- Chapter Thirty-Seven -
became one of the most influential centres of missionary activity and learning in
Europe, and principal church for the kingdom of Dalriada, sending missionaries to
the Picts, and establishing communities in Ireland, Scotland and England. One result
was Aidan's foundation of Lindisfarne (Holy Island), famous for its role in the con-
version of Northumbria, and the original monastery of Melrose (Mailros), referred
to by Bede in 73I.
Recent studies of the early religious communities in post-Roman Britain have
moved from a polarized debate on whether church organization was episcopal
or monastic towards an examination of the level of pastoral care and methods of
ministry (Blair and Sharpe 1992). The old distinctions between the cliches of the
'Celtic' and Roman church, of monastic and episcopal dioceses, and of wandering
monks are now being reassessed by comparative study.
The deliberate withdrawal of individuals from material affairs - the solitary or
eremitical form of monasticism - was practised from an early time, as evidenced by
Patrick, Ninian and St Germanus of Auxerre (d. 448). St Samson of Dol moved
from the busy monastery of Llantwit Major to Caldey Island, then as a hermit to a
cave near the Severn, and ultimately as a bishop established three monasteries
(monasteria) in Cornwall and Brittany. That he baptized converts in Cornwall,
according to the Breton Life of St Samson, suggests that he probably performed the
same sacrament in South Wales when bishop (Pryce 1992: 42). The sacrament of
baptism required only the availability of water, and it is not difficult to envisage in
the initial phases baptism taking place in lakes or rivers, or at springs in the open air.
The Christian rite of baptism, involving purification and spiritual refreshment
by water, readily merged with pre-Christian Celtic tradition. The veneration of
springs and wells, many of which were miraculously created for a saint to baptize, is
common in Ireland, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Brittany. Water was (and is) seen
as a symbol of purification and life, and some sites with antecedent well worship may
have been important venues of pre-Christian ritual activity.
Dedications to Celtic saints were widespread, as they are today, and suggest the
influence of religious centres and the popularity of their cults. The early cult of saints
was usually associated with early Christian martyrs, and dedications to universal
saints such as Peter can illustrate links with Rome. A wider veneration of individual
saints had evolved throughout the Christian world from the fourth century. In Celtic
areas, they came to be associated with principal ecclesiastical figures, including
missionaries such as Patrick or founders of ecclesiastical sites such as Columba.
Places or relics associated with these saints were venerated (a practice with pagan
roots), and Gildas records that veneration of martyrs' tombs was taking place in
Britain in the sixth century. Some Celtic saints may have been international
(e.g. Columba), national (e.g. Patrick) or local (e.g. Iestyn, Cadog and Cynog). By
the seventh-eighth century this had developed to the extent where the veneration of
relics of local saints was common. The discovery in early cemeteries of special graves
respected by subsequent activity may indicate foci for such special devotion. Bones
were seen to have great powers, and the whole body of the saint appears to have been
important; in Wales at least (though not necessarily Ireland), there seems to have
been opposition to its division (N. Edwards, in litt.).
Secondary relics and places associated with saints were also viewed as being