in the mid-eighth century. It flourished under the lead-
ership of Máel-Ruain, founder of the monastery of
Tallaght, which became the center of the
Céli Dé
movement. In documents relating to the early Irish
church the term
Céle Dé
was used prior to the ninth
century to refer to religious persons in service to God,
but thereafter came to mean an adherent to teachings
of the new movement. The movement was character-
ized by intensified devotion to the ascetic spirit already
present in Irish Christianity. Particular interest was
placed on study and prayer and the desire to live as an
anchorite. This was manifest by adherence to a strict
code of practice that required its followers to recite the
Psalter daily, to live a life of poverty, to practice charity
to the poor and care for the sick, to practice mortification,
to live a celibate life avoiding women, and to separate
oneself from the world (especially on Sunday on which
no work of any sort was to be done). In all of this, one
was expected to avoid excess and live a life of mod-
eration inspired by the love of God.
This life of religious asceticism was not in itself new
to the Irish church, and a number of these practices can
be identified in the early church. Although often called
the “
Céli Dé
reform” by scholars, this classification has
not been universally accepted. Those who see the
Céli
Dé
as a reform movement point to a general drift by
monasteries in the eighth century toward worldly con-
cerns, especially characterized by their increased
wealth and tendency for hereditary leadership. These
scholars see the emergence of the
Céli Dé
as a reaction
to a decline in earlier standards, and as a blueprint for
reform. Hughes, for example, noted a rise in the number
of anchorites cited in the annals and suggested that this
was the result of a renewed vigor inspired by the
Céli
Dé
. Etchingham, however, rejected this conclusion and
suggested that the rise was due to a more complete
annalistic record, and he argued that the
Céli Dé
were
just a continuation of the anchorite tradition.
The difficulty in identifying the
Céli Dé
as a reform
movement stems from the decentralized and frag-
mented style of its organization. Although the monas-
tery of Tallaght was established as a center for the
Céli
Dé
teachings, many of its leading adherents, such as
Máel-Díthruib of Tír dá glass, were attached to older
monastic settlements. Although the
Céli Dé
might
make up the whole monastic body, as at Tallaght, they
also might have a reduced presense as a distinct house
attached to an older foundation such as Ros-cré or, as
at Armagh, be a special group residing within the
monastic enclosure. These followers were free to pur-
sue the ascetic ideal as they felt was appropriate. One
of the most famous examples of this relates to the
consumption of alcohol. Máel-Ruain required strict
abstinence at Tallaght, but Dub-Littir of Finglas, also
a
Céli Dé
foundation, advocated relaxation of this
practice during the feasts of Christmas, Easter, and
Whitsun. Although the
Céli Dé
weren’t uniform in
their practice, it is clear that those who aspired to its
teachings considered themselves to be different from
members of the “old churches.”
The earlier ascetics of the Irish church had been
eremitic, and the
Céli Dé
also valued the anchorite
tradition. One of the products of the movement was
the introduction into the vernacular of nature poetry,
characterized by internal and end rhyme, new meter,
and alliteration. A number of other works have been
credited to the
Céli Dé
movement. Among the most nota-
ble are the “rules,” of which there are several. Some
of the most prominent are
The Customs of Tallaght
,
The Rule of the Céli Dé
,
and
The Rule of Fothad. The
number and slight variation of each bear testament to
the diversity within the movement. The
Céli Dé
are
also credited with producing the earliest extant Irish
martyrology—the
Félire Óengusso
—as well as
The
Martyrology of Tallaght
.
Despite the fervor of its adherents, the movement
did not endure long. The decline of the
Céli Dé
lay in
the autonomy that each house enjoyed. Because there
was no single constitution or authority to protect its
interests, each house was vulnerable to attack by out-
side forces, and by the tenth century the movement
began to disappear.
M
ICHAEL
B
YRNES
References and Further Reading
Etchingham, Colmán.
Church Organisation in Ireland
A
.
D. 650
to 1000
. Naas: Laigin Publications, 1999.
Gwynn, E. J., ed. and trans. “The Rule of Tallaght.”
Hermathena
44, 2nd supplemental volume, 1927.
Gwynn, E. J., and W. J. Purton, ed. and trans. “The Monastary
of Tallaght.”
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy
29C,
no. 5 (1911): 115–179.
Hughes, Kathleen.
The Church in Early Irish Society
. London:
Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1966.
Kenney, James F.
The Sources for the Early History of Ireland:
Ecclesiastical
. New York: Columbia University Press, 1929.
O’Dwyer, Peter.
Céli Dé
. Dublin: Carmelite Publications, 1977.
Stokes, W., ed. and trans.
The Martyrology of Oengus the Cul-
dee: Félire Óengussa Céli Dé
. (Henry Bradshaw Society
29). London,1905. Reprint, Dublin, 1984.
See also
Devotional and Liturgical literature;
Fedelmid mac Crimthainn; Ecclesiastical
Organization; Hagiography and Martyrologies;
Máel-Ruain; Moral and Religious Instruction;
Penitentials; Poetry, Irish; Scriptoria
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