What is different about Celtic Christianity?ģ.1. The missions to the Picts of Scotland and the Anglo-Saxons of Englandģ. It acknowledges difficulty, pain, mystery, but it calls you more deeply into hope.2.3. But in between the longing, there is an unmistakable shimmer of beauty beyond the darkness. Sarah and I think that because the Celtic people had such a history of sorrow and resilience, their music doesn’t shy away from themes of disappointment and death. McKennitt music catches the haunting mixture of desire, grief, and hope that makes Celtic music so appealing. Her wistful soprano voice singing out the gentle and aching celtic tunes have an almost enchanting affect. For all you Anne of Green Gables fans out there, she has a lovely setting of the Highway Man. McKennitt chose many traditional tunes to fill her first album, along with beautiful settings of poetry. This haunting album, which was recorded in a studio in a field of sunflowers (obviously!), aimed to capture the heart of celtic music. We first learned to love Loreena through her 1985 album Elemental. In his book How the Irish Saved Civilszation, Thomas Cahill describes it in the following way:
The Irish scribes wrote accounts of their own myths and legends, they copied manuscripts of the great classical, Christian, and pagan texts, and, perhaps most lovely of all, they made beautiful reproductions of gospels, psalters and bibles. Once the Irish had the alphabet, they began to read, and to write down, everything they could get their hands on. The religion of the book brought the arts of the pen.” We have no manuscripts of these texts written before 700, but it seems certain that the Irish accepted the Roman alphabet and habit of consulting written authority when they accepted Christianity (5th century). The legal texts of this native tradition, once written down, filled many thick volumes. In the pre-christian period, when the literary and legal traditions of the country were committed to memory rather than parchments, jurists and poets were men of high status. Bella Schauman writes “The Irish have always loved words. Christianity brought them a new tool for storytelling: a written alphabet. Prior to Ireland’s conversion to Christianity, they had been an oral culture, meaning that they passed down their religious beliefs, official records, and cultural tales orally rather than by writing them down. When Patrick came to Ireland (around 430), he brought not only the gospel, but the alphabet. So, as the Visigoths passed over Europe, the fear was that not only would they conquer the cities, but that they would burn the libraries, destroying the Christian, Jewish and Pagan wisdom that had been preserved carefully for centuries upon centuries.
Even Christianity adopted latin, writing many of the early Christian texts in latin. Rome was a literate society that had exported the use of its language for scholarly research. This had huge ramifications for European culture and history. The country that had conquered and subdued many other countries suddenly found itself under attack. It was the first time in 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy. When the Barbarians sacked Rome, some feared that all the wisdom of the Western world would be lost. Find her instagram, blog, and book at the links below: You won’t be disappointed by finding and following her. She is a constant balm to my soul and through her writing she is a balm to others. Oh, and by the way: Sarah (my sister) is a soul filler: she takes beautiful pictures, she writes beautiful words, and she just published a beautiful book! And we also learned that our voices sound very similar! Genetics, man! We are delighted to share this delight of ours with you! We hope this podcast gives you new paths to explore and beauties to enjoy! We had a blast preparing this podcast for you. In the podcast today, we explored three examples of the rich legacy of Celtic Christianity: the beautifully illuminated manuscripts of the Irish scribes, the evocative and mystical prayers of the highlands, recorded in the Carmina Gadelica, and the aching, lovely, modern expression of Celtic music by Loreena McKennitt. There is something compelling, haunting, and beautiful about it. We have both been drawn to the music, the imagery, and the spiritual legacy of the Celtic world (Scotland, Ireland, and parts of England, Wales, and Cornwall). When we talked about what our topic would be, we decided on a mutual love we both share: Celtic culture.
We are kindred spirits and best friend sisters. This week I had the great pleasure of co-hosting the podcast with my sister Sarah!