Sacred Living by Grace Clunie

Author:Grace Clunie
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781856077439
Publisher: The Columba Press

1. Celtic Christianity and Creative spirituality

In the early church in Ireland it is clear that a high priority was given to the realm of the Arts. This practice could have been influenced by pre-Christian Celtic society which gave the seanachie (storyteller), and the bard and poet equal social status to the king (political power) and the druid (spiritual power).

In The Celtic Way Ian Bradley says: ‘The Celtic monasteries were not just religious institutions in the narrow sense. They opened their doors to seekers and scholars of all kinds and became important centres of learning and culture. In this respect they took over the role which had been fulfilled by communities of bards and filid in pre-Christian times … If the monks had a scriptural inspiration for their work, it was surely Paul’s injunction to the Philippians to hold unto whatsoever things are pure and lovely and good. This meant keeping alive native traditions of poetry and folksong as well as copying the scriptures, practising the art of manuscript illumination, studying classical authors, both for their philosophy and their theology and fashioning exquisite brooches and rings.1

There is no doubt that it is the colourful images of Celtic creativity that have attracted many to explore Celtic heritage and Celtic Christianity more fully. From the mysterious pre-Christian spiral symbols in places like Tara and Newgrange, to the majestic stonework of the Celtic Christian high crosses which still stand in the centres of many Irish towns and villages, to the sophisticated and intricate artwork and craftsmanship of the early church’s monastic communities in Ireland. Monks carefully copied the gospels, embellishing them with fantastic ornamentation – spiral markings, knots, animal and human heads, plants and birds, all drawn in vivid colours.

Iconic examples of this period include, not only the Book of Kells, but also the Book of Durrow (c. 650); metalwork such as the Ardagh chalice and the Derrynaflan chalice; processional crosses such as the Tully Lough cross and the cross of Cong, and the Tara brooch.

The high crosses with the stories of the Bible carved into the stone, were a wonderful visual means of telling the story of the Christian gospel in an age when people did not either read or write. In the Armagh area we are lucky to have several Celtic high crosses – a particularly good example stands in the centre of the small village of Donaghmore, showing scenes from the life of Christ, from his birth to his resurrection. To worship like this, at the foot of the high cross, under the open sky, must have been a wonderful experience. In her book World Made Whole: Rediscovering the Celtic Tradition, Esther De Waal says that ‘the traditional Celtic cross superimposes the cross of redemption upon the circle of the world.’2 So that in the Celtic cross we have a visual symbol of incarnation and redemption – the world and the cross.

This creative spirituality so evident in Celtic Christianity also has roots in biblical tradition.

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