latin-Old Irish Ogham stone with the inscription Votecorigas written on it, who was a King of Dyfed in the early to mid-6th century.^[54]

The town of Narberth itself was connected to the

It was on the Gorsedd Arbeth near the court of Dyfed the legendary prince of Dyfed, would become Pwyll Pen Annwn (Pwyll Head of the Annwn) when he had his first meeting with the otherworldly woman Rhiannon and they gave birth to a son Pryderi fab Pwyll, born in Narberth. Pryderi became the ruler of the seven Cantref of Dyfed and he was part of the mythical figures of Llŷr in Welsh mythology. In the Mabinogi third branch, Manawydan son of Llŷr and Rhiannon take a walk to the throne of Arberth (Gorsedd Narberth) to look over the land from the top of the mound when a great mist of enchantment falls on them. When the mist lifts, the entire kingdom of Dyfed was deserted, everyone and everything had disappeared without trace. The stories of the Mabinogion originated out of a middle Welsh oral tradition passed down generations which were later transferred to written text.

Rhiannon has similarities with

One of the earliest Celtic Christian Churches found in Britain is St Piran's Oratory and Old Church in Perranzabuloe, dating from the 6th century. A Cornish saint called Saint Madron was said to have been a disciple of Ciarán of Saigir, some scholars have suggested he may have been a Christianisation of the pre-Christian, pagan goddess of Modron, mother to Mabon.

Bride's Hill (Glastonbury)

At St Michael's Church Tower on

Peace to their shades. The pure Culdees

Were

Albyn

's earliest priests of God,

Ere yet an island of her seas

By foot of Saxon monk was trod.^[4]

However, Schaff maintains, "...this inference is not warranted. Ignorance is one thing, and rejection of an error from superior knowledge is quite another thing. ...There is not the least evidence that the Keltic church had a higher conception of Christian freedom, or of any positive distinctive principle of Protestantism..."^[2]

"Culdee" in fiction

• In
  Anglican Church as placenames in his books. The island of Sodor where the series takes place, for example, is named after a Church of England Diocese, the Diocese of Sodor and Man
  .
• Geoffrey Moorhouse's 'Sun Dancing', the fictional sections feature an account of a particular ascetic Culdee
• Stephen Lawhead
  's novels Byzantium, Patrick, and the Celtic Crusades trilogy focus on the Cele De.
• J.P. Moore's short story "Useful Visions" is set in a Culdee monastery.
• A colony of Culdees in Iceland appears in H. Warner Munn's fantasy novel, Merlin's Ring.
• Culdees are a prominent part of the story of the "Tile Cutters' Penny" by Caiseal Mor
• In Proinsias Mac a' Bhaird's Tairngreacht, a modern sect of Céile Dé or 'Culdees' engage in a conspiracy against the Vatican.^[59]

See also

• Christianity in Medieval Scotland
• Leabhar Breac

Notes