1. EARLY CHRISTIAN IRELAND
1ST YR

2. Christianity arrives Arrived in 5th C – 400’s!
St. Patrick came in 432 AD
Spread Christianity
Celts converted
Druids lost their power
But pagan and catholic rituals existed together

3. Monasteries Set up from 6th C First monastery set up
Monasteries at first were in remote places
Monks wanted isolation to focus on god
Skellig Michael off Kerry

4. monks Strict lives of work, prayer and fasting
Uncomfortable habit of coarse cloth
Celibate
Tonsure

5. Larger monasteries Got bigger – closer to other people
Built beside rivers
E.g. Clomnacnoise on the Shannon
Or near homes of kings
Wanted to convert people

6. Monastery buildings Church Refectory – Where they ate
Guest house for visitors
Scriptorium
Beehive huts
Fruit and veg garden
Round tower

7. Round towers

8. Round towers Glendalough in Wicklow
Used as belfries to call monks to prayer
Storage for valuable items – manuscripts and chalices
Safe hiding place when attacked
Door high above ground
Pulled up rope after them
Vikings started attacking

9. Life in monastery Self sufficient Monks farmed the land around them
Provided food, clothes, raw materials for manuscript
Some monks were stone masons
Others scribes
Head of monastery – Abbot

10. Services provided by monastery
Centres of prayer and religion
Some monks skilled in herbal medicine – so provided care for sick
Gave alms (food etc.) to poor
Hospitality and shelter for travelers
Provided education for boys in religion and Latin

11. Manuscripts (1) Monks – only people who could read or write
Worked in scriptorium
Scribes copied manuscripts
The Gospels or annals
Used quills

12. Manuscripts (2) Wrote on vellum (calfskin) of parchment (sheepskin)
Illuminated manuscripts
Bright inks from crushed berries
Famous manuscripts – Book of Kells
The Cathach – Ireland’s oldest manuscript

13. Stone crosses Some monks carved stone crosses
Pictures from bible carved on cross – why?
People couldn’t read
Told them stories from the bible
Stone circle joined arms of cross
Helped support it from breaking

14. Metalwork Some monks made beautiful metal objects
Chalices, reliquaries, book shrines
Ardagh Chalice
Silver with glass studs
Engraved writing on metal in Celtic design…
..is called filigree

15. Spread the word of god to other countries
Irish monks – famous missionaries
Set up monasteries
Columcille – monastery in Iona, Scotland
Aiden – Lindisfarne in England

16. Dark ages After fall of Roman Empire… …Dark ages began in Europe
Little civilization anywhere
But the monasteries became great learning centres
People travelled to them
Period called the Golden Age of Irish Learning
‘Island of Saints and Scholars’

17. Revision (1) Christianity 5th C Druids decline
Pagan and Christian rituals mix
Isolated monasteries
Beehive huts
Tonsure
Illuminated manuscripts
Round towers

18. Revision (2) Refectory Alms Scriptorium Vellum Stone crosses Metalwork
Filigree
Missionaries