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Introduction
Even a cursory study of the twin strands of monasticism and Celtic Christianity yields a strong sense of their complementarity. While we know that Christian monasticism did not originate in Ireland, the suitedness of the monastery's organisation and spiritual atmosphere to the Irish Celtic culture testifies to a fruitful degree of harmony. Understanding the general context of fifth-seventh century Ireland and western Gaul is necessary if at least some of factors that led to monastic flourishing in Ireland are to be understood.1
Not all of the attempts by the Roman church to lay ecclesiastical claim to Ireland succeeded. The failed work of Bishop Palladius in the early 5th-century is an indication that there were some approaches to Christianising Ireland that were better than others. Through careful contextual analysis and the study of both failed and successful ecclesiastical work in Ireland, I conclude that the significant growth of Christianity in fifth-seventh century Ireland resulted in part from the compatibility of Irish culture with an emerging Western continental monasticism.2
Western Gaul: The Source of Early Monastic Influence
It is generally accepted that the first identifiably Christian monastic movement began in the middle of the third-century with Anthony in Egypt. His self-imposed ascetic retreat into the desert eventually attracted other devotees so that he came, in time, to preside over a loosely connected group who desired to imitate his spiritual lifestyle. There followed, in no easily traceable pattern, a growing number of individuals whose ascetic practices were of a varied sort, sometimes strongly individualistic and sometimes, as in the case of Cassian, having a more carefully structured communal quality. Saint Cassian (360-435), who founded the Abbey of St. Victora at Marseilles, saw that the monastery could not rely on alms as in the east but must be productive and economically independent if it was to survive in the chaotic and impoverished West.3 Honoré, a contemporary of Cassian who disliked the harshness of Cassian's practices, had a disciple named Hilary who, in time, founded a monastery at Poitiers. From the soil of that monastic community there grew a man who would have a great impact on western monasticism and the Irish Celts, Martin. Settling first at Ligugé near Poitiers, Martin eventually established a monastery near the city of...