Columbanus by Carol Richards

Author:Carol Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, biography, Dark Ages, Saint, Middle Ages, Christian druidism, Ireland, Chilperic, Columbanus
ISBN: 9781845404819
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2015
Published: 2015-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

10 Backwoodsmen

May you have food and raiment and a soft pillow for your head, and may you be half an hour in heaven before the Devil knows you’re there (Irish blessing).

The Celts lived life quite literally in the round. For them life was a circle, or more accurately, a series of interconnecting circles - a spiral with no known beginning and no visible end.

It is only recently that we have rediscovered the importance of the spiral in our search for the secret of life. The discovery that the conduit of our genetic coding is shaped like a double helix has once again transformed our world view. From the strictly rectilinear geometry of modernism artists and architects are being drawn again to celebrate organic curves and natural forms.

The Celts - indeed all the people of northern Europe down to the early mediaeval period - knew instinctively that the spiral was the key to human existence. The British and Irish, remember, never did believe that the sun revolved around the earth. They always knew it was the other way round and the earth revolves around the sun not in a perfect circle but in an ellipse. (See further the Additional Note at the end of this chapter, p. 123.)

The Druids were passionate in their belief that the human and natural world interconnected. The idea of shape- shifting was not so much a belief in a physical reality - no person has ever been known to actually change species - but a desire to see the human and animal world as one interconnected whole.

Furthermore they did not exist in a single physical reality. The story of The Quest for the Holy Grail illustrates the subtlety of their mindset. Sometimes the heroes exist in physical reality, sometimes in the Otherworld and sometimes they inhabit a dreamscape which is neither one nor the other.

We find an example of this flexibility of thinking in Jonas’ Life of Columbanus. Jonas tells us

While the holy man was wandering through the dark woods and was carrying on his shoulders a book of the Holy Scriptures he happened to be meditating and suddenly it occurred to him to ask himself which he would prefer -to suffer injuries from men or to be torn about by wild beasts. While he pondered earnestly frequently signing himself with the cross on his forehead [1] and reciting prayers he decided that it was better to suffer from the ferocity of wild beasts without sin on their part than from the madness of men who could lose their souls.

As he turned this over in his mind he noticed twelve wolves approaching, some standing to his right and some to his left while he was caught in the middle. He stood still and said “Oh God come to my aid. Oh Lord hasten to help me!”

They came nearer and began to tear at his clothing.

As he stood firm and showed no fear they left him and wandered off into the woods.

Having passed through this hazard in safety he continued on his way through the woods.

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