EARLY ORTHODOX- ANGLICAN CONTACTS



EARLY ORTHODOX- ANGLICAN CONTACTS

SUMMARY OF SOME AVAILABLE SOURCES

Moheb A. Ghali

PREFACE

My purpose in this paper is to provide summaries of some of the published work on the contacts between the Orthodox in the East and the church in the British Isles, and particularly on the possible influence of Coptic monasticism on the Celtic monastic practices in Ireland. I do not present any original research or opinions of my own –just summaries of what exists. In presenting the summaries I quote from the various sources, and in order to make the length of the paper reasonable, I omit some material from the quoted texts to shorten them without distorting the intent of the authors. Also omitted are the footnotes and references found in the original texts. The interested reader can pursue the full texts and from there explore additional paths.

I begin in the first section with a review of the development of monasticism and the various monastic systems in Egypt to provide the background against which the subsequent information can be overlaid. Indeed, we shall encounter frequent references to the different Egyptian monastic systems throughout the following sections of the paper. Two sources are used in this section: The Coptic Contribution to Christian Civilisation by A. Atteya and English Monastic Life by F.A. Gasquet. Professor Atteya[1] received a Ph.D. in 1933 from the University of London and a D.Litt. from the University of Liverpool in 1938. He received three honorary doctorates from U.S. universities. He taught at the University of London’s School of Oriental Studies, and the University of Bonn. He was a visiting professor at Colombia University and at Princeton University where he became a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study. He authored the Coptic Encyclopedia. Atteya’s The Coptic Contribution to Christian Civilisation (no date) is published on a Coptic Church web site. Abbot Francis Aidan Gasquet[2] was an English Benedictine, D.D., Ph. D., and D. Litt., and was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was appointed by Pope Leo XIII to engage in historical research.  In 1896 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Commission to study the validity of the Anglican ordinations (1896) leading to the publication of the Apostolicae Curae. Four years later he was appointed abbot president of the English Benedictines. He was President of the Pontifical Commission for Revision of the Vulgate. Between 1888 and 1906 he wrote 13 books including English Monastic Life (1903) and edited four works including the 6-volume Monks of the West (1895). English Monastic Life was published through the Antiquaries Book Series and is now out of print. The original text was transcribed and is available at a history web site and is in the public domain. The reader will note some overlap between the two sources as well as some differences between the authors representing differences in perspectives. I do not attempt to reconcile their views.

In section II on early Christianity in Britain and Ireland I present three views each of which reflects the Roman Catholic or Protestant polity of the author as appropriate. I have tried to preserve the authenticity of the authors’ views which at time are not consistent, without attempting to reconcile them. The first is the entry on the subject from the Catholic Encyclopedia. The second view is that of P.W. Joyce, expressed in A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland (Dublin, 1906), which is an abridgment of his larger work, A Social History of Ancient Ireland. Patrick Weston Joyce[3] was an Irish historian and writer, who produced many works on the history of Ireland and other works such as On the Old Celtic Romances, Irish Grammar, the English Language in Ireland and the pioneering The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places. Joyce was President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland is available on an Irish history web site. The third perspective presented is that of Philip Schaff'[4] expressed in his History of the Christian Church Volume IV: Medieval Christianity, AD 590 – 1073, which is available in the public domain at the Christian Classic Ethereal Library of Calvin College. Philip Schaff was one of the leading historians of the nineteenth century, and one of the most public theologians and prominent intellectuals of his time. Schaff played a foundational role in the development of American Protestantism, and gained wide recognition as one of the leading experts on matters of theology, history, and biblical studies. He was a widely respected scholar and a prolific writer, and his works were influential in both Europe and America. Schaff taught at the University of Berlin, and was professor of church history and Biblical literature in the German Reformed Theological Seminary of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, His inaugural address on The Principle of Protestantism, delivered in 1844, was a pioneer work in English in the field of symbolics. He became a professor at Union Theological Seminary, in 1870 holding first the chair of theological encyclopedia and Christian symbolism; of Hebrew and the cognate languages; of sacred literature; and finally of church history. He also served as president of the committee that translated the American Standard Version of the Bible. In addition to the eight-volume History of the Christian Church, Schaff’s works include: Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes;. The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches; and edited the thirty-eight volume Ante-Nicene Fathers and two series of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.

Western Monasticism is the focus of section III. In this section I include an entry from the Catholic Encyclopedia, the views of Abbot Gasquet’s and Professor Atteya’s works as well as that of K. S. Parker’s The Golden Age of Christianity in Britain & Ireland and Orthodoxy Today , a talk given by Kenneth Scott Parker and published by the Antiochian-Orthodox Church in the U.K. (2009). I have no information on this author but decided to include the passage here as it contains two interesting quotes attributed to St John Chrysostom and St. Jerome regarding Christianity in the British Isles.

In section IV we come to the main question before us: did Coptic monasticism have an influence on Celtic monasticism? In this section I present statements from professor Atteya and Abbot Gasquet. I also quote from the speech given by K.S. Parker as it includes an interesting seventh century Antiphonary used at the Monastery of Bangor. Three additional authors’ views are included: Abba Seraphim of the British Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Abraham Archbishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, and Heiromonk Ambrose of the Orthodox Church in America. In contrast to the other works cited in this paper, these are works by church clergy rather than by scholars, historians and theologians. They provide an insight on the cultural traditions of the Orthodox churches. In On the Trail of the Seven Coptic Monks in Ireland, Abba Seraphim reports in the Glastonbury Review on his personal attempt to find the trail of the seven Coptic monks in Ballycastle, County Antrim, Ireland. Metropolitan Abraham of Jerusalem expresses in Types of Monasticism a certainty about the influence of Coptic monasticism on Ireland, Scotland and the rest of Europe. On the web site of All Saints of North America Orthodox Church (Ontario, Canada), Heiromonk Ambrose also writes with firm conviction regarding such influence and provides a quotation from Rufinus of Aquileia (4th century) supporting the view that the Coptic monks visit to Ireland.

In the concluding section I quote exclusively from a book by Fr. Gregory Telepneff[5], The Egyptian Desert in the Irish Bogs, in which he examines the various aspects of Celtic monasticism such as the monastic orders, the Divine Services, the arts and architecture and reaches the conclusions which I quote in that section. Dr. Telepneff is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Traditional Orthodox Studies, has taught early Christian art at the St. Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary and early Church history and ancient Greek Philosophy and Patristics at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. He serves as adjunct faculty member at Anna Maria College, and was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Divinity School.

In general there seems to be agreement that Celtic monasticism was influenced by Coptic monasticism. There are different views regarding the channels through which this influence flowed: directly through travels by Coptic monks and writings on Coptic monasticism or indirectly through the monastic system in the Gaul which was patterned on Coptic monasticism.

The summary presented in this paper is not an exhaustive review of all available sources; I address only those works I was able to access easily, with the hope that those interested can follow the links provided in the list of references for the full works and through those follow additional sources.

I. COPTIC MONASTICISM

A. The following is from: A. Atteya, The Coptic Contribution to Christian Civilisation.[6]

Parallel to the Catechetical School and the Oecumenical Movement, a new and more stable institution had evolved which must be regarded as a purely Coptic gift to Christendom. This is the monastic rule, which was generated by Coptic piety and the image of Christ and the Apostles. Social and economic factors played a role as well, since persecution forced many to escape to the desert.

From its humble beginnings on the fringe of the desert, monasticism grew to be a way of life and developed into cenobitic communities, which became the wonder of Christian antiquity. With its introduction into Europe, it was destined to become the sole custodian of culture and Christian civilization in the Dark Ages. However, like all great institutions, Coptic monastic rule was perfected through a number of long and evolutionary stages.

The founding of this way of life is generally ascribed to St. Anthony (d.336), though organized flights to the wilderness are known to have predated his retirement from the Nile Valley. A certain Frontonius and seventy companions decided to reject the world and espoused a celibate life in the Nitrean desert during the reign of Antonius Pius (d.161). Anthony himself, while penetrating deeper and deeper into the Eastern Desert,

assuming that he was in perfect solitude with the Lord, suddenly discovered St. Paul the Hermit at the age of 113 years already long established in that remote region.

Nevertheless, if we overlook these isolated instances, we can safely consider that the first definable phase in the genesis of monasticism was the Antonian way of life based on solitude, chastity, poverty, and the principle of torturing the body to save the soul. How did all this begin? An illiterate twenty-year-old Christian at the village of Coma in the district of Heracleopolis in Middle Egypt, Anthony heard it said one day in church: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven." (Matt. 19:21) A fundamentalist, he did just that and crossed the Nile for the desert solitude where he spent eighty-five years of increasing austerity and asceticism. Though a solitary, he could not hide his light of sanctity under a bushel, and, when his fame had spread so as to reach the imperial court, Constantine wrote asking for his blessing. Even the great Athanasius spent two years with the Saint and composed his biography. Others followed this “athleta Christi” to the Red Sea Mountains and lived around his cave to seek his spiritual guidance.

Thus the second phase in the evolution of the monastic rule arose in what may be termed “collective eremiticism,” where settlements of solitaries sprang up around the person of a saint, not merely for initiation and orientation, but also as a measure of self-defense in the arid desert. A disabled anchorite in this distant wilderness could perish for lack of food and water, if he were not observed by another neighbourly solitary. Such settlements began to multiply in other parts of the country. Besides Pispir in the Eastern Desert, others arose in the Thebaid in Upper Egypt as well as the Nitrean Valley in the desert to the west of the Delta of the Nile.

Subsequently at Tabennesis, the third stage in the development of cenobitic life was already taking shape under the rule of St. Pachomius (d.346). Originally a pagan legionary in the armies of Constantine and Licinius, he was exposed to the goodness of

Christian villagers during the wanderings of his battalion…. After his baptism, he zealously followed a hermit by the name of Palaemon for training in the art of sanctity and self-torture. An educated man with a background of military discipline, he soon perceived that self-inflicted torture could not be the only way to heaven. This signalled the inception of one of the greatest cenobitic doctrines of all time.

The new Rule of St. Pachomius prescribed communal life in a cenobium and repudiated the principle of self-mortification. Instead, the brethren should expend their potential in useful pursuits both manual and intellectual while preserving the monastic vow of chastity, poverty, and obedience. The Pachomian system reflected the personality of the soldier, the legislator, and the holy man. Pachomius aimed at the humanization of his monastic regime without losing the Christian essence of Antonian or Palaemonian sanctity. Every detail of a monk's daily activities was prescribed within the walls of a given monastery. Each monk had to have a vocation to make himself a useful human being to his brotherhood; all must labor to earn their daily bread, without losing sight of their intellectual advancement; and each must fully participate in the devotional duties of monastic life.

Pachomian monasteries multiplied rapidly in their founder's lifetime, and all were enriched through wise administration as well as honest and selfless labor. In his famous work entitled "Paradise of the Fathers," the fourth-century Bishop Palladius states that he found in one monastery fifteen tailors, seven smiths, four carpenters, fifteen fullers, and twelve camel drivers besides unspecified numbers of bakers, cooks, basket and rope makers, millers, weavers, masons, instructors, and copyists of manuscripts - all living in complete harmony and perfect discipline within a structure that looked like a vast Roman

fortification.

To preserve good government in his expanding institutions, Pachomius established a closely knit Rule to guard against corruption and moral deterioration. Three or four monasteries within reach of each other were united in a clan or a stake with a president elected from among their abbots, and all of the monks in the clan met periodically to discuss local problems. All clans were organized under a superior general who summoned the whole brotherhood to a general council twice each year: once in the summer after the harvest for administrative and budgetary considerations, and again at Easter for making annual reports as well as for the announcements of new abbots and the

transfer of office among the old ones. The last meeting ended with an impressive scene of prayer and mutual forgiveness of sins.

B. The following is from Gasquet, F. A., English Monastic Life.

For a right understanding of monastic history and monastic practices in the West generally, and even in England, it is necessary to have some idea at least of the main features of Eastern monasticism.  It has been pointed out by Dom Butler, in his masterly introduction to the Lausiac History of Palladius, that monasticism developed along two lines in Egypt.  The first was the system initiated and directed by St. Anthony, when about the year A.D. 305, after living a life of seclusion for some twenty years, he undertook the direction and organisation of the multitude of monks which the reputation of his sanctity had drawn to his neighbourhood.  The second was due to St. Pachomius, who, just about the same time, at the beginning of the fourth century, whilst yet quite a young man, founded his first monastery at Tabennisi in the far south of Egypt.

            The first system came to prevail over a great portion of the country by the end of the first century after its foundation by St. Anthony.  The monks were mostly hermits in the strict sense of the word.  They lived apart and “out of earshot of one another,” coming together at certain times for divine worship.  In other districts the religious lived together in threes and fours, who, on all days but the Saturdays and Sundays when all assembled in the great church, were used to sing their songs and hymns together in their common cells.  Of this system Palladius, who is the first authority on the matter, says: “They have different practices, each as he is able and as he wishes.”

            The second system introduced at the beginning of the fourth century may be described as the cenobitical or conventual type of monasticism. Pachomius’ monks lived together under a complete system of organization, not, indeed, as a family under a father, but rather as an army under a discipline of a military character.  This form of the monastic life spread with great rapidity, and by the time of its founder’s death (c. 345) it counted eight monasteries and several hundred monks.

            The various monasteries under the Rule of St. Pachomius existed as separate houses, each with a head or praepositus and other officials of its own, and organized apparently on the basis of the trades followed by the inmates.  The number in each house naturally varied; between thirty and forty on an average living together.  At the more solemn services all the members of the various houses came together to the common church; but the lesser offices were celebrated by the houses individually.  Under this rule, regular organized work was provided for the monk not merely as a discipline and penitential exercise, as was the case under the Antonian system, but as a part of the life itself.  The common ideal of asceticism aimed at was not too high.

            Hence we find the Pachomian monks eating or fasting as they wished.  The tables were laid at midday, and dinner was provided every hour till evening; they ate when they liked, or fasted if they felt called on so to do.  Some took a meal only in the evening, others every second or even only every fifth day.  The Rule allowed them their full freedom ; and any idea of what is now understood by “Common Life”—the living together and doing all things together according to rule—was a feature entirely absent from Egyptian monasticism.

            One other feature must also be noticed, which would seem to be the direct outcome of the liberty allowed in much of the life, and in particular in the matter or austerities, to the individual monk under the systems both of St. Anthony and St. Pachomius.  It is a spirit of strongly marked individualism.  Each worked for his personal advance in virtue; each strove to do his utmost in all kinds of ascetical exercises and austerities—in prolonging his fasts, his prayers, his silence.  The favourite

name used to describe any of the prominent monks was “great athlete.”  They loved “to make a record” in austerities, and to contend with one another in mortifications; and they would freely boast of their spiritual achievements.  This being so, penances and austerities tended to multiply and increase in severity, and this freedom of the individual in regard to his asceticism accounts for the very severe and often incongruous mortifications undertaken by the monks of Egypt.

II. EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND

A. The following is taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

There must have been then a considerable number of Christians in Ireland; for in 430 Palladius, a bishop and native of Britain, was sent by Pope Celestine "to the Scots believing in Christ". Palladius, however, did little, and almost immediately returned to Britain, and in 432 the same pope sent St. Patrick. He is the Apostle of Ireland, but this does not imply that he found Ireland altogether pagan and left it altogether Christian. It is however quite true that when St. Patrick did come paganism was the predominant belief and that at his death it had been supplanted as such by Christianity.

One of the apostle's first anxieties was to provide a native ministry. For this purpose he selected the leading men—chiefs, brehons, bards—men likely to attract the respect of the people, and these, after little training, and often with little education, he had ordained. Thus equipped the priest went among the people, with his catechism, missal, and ritual, the bishop in addition his crosier and bell. In a short time, however, these primitive conditions ceased. Abut 450 a college was established at Armagh under Benignus; other schools arose at Kildare, Noendrum, and Louth; and by the end of the fifth century these colleges sent forth a sufficient supply of trained priests. Supported by a grant of land from the chief of the clan or sept and by voluntary offerings, bishop and priests lived together, preached to the people, administered the sacraments, settled their disputes, sat in their banquet halls. To many ardent natures this state of things was abhorrent. Fleeing from men, they sought for solitude and silence, by the banks of a river, in the recesses of a wood, and, with the scantiest allowance of food, the water for their drink, a few wattles covered with sods for their houses, they spent their time in mortification and prayer. Literally they were monks, for they were alone with God. But their retreats were soon invaded by others anxious to share their penances and their vigils, and to learn wisdom at their feet. Each newcomer built his little hut, a church was erected, a grant of land obtained, their master became abbot, and perhaps bishop; and thus arose monastic establishments the fame of which soon spread throughout Europe. Noted examples in the sixth century were Clonard, founded by St. Finian, Clonfert by St. Brendan, Bangor by St. Comgall, Clonmacnoise by St. Kieran, Arran by St. Enda; and, in the seventh century, Lismore by St. Carthage and Glendalough by St. Kevin.

There were still bardic schools, as there was still paganism, but in the seventh century paganism had all but disappeared, and the bardic were overshadowed by the monastic schools. Frequented by the best of the Irish, and by students from abroad, these latter diffused knowledge over western Europe, and Ireland received and merited the title of Island of Saints and Scholars. The holy men who laboured with St. Patrick and immediately succeeded him were mostly bishops and founders of churches; those of the sixth century were of the monastic order; those of the seventh century were mostly anchorites who loved solitude, silence, continued prayer, and the most rigid austerities. Nor were the women behindhand in this contest for holiness. St. Brigid is a name still dear to Ireland, and she, as well as St. Ita, St. Fanchea and others, founded many convents tenanted by pious women, whose sanctity and sacrifices it would be indeed difficult to surpass. Nor was the Irish Church, as has been sometimes asserted, out of communion with the See of Rome. The Roman and Irish tonsures differed, it is true, and the methods of computing Easter, and it may be that Pelagianism found some few adherents, though Arianism did not, nor the errors as to the natures and wills of Christ. In the number of its sacraments, in its veneration for the Blessed Virgin, in its belief in the Mass and in Purgatory, in its obedience to the See of Rome, the creed of the early Irish Church was the Catholic creed of today (see CELTIC RITE). Abroad as well as at home Irish Christian zeal was displayed. In 563 St. Columba, a native of Donegal, accompanied by a few companions, crossed the sea to Caledonia and founded a monastery on the desolate island of Iona.

Fresh arrivals came from Ireland; the monastery with Columba as its abbot was soon a flourishing institution, from which the Dalriadian Scots in the south and the Piets beyond the Grampians were evangelized; and when Columba died in 597, Christianity had been preached and received in every district in Caledonia, and in every island along its west coast. In the next century Iona had so prospered that its abbot, St. Adamnan, wrote in excellent Latin the "Life of St. Columba", the best biography of which the Middle Ages can boast. From Iona had gone south the Irish Aidan and his Irish companions to compete with and even exceed in zeal the Roman missionaries under St. Augustine, and to evangelize Northumbria, Mercia, and Essex; and if Irish zeal had already been displayed in Iona, equal zeal was now displayed on the desolate isle of Lindisfarne. Nor was this all. In 590 St. Columbanus, a student of Bangor, accompanied by twelve companions, arrived in France and established the monastery of Luxeuil, the parent of many monasteries, then laboured at Bregenz, and finally founded the monastery of Bobbio, which as a centre of knowledge and piety was long the light of northern Italy.

B. The following is taken from P.W. Joyce, A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland.

That there were Christians in Ireland long before the time of St. Patrick we know from the words of St. Prosper of Aquitaine, who lived at the time of the event he records. He tells us that, in the year 431, Pope Celestine sent Palladius "to the Scots believing in Christ, to be their first bishop": and Bede repeats the same statement. Palladius landed on the coast of the present County Wicklow, and after a short and troubled sojourn he converted a few people, and founded three little churches in that part of the country. One of them is called in the old records Cill Fine or Cill-Fine-Cormaic [pronounced Killeena-Cormac], where a venerable lonely little cemetery exists to this day, three miles southwest from Dunlavin in Wicklow, and is still called by the old name, slightly changed to Killeen Cormac. There must have been Christians in considerable numbers when the Pope thought a bishop necessary; and such numbers could not have grown up in a short time. It is highly probable that the knowledge of Christianity that existed in Ireland before the arrival of Palladius and Patrick (in 431 and 432, respectively) came from Britain, with which the Irish then kept up constant intercourse, and where there were large numbers of Christians from a very early time. However, the great body of the Irish were pagans when St. Patrick arrived in 432; and to him belongs the glory of converting them.

C. The following is taken from Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church Volume IV: Medieval Christianity, AD 590 – 1073.

The Christianity of Patrick was substantially that of Gaul and old Britain, i.e. Catholic, orthodox, monastic, ascetic, but independent of the Pope, and differing from Rome in the age of Gregory I. in minor matters of polity and ritual. In his Confession he never mentions Rome or the Pope; he never appeals to tradition, and seems to recognize the Scriptures (including the Apocrypha) as the only authority in matters of faith. He quotes from the canonical Scriptures twenty-five times; three times from the Apocrypha. It has been conjectured that the failure and withdrawal of Palladius was due to Patrick, who had already monopolized this mission-field; but, according to the more probable chronology, the mission of Patrick began about nine years after that of Palladius. From the end of the seventh century, the two persons were confounded, and a part of the history of Palladius, especially his connection with Pope Caelestine, was transferred to Patrick.

The labors of St. Patrick were carried on by his pupils and by many British priests and monks who were driven from England by the Anglo-Saxon invasion in the 5th and 6th centuries. There was an intimate intercourse between Ireland and Wales, where British Christianity sought refuge, and between Ireland and Scotland, where the seed of Christianity, had been planted by Ninian and Kentigern. In less than a century, after St. Patrick’s death Ireland was covered with churches and convents for men and women. The monastic institutions were training schools of clergymen and missionaries, and workshops for transcribing sacred books. Prominent among these are the monasteries of Armagh, Banchor or Bangor (558), Clonard (500), Clonmacnois (528), Derry (555), Glendalough (618).

It is remarkable that this missionary activity of the Irish Church is confined to the period of her independence of the Church of Rome. We hear no more of it after the Norman Conquest.

The success of the Roman mission of Augustin among the Anglo-Saxons encouraged attempts to bring the Irish Church under the papal jurisdiction and to force upon it the ritual observances of Rome. England owes a good deal of her Christianity to independent Irish and Scotch missionaries from Bangor and Iona; but Ireland (as well as Germany) owes her Romanism, in great measure, to England.

III. WESTERN MONASTICISM

A. The following is from The Catholic Encyclopedia

The introduction of monasticism into the West may be dated from about A.D. 340 when St. Athanasius visited Rome accompanied by the two Egyptian monks Ammon and Isidore, disciples of St. Anthony. The publication of the "Vita Antonii" some years later and its translation into Latin spread the knowledge of Egyptian monasticism widely and many were found in Italy to imitate the example thus set forth. The first Italian monks aimed at reproducing exactly what was done in Egypt and not a few — such as St. Jerome, Rufinus, Paula, Eustochium and the two Melanias — actually went to live in Egypt or Palestine as being better suited to monastic life than Italy. As however the records of early Italian monasticism are very scanty, it will be more convenient to give first a short account of early monastic life in Gaul, our knowledge of which is much more complete.

Gaul

The first exponent of monasticism in Gaul seems to have been St. Martin, who founded a monastery at Ligugé near Poitiers, c. 360. Soon after he was consecrated Bishop of Tours; he then formed a monastery outside that city, which he made his customary residence. Although only some two miles from the city the spot was so retired that Martin found there the solitude of a hermit. His cell was a hut of wood, and round it his disciples, who soon numbered eighty, dwelt in caves and huts. The type of life was simply the Antonian monachism of Egypt and so rapidly did it spread that, at St. Martin's funeral, two thousand monks were present. Even more famous was the monastery of Lérins which gave to the Church of Gaul some of its most famous bishops and saints. In it the famous Abbot John Cassian settled after living for seven years among the monks of Egypt, and from it he founded the great Abbey of St. Victor of Marseilles. Cassian was undoubtedly the most celebrated teacher that the monks of Gaul ever had, and his influence was all on the side of the primitive Egyptian ideals. Consequently we find that the eremitical life was regarded as being the summit or goal of monastic ambition and the means of perfection recommended were, as in Egypt, extreme personal austerities with prolonged fasts and vigils, and the whole atmosphere of ascetical endeavour so dear to the heart of the Antonian monk

Celtic monasticism (Ireland, Wales, Scotland)

Authorities are still divided as to the origin of Celtic monasticism, but the view most commonly accepted is that of Mr. Willis Bund which holds it to have been a purely indigenous growth and rejects the idea of any direct connexion with Gallic or Egyptian monasticism. It seems clear that the first Celtic monasteries were merely settlements where the Christians lived together — priests and laity, men, women, and children alike — as a kind of religious clan. At a later period actual monasteries both of monks and nuns were formed, and later still the eremitical life came into vogue. It seems highly probable that the ideas and literature of Egyptian or Gallic monachism may have influenced these later developments, even if the Celtic monasticism were purely independent in origin, for the external manifestations are identical in all three forms. Indeed the desire for austerities of an extreme character has always remained a special feature of Irish asceticism down to our own time. Undoubtedly, however, the chief glory of Celtic monasticism is its missionary work, the results of which are to be found all over northwestern Europe. The observance, at first so distinctive, gradually lost its special character and fell into line with that of other countries; but, by that time, Celtic monasticism had passed its zenith and its influence had declined.

B. The following is from Gasquet, F. A., English Monastic Life,

Monasticism in Western Europe

Monachism was introduced into Western Europe from Egypt by way of Rome.  The first monks who settled in the Eternal City were known as “Egyptians,” and the Latin translation of the Vita Antonii (c. 380) became “the recognized embodiment of the monastic ideal.”  It preserved its primitive character in the matter of austerities during the fourth century, and St. Augustine declares that he knew of religious bodies of both sexes, which exercised themselves “in incredible fastings,” passing not merely one day without food or drink, which was “a common practice, “ but often going “for three days or more without anything.”

            During this same century the monastic life made its appearance in Gaul.  About A.D. 360 St. Martin founded a religious house at Ligugé, near Poitiers; and when about A.D. 371 he became Bishop of Tours, he established another monastic centre in a retired position near his Episcopal city, which he made his usual residence.  The life led by the monks was a simple reproduction of that of St. Anthony’s followers.  Cassian, the great organizer of monachism in Gaul, also followed closely the primitive Egyptian ideals both in theory and practice, whilst what is known of the early history of the monastery at Lérins, founded by Honoratus, to whom Cassian dedicated the second part of his Conferences, points to the fact that here too the eremitical life was regarded as the monastic ideal.  On the whole, therefore, it may be said that the available evidence “amply justifies the statement that Gallic monachism during the fifth and sixth centuries was thoroughly Egyptian in both theory and practice.”

            It is now possible to understand the position of St. Benedict in regard to monasticism.  The great Patriarch of Western monks was born probably about A.D. 480, and it was during that century that the knowledge of Eastern rules of regular life was increased greatly in Italy by the translation of an abridgement of Saint Basil’s code into Latin by Rufinus.  St. Basil had introduced for his monks in Cappadocia and the neighbouring provinces certain modifications of the Egyptian monastic observances.  There was more common life for his religious: they lived together and ate together; and not when they pleased, but when the superior ordained.  They prayed always in common, and generally depended upon the will of a common superior.  About the same time St. Jerome translated the Rule of Pachomius, and the influence of these two Rules upon the monastic life of Italy at the period when St. Benedict comes upon the scene is manifest.  Whatever changes had been introduced into the local observances, and however varied were the practices of individual monasteries, it is at least certain that at this period the monastic system in use in Italy was founded upon and drew its chief inspirations from Egyptian models.  What was wholly successful in the East proved, however, unsuitable to Western imitators, and, owing to the climactic conditions, impossible.  This much seems certain even from the mention made of the Gyrovagi and Sarabites by St. Benedict, since he describes them as existing kinds of monks whose example was to be avoided.  That he had practical knowledge and experience of the Egyptian and the eastern types of monachism clearly appears in his reference to Cassian and to the Rule of “Our Holy Father Saint Basil,” as he calls him, and in the fact that he made his own first essay in the monastic life as a solitary.

C. The following is from: A. Atteya, The Coptic Contribution to Christian Civilisation

The fame of Pachomian foundations spread far and wide, not only within Egypt but also throughout the world. Monks came to live with the fathers of the desert from many nations - Greeks, Romans, Cappadocians, Libyans, Syrians, Nubians, and Ethiopians, to mention a few of those on record – and Pachomius devised a system of wards for each nation within every monastery.

The Coptic cenobitic rule became the wonder of ancient Christendom. The planting of the Coptic system in Europe and other continents of the Old World was achieved by some of the greatest divines of the medieval world. We know that during one of his exiles in Europe, St. Athanasius spoke about Coptic monasteries at the Roman Curia of Julius I (337-52). But the real apostles of Coptic monastic rule were celebrated personalities who resided for years in Pachomian establishments in the Thebaid and sojourned as well in the convents of Kellia, Scetis, and Nitrea in the Western Desert. To quote some of the illustrious names who made extended pilgrimages to the Coptic fathers of the desert, we must begin with St. Jerome (ca. 342- 420), who translated the Regula Sancti Pachomii into Latin, which must have been used by St. Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480- 550) in composing his famous Rule. Others included St. John Chrysostom (ca. 347-407); Rufinus (ca. 345-410), the renowned ecclesiastical historian; St. Basil (ca. 330-79), the Cappadocian author of the great Eastern liturgy used to this day and the founder of a Byzantine monastic order on the model of the Rule of St. Pachomius; St. John Cassian (ca. 360-435), the father of monasticism in Gaul, who is known to have spent seven years in the Thebaid and Nitrea, Palladius (ca. 365-425), Bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, who complied the lives of the desert fathers in "The Lausiac History"; St. Augen or Eugenius of Clysma (d. ca. 363), the father of Syrian asceticism; and many more from other parts of Europe in addition to some lesser known persons from Ethiopia, Nubia, and North Africa.

A by-product of historic significance to the monastic movement among the Copts was their early missionary endeavour. All the aforementioned renowned names who spent years of their lives in the monasteries of Nitrea and the Thebaid must be regarded as unchartered ambassadors and missionaries of that Coptic Christianity which they had experienced among Coptic religious leaders. Meanwhile, the Copts themselves, at least in the first four or five centuries of our era, proved to be extremely active in the spreading of the faith beyond their frontiers in practically every direction.

The role of the Copts in Europe may be illustrated from the first two exiles of the great Alexandrine patriarch, Athanasius. The first exile began in Constantinople and ended in Trier, where the saint spent parts of 336 and 337, and it is difficult to believe that he did not preach during all that time in his new environment.

Most of the second exile, from 339 to 346, was at the Roman curia as the guest of Julius I. Apart from establishing good relations between Alexandria and Rome, Athanasius carried out some missionary work by introducing into Roman religious life the highly developed monastic rule of the Fathers of the Egyptian deserts. This was an important event in view of the magnitude of the contributions of the rising monastic orders in the preservation of culture, and in the progress of European civilization as a whole. In those days the stream of pilgrims who came from the west to visit the Egyptian wilderness with its hermits and monks included many who may well be regarded as missionaries of Coptic religious culture, since they transplanted Coptic teachings to their native countries.

D. The following is from Parker The Golden Age of Christianity in Britain & Ireland and Orthodoxy Today

In the latter fourth century, the age of Pelagius (who was welcomed for a time in the East and was likely not guilty of everything of which he was accused), the monks at the famous Monastery of Bangor were said to have numbered over 2,100 monks. Despite St Augustine's condemnation of the 'Pelagian heresy', British orthodoxy is applauded by St Hilary of Poitiers (the scourge of the Arian heresy in the West), by St Athanasius the Great, and by St John Chrysostom in far off Constantinople. The latter writes: 'Though thou shouldest go to the ocean, to the British Isles, there thou shouldest hear all men everywhere discoursing matters out of the scriptures, with another voice indeed, but not another faith: with a different tongue, but the same judgment.' Nor was pilgrimage unknown in these days, as St Jerome informs us that: 'The Briton, who lives apart from our world, if he go on a Pilgrimage, will leave his western sun and seek Jerusalem, known to him by fame only, and by the Scriptures.' Theodoret of Cyrus reports Britons visiting St Simeon Stylites on his famed pillar near Antioch in the fifth century.

IV. INFLUENCE OF COPTIC MONASTICISM ON CELTIC MONASTICISM

A. The following is from A. Atteya, The Coptic Contribution to Christian Civilisation

One of the most eminent of these was John Cassian (ca. 360-435), a native of southern Gaul and the son of rich parents who gave him a good education. He and an older friend named Germanus decided to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and in Bethlehem they took monastic vows. Then they went to Egypt, where they spent seven years visiting the solitaries and holy men of the wilderness of Scetis in the Nitrean valley as well as the Thebaid during the fourth century. It was on that occasion that John Cassian collected the material for his two famous works, the Institutes and the Conferences. These books deal with the life and habits of the Egyptian monks as well as their wisdom and institutions, and both were widely read in medieval Europe. St. Benedict of Nursia used them when he codified his rule in the sixth century.

After spending some time with St. John Chrysostom in Constantinople on his return journey, John Cassian was ordained priest, probably in Rome, before settling down in the neighborhood of Marseilles, where he has been accredited with the introduction of Egyptian monasticism into Gaul. At Marseilles, above the shrine of St. Victor, who was martyred by Emperor Maximian (286-305) in the last Christian persecution, John Cassian founded a monastery and a nunnery on the model of the Coenobia, which he had witnessed in Egypt. In the catacombs below the present day fort of St. Victor will be

found numerous archaeological remains, including sarcophagi with stone carvings and sculptures which portray in animal and plant motifs the direct influence of early Coptic art.

There is little doubt that the Coptic missionaries reached as far as the British Isles on the fringe of medieval Europe. Long before the coming of St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597, Christianity had been introduced among the Britons. The eminent historian Stanley Lane-Poole says, "We do not yet know how much we in the British Isles owe to these remote hermits. It is more than probable that to them we are indebted for the first reaching of the Gospel in England, where, till the coming of Augustine, the Egyptian monastic rule prevailed. But more important is the belief that Irish Christianity, the great

civilizing agent of the early Middle Ages among the northern nations, was the child of the Egyptian Church. Seven Egyptian monks are buried at Disert Uldith and there is much in the ceremonies and architecture of Ireland in the earliest time that reminds one of still earlier Christian remains in Egypt. Everyone knows that the handicraft of the Irish monks in the ninth and tenth centuries far excelled anything that could be found elsewhere in Europe, and if the Byzantine-looking decoration of their splendid gold and silver work, and their unrivalled illuminations, can be traced to the influence of Egyptian missionaries, we have more to thank the Copts for than had been imagined.

Even when we review Coptic heresies and heretics, it behooves us to consider how these ardent sons of the Nile, forbidden to practice the beliefs of their sects within the Pax Romana, crossed the frontiers of the empire to the unknown realms of the barbarians and there freely preached Christianity in accordance with their convictions. Perhaps the most striking feature in the history of the barbarians as they descended on the Roman Empire was the spread of Arianism in their midst. The Goths, Visigoths, Vandals, Burgundians, and Lombards must have had their apostles of Arian Christianity. Perhaps the best known is Ulphilas (ca. 311-83), apostle to the Goths, who was probably of Cappadocian birth, who knew the Gothic language as well as Greek, and who translated the Bible into the Gothic tongue for the first time. But Arianism, it must be remembered, was purely an Alexandrine creation, and its founder was the heresiarch Arius, a Libyan native of Alexandria. It is only logical to assume that the followers of Arius or their disciples were responsible for the spread of that heresy from Egypt to the Germanic and barbarian tribes beyond the Danube and the Rhine.

B. The following is from Abba Seraphim, On the Trail of the Seven Coptic Monks in Ireland,

The Coptic Orthodox Church has long known of the historic links between the British Isles and Christian Egypt, but documentation and solid evidence is thin on the ground for these early centuries of church history. There are learned articles by Monique Blanc-Ortolan of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, and Pierre du Bourguet of the Louvre on ‘Coptic and Irish Art’ and by Joseph F.T. Kelly of John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, on ‘Coptic Influences in the British Isles’ in the Coptic Encyclopedia which are worth consulting. Other works, like Shirley Toulson’s The Celtic Year, which asserts that “rather than adhere to the ruling of the Council [of Chalcedon], some of the most dedicated adherents of Monophysitism fled from Egypt, and some of them most surely travelled west and north to Ireland”, in their enthusiasm to establish a link, make up what is lacking in hard evidence with sheer conjecture and fantasy.

The late Archdale King noted the links between Celtic Ireland and Coptic Egypt. He suggests that much of the contact took place before the Muslim Conquest of 640. There exists evidence of a Mediterranean trade in a single passage in the life of St. John the Almsgiver (Ioannes III Eleemon), Greek Patriarch of Alexandria between 610-621, in which reference is made to a vessel sailing to Alexandria from Britain with a cargo of tin, doubtless come from Cornwall or Somerset.

King observes that the kind of asceticism associated with the Desert Fathers was especially congenial to the Irish but refers to Dom Henri Leclercq’s suggestion that Celtic monasticism was directly derived from Egypt, as an “unsubstantiated hypothesis”. No serious historian, however, would deny that first-hand knowledge of the Desert Fathers was brought directly to the South of Gaul by St. John Cassian and that the links between the British and Gallican churches were especially strong at this period. King nevertheless admits that the grouping together of several small churches within a cashel or fortified enclosure seems to support Leclercq’s view.

King mentions an Ogham inscription on a stone near St. Olan’s Well in the parish of Aghabulloge, County Cork, which scholars interpret as reading: ‘Pray for Olan the Egyptian.’ Professor Stokes tells us about the Irish monk Dicuil, who around 825 wrote his Liber de Mensure orbis terre describing the pyramids as well as an ancient precursor of the Suez Canal. It would seem that Egypt was often visited by pilgrims to the Holy Land. Stokes instances the Saltair Na Rann, an anthology of biblical poems attributed to Oengus the Culdee, but containing the sixth or seventh century Book of Adam and Eve, composed in Egypt and known in no other European country except Ireland.

King also notes that one of the commonest names for townlands or parishes is Disert or ‘Desert’: a solitary place in which anchorites were established. Presumably the same etymology gives us the Scottish Dysart, just north of Kirkcaldy, and the Welsh Dyserth, to the south of Prestatyn? This would then present a consistent picture common to Celtic Christianity. The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee, an early ninth century monastic bishop of Clonenagh (Co. Offaly) and later of Tallaght, has a litany invoking ‘Seven monks of Egypt in Disert Uilaig, I invoke unto my aid, through Jesus Christ.’ [Morfesseor do manchaib Egipr (e) in disiurt Uilaig]. The Antiphonary of Bangor (dating from between 680-691) also contains the text:” … Domus deliciis plena Super petram constructa Necnon vinea vera Ex Aegypto transducta …”which is translated as: “House full of delight Built on the rock And indeed true vine Translanted from Egypt …”

Dr. Cahal Dallat, Genealogist and Historical Consultant, of Ballycastle, County Antrim, identified Disert Ilidh or Uilaigh with Dundesert, near Crumlin, county Antrim, which is to the north-west of Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, between Belfast International Airport and Templepatrick.

Mr. Bobbie Burns, a local historian living in Crumlin, was another link in the chain. He produced a report in the Belfast Telegraph of 13th July 1936 under the headline “Unique Once Famous Ulster Church: Neglected Crumlin Ruins”, which showed the ruins of the medieval church built on the site of an earlier shrine. The local historical group is taking a renewed interest in the site… and are excited by its more ancient and possible Coptic connections.

We are grateful for the efforts of these local enthusiasts for having preserved these ancient ruins and look forward to making further discoveries about the last resting place of the seven monks of Egypt.

C. The following is from: Gasquet, F. A., English Monastic Life,

We are now in a position to turn to England.  When, less than half a century after St. Benedict’s death, St. Augustine and his fellow monks in A.D. 597 first brought this Rule of Life to our country, a system of monasticism had been long established in the land.  It was Celtic in its immediate origin; but whether it had been imported originally from Egypt or the East generally, or whether, as some recent scholars have thought, it was a natural and spontaneous growth, is extremely doubtful.  The method of life pursued by the Celtic monks and the austerities practiced by them bear a singular resemblance to the main features of Egyptian monachism ; so close, indeed, is this likeness that it is hard to believe there could have been no connection between them.  One characteristic feature of Celtic monasticism, on the other hand, appears to be unique and to divide it off from every other type.  The Celtic monasteries included among their officials one, and in some cases many bishops.  At the head was the abbot, and the Episcopal office was held by members of the house subordinate to him.  In certain monasteries the number of bishops was so numerous as to suggest that they must have really occupied the position of priests at the subordinate churches.  Thus St. Columba went in A.D. 590 from Iona to a synod at Drumcheatt, accompanied by as many as twenty bishops; and in some of the Irish ecclesiastical meetings the bishops, as in the case of some of the African synods, could be counted by hundreds.  This Celtic system appears to be without parallel in other parts of the Christian Church, and scholars have suggested that is was a purely indigenous growth.  One writer, Mr. Willis Bund, is of the opinion that the origin was tribal and that the first “monasteries” were mere settlements of Christians—clergy and laity, men, women, and children—who for the sake of protection lived together.  It was at some subsequent date that a division was made between the male and female portions of the settlement, and later still the eremitical idea was grafted on the already existing system.  If the tribal settlement was the origin of the Celtic monastery, it affords some explanation of the position occupied by the bishops as subjects of the abbots.  The latter were in the first instance the chiefs or governors of the settlements, which would include the bishop or bishops of the churches comprised in the settlement.  By degrees, according to the theory advanced, the head received a recognised ecclesiastical position as abbot, the bishop still continuing to occupy a subordinate position, although there is evidence in the lives of the early Irish saints to show that the holder of the office was certainly treated with special dignity and honour.

            The Celtic monastic system was apparently in vogue among the remnant of the ancient British Church in Wales and the West Country on the coming of St. Augustine.  Little is known with certainty, but as the British Church was Celtic in origin it may be presumed that the Celtic type of monachism prevailed amongst the Christians in this country after the Saxon conquest.  Whether it followed the distinctive practice of Irish monasticism in regard to the position of the abbot and the subject bishops may perhaps be doubted, as this does not appear to have been the practice of the Celtic Church of Gaul, with which there was a close early connection.

            It has usually been supposed that the Rule of St. Columbanus represented the normal life of a Celtic monastery, but it has been lately shown that, so far as regards the Irish or Welsh houses, this Rule was never taken as a guide.  It had its origin apparently in the fact that the Celtic monks on the Continent were induced, almost in spite of themselves, to adopt a mitigated rule of life by their close contact with Latin monasticism, which was them organizing itself on the lines of the Rule of St Benedict. The Columban Rule was a code of great rigour, and “would, if carried out in its entirety, have made the Celtic monks almost, if not quite, the most austere of men.”  Even if it was not actually in use, the Rule of St. Columbanus may safely be taken to indicate the tendencies of Celtic monasticism generally, and the impracticable nature of much of the legislation and the hard spirit which characterizes it goes far to explain how it came to pass that whenever it was brought face to face with the wider, milder, and more flexible code of St. Benedict, invariably, sooner or later, it gave place to it.  In some monasteries, for a time, the two Rules seem to have been combined, or at lest to have existed side by side, as at Luxeuil and Bobbio, in Italy, in the seventh century; but when the abbot of the former monastery was called upon to defend the Celtic rule, at the Synod of Macon in A.D. 625, the Columban code may be said to have ceased to exist anywhere as a separate rule of life.

D. The following is from Metropolitan Abraham of Jerusalem, Types of Monasticism

Monasticism spread to the West through the Coptic monks who were preaching in Ireland and from there to Scotland and the rest of Europe. It also spread through the Western travellers who visited Egypt and lived in its monasteries and among their monks, from whom they adopted the spirit of Coptic monasticism and transferred it to the West, through their books or by example of their lives.

Examples of such people include: John Cassian (360-435 AD), who wrote the Institutes and the Conferences; Paladius (363-431), who wrote the Historia Lausica; Rufinus, who wrote Historia Monachorum; Jerome (342-420); Evagrius; Melanius, a man of Spanish origin who travelled from Rome to Egypt with Rufinus in 373; and Paul, a Roman who visited Egypt with Jerome in 385.

E. The following is from Heiromonk Ambrose, CELTIC MONASTICISM: A Model of Sanctity

This account [of St. Cuthbert’s experience] is amazingly close to the temptations suffered by St. Antony the Great in the Egyptian desert. But this is not surprising, because their Christianity– which is to say, their monastic life–was primarily influenced by and formed by the Christian monasticism of the Egyptian desert, and only incidentally from the continent of Europe. This means that Celtic Christians were more like the Byzantine or Slavic Orthodox Christians than Latin or Northern European Christians.

St. John Cassian, who is still carefully read and studied by Eastern Orthodox monastics today, was well known to Celtic monks. St. John had spent years as a monk in Bethlehem and Egypt–and recorded his conversations with the Egyptian Fathers--later establishing a monastery near present-day Marseilles, France. The Life of the Egyptian

Father, St. Anthony the Great, was translated into Latin around the year 380, and we know that this was studied by Celtic monks, who depicted St. Anthony and St. Paul of Thebes on some of the great Irish “High Crosses”.

Now we come to the interesting part: There are records of any number of Christians traveling to the Desert Fathers from the British Isles, and an old Celtic litany of the saints mentions seven Egyptian monks who came to Ireland and died and were buried there. Scholars believe that most of the contact between Ireland and Egypt occurred before the year 640. On an ancient stone near a church in County Cork, Ireland, there is the following inscription: “Pray for Olan, the Egyptian”. Also interesting is the fact that even though there are no deserts in the British Isles, the Celts called their monastic communities diserts or “deserts.” This was particularly true of island monasteries or hermitages –those spiritual fortresses--, where the sea itself was like a desert.

We have a wonderful description of a visit to the monks of Egypt near the close of the fourth century, written by Rufinus of Aquileia. He wrote: “When we came near, they

realized that foreign monks were approaching, and at once they swarmed out of their cells like bees. They joyfully hurried to meet us.” Rufinus was particularly struck by the

solitude and stillness of life among these monks. “This is the utter desert,” he observed, “where each monk lives alone in his cell....There is a huge silence and a great peace there.” The Roman Catholic scholar, Edward Sellner, adds [regarding St. David of Wales who lived in the 6th century]: “ Thus he began; thus he continued; thus he ended his day. He imitated the monks of Egypt and lived a life like theirs.” The same writer assures us that “because of its [the Celtic Church’s] love of the desert fathers and mothers, it has a great affinity with the spirituality of the Eastern Orthodox [today].”

[I]n his interesting study, The Egyptian Desert in the Irish Bogs, Fr. Gregory Telepneff mentions also the fascinating interlacing knots and complex designs found on the famous standing High Crosses, which show Egyptian or Coptic influence. “Celtic manuscripts show similarities to the Egyptian use of birds, eagles, lions, and calves....In the Celtic Book of Durrow, one can find not only a utilization of the colors green, yellow, and red, similar to Egyptian usage, but also ‘gems with a double cross outline against tightly knotted interlacing,’ which recall the ‘beginnings of Coptic books.’ [Henry, Irish Art].

F. The following is from K.S. Parker: The Golden Age of Christianity in Britain & Ireland and Orthodoxy Today.

The deep asceticism that St Columba sought in the Irish 'desert' reminds one of that found in the early Desert Fathers in Egypt and Palestine. Indeed, the Irish monastics were deeply influenced by St Athanasius' Life of St Antony the Great and also the writings of John Cassian on the cenobitic practices he encountered amongst the monastics in the Egyptian desert. Artistically as well, we find Eastern influences in the far reaches of the British Isles. The Mediterranean influences upon the seventh century Book of Durrow – produced either in County Offaly or Northumbria in the Insular Irish style – is readily apparent, with some arguing that it is iconographically identical to copies of the Diatessaron of Tatian, popular in the second and third centuries particularly in the Patriarchate of Antioch. The famous Book of Kells was produced by Columban monks, likely at Iona itself. William Dalrymple relates that icons of St Antony of the Desert were a favorite motif amongst Pictish artists in Scotland and in Ireland in the early Middle Ages. Indeed, he was held to be their 'ideal and prototype', with the English monk Alcuin describing the Celtic Culdees as 'the children of the Egyptians' (pueri egyptiaci). Sophronius describes an accidental voyage by a young Alexandrine aristocrat to Cornwall in the early seventh century. The Irish Litany of Saints remembers 'the seven monks of Egypt [who lived] in Disert Uilaig' on the western coast, while the seventh century Antiphonary used at the Monastery of Bangor declares:

“This house full of delight

Is built on the rock

And indeed the true vine

Transplanted out of Egypt.”

V. CONCLUSION

The following is from Fr. Gregory Telepneff, The Egyptian Desert in the Irish Bogs

We have discussed the widespread influence of Coptic monasticism, touching on nearly every aspect of Celtic monasticism. One has only to read the monastic writings of Saint John Cassian or Saint Pachomios the Great and then compare them to the various Celtic writings to see this influence, which is made manifest in a sense of common “spirituality” in the two “schools” that is difficult at times to describe. We have already considered the possible ways in which such influence could have reached Celtic lands from Egypt, concluding that Gaul is the only really viable option.

And yet there are certain perhaps not insignificant links in a possible Egypt- Gaul – Hibernia chain. This we have observed, for instance, in the section on the Eucharist…Let us consider those liturgical Services not directly related to the Eucharist, in order to see if any further links in the Egypt – Gaul – Hibernia chain are evident. In the sixth century, the Services of prime and Compline were just being developed…However, Celtic monasticism shares in common with Coptic monasticism of the sixth century certain Services: Matins, terce, sext, none, Vespers and the Midnight Service…Common to both the Celts and the Copts was the absence of prime; in Gaul at the time, however, this Service (one which developed originally in Palestine) was to be found, as we know from the writings of Saint Cassian. Furthermore, from the writings of Saint Caesarius, we are also aware that the Service of Lauds existed in Gaul at this time. We find no such Service in Hibernia or in Egypt.

In conclusion, we may say:

1) Early Gallic influence on Hibernian Christianity is evident in the fifth century, while later in the sixth century there appears to be significant Coptic influence of specifically monastic kind.

2) There are evident similarities between Egyptian and Celtic monasticism that separate the two from other forms of monasticism – Eastern and Western – at this time.

3) Egyptian monasticism is obviously the older of these two.

4) The cumulative evidence suggests that there is specific Coptic influence on Celtic monasticism, though its lines of transmission are not always clear.

5) Gaul is one possible medium of influence. But as we have seen, there are important differences between Gallic, Coptic, and Celtic monastic life. Egyptian influence through the “intermediary” of Gaul alone, then, cannot account for all of the Coptic traits in Hibernian monasticism.

6) Therefore, we cautiously conclude that early sixth-century travels northward by a few Coptic monastics, and the existence of substantial Egyptian monastic literature in Hibernia, account for the Eastern influences on early Celtic monasticism which we have examined.

VI. EPILOGUE

This paper is one element of the larger project envisioned by the OCA - ACNA Dialogue whose objective is to compile and preserve a record of the interactions between the Church in the East and the West, as it is on this historic foundation that we need to base our current dialogue. Although the OCA - ACNA Dialogue started with a careful study of the recent interactions between the Orthodox and the Anglican Churches documented in the three Anglican – Orthodox Agreed Statements of: Moscow, Dublin and Cypress, we were aware that the relationship goes back much further in history and that records of these interactions need to be collected.

I find the lesson to be drawn from the early history briefly outlined in this paper to be more profound than I had contemplated when I accepted the assignment. When I started my objective was to document the early contacts between the Orthodox in the East and the Church in the British Isles, and particularly the possible influence of Coptic monasticism on the Celtic monastic practices in Ireland. What the examination of this history revealed to me is the power of the Church undivided. Coptic monasticism, regardless of the mode of transmission, was a foundation on which monasticism in Cappadocia, the Gaul and Hibernia were built and those monastic movements were the springboard for evangelizing pagan parts of Western Europe. Lay persons, priests, monks, bishops and patriarchs moved freely between East and West, and so did writings, ideas and models of how best to serve the Lord: St. John Cassian , a lay person from Southern Gaul, was baptized in the Holy Land, lived for seven years in Egyptian monasteries, and was ordained to the priesthood by St. John Chrysostom in Constantinople before returning to Gaul; St. Jerome translated the Rule of Pachomius to Latin making it accessible to many in the West; the Coptic Patriarch St. Athanasius visited Rome accompanied by the two Egyptian monks in A.D. 340 and during one of his exiles in Europe spoke about Coptic monasteries at the Roman Curia of Julius I; seven Coptic monks may have traveled to Ireland as missionaries. The undivided Church, though vigorously defending against heresy the faith it received, was one Body and each part of the Body was functioning in harmony with the other parts; the Church was living the Mission given it by its Lord to be His witness in “Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”. Her focus was on Christ and on proclaiming Him.

I would that History would repeat itself!

SOURCES CITED

Abba Seraphim, On the Trail of the Seven Coptic Monks in Ireland, The Glastonbury Review, Archives,

Atteya, Aziz Surial, The Coptic Contribution to Christian Civilisation.



Gasquet, F. A., English Monastic Life, Methuen & Co., London. 1904. 

Heiromonk Ambrose (Father Aleksey Young), Celtic Monasticism: A Model of Sanctity,

Joyce, P.W., A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland, Dublin, 1906, available at:

Metropolitan Abraham of Jerusalem, Types of Monasticism, in M. Mikhael, ed., Monasticism, Melbourne, Australia



Parker, K.S., The Golden Age of Christianity in Britain & Ireland and Orthodoxy Today, The Antiochian-Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom,

Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church Volume IV: Medieval Christianity, AD 590 – 1073, available at: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Calvin College:

Telepneff, Fr. Gregory, The Egyptian Desert in the Irish Bogs, Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 2nd ed., Etna, CA 2001

The Catholic Encyclopedia entry at

The Catholic Encyclopedia entry at

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[1] This biography is an abbreviation of that available in The Coptic Contribution to Christian Civilisation, pp. 36-38.

[2] This biography is compiled from those available in a number of sources including: Catholic Encyclopedia, New Catholic Dictionary, web site, and Wikipedia.

[3] This biography is based on that available in Electronic Irish Records Dataset, Princes Grace Irish Library, Oracle Ireland web site – Famous People and Wikipedia.

[4] This biography is based on those available in the Christian Classic Ethereal Library, The Logos Bible Software web site, Theopedia – The Encyclopedia of Biblical Christianity and Wikipedia.

[5] This biography is taken from that available on The Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies web site.

[6] This and subsequent passages from this source are included with the permission of StMarkDC EBooks.

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