Explore the Origins and Legacy of the First Christians in Ireland

Monastery and High Cross

Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been a heightened fascination with “Celtic Christianity,” construed by some as a spirituality of semi-pagan sensibilities — and never united with the Church of Rome. Misinformation and ignorance about early Irish Christianity runs rampant. 

This groundbreaking book clarifies it all. It examines the misunderstandings of more than a century, and presents an authentic history of Christianity in Ireland in late antiquity for the first time.

It has long been known that there were Christians in Ireland before St. Patrick – but where did they come from? In 2006, an early medieval manuscript was accidentally discovered in a peat bog. Not only was the book made in the ancient Egyptian style, but in the binding of it was Egyptian papyrus! This was tangible proof of what historians and art historians had been suspecting since new discoveries in the 1970’s: namely, that Egyptian monks had come to Ireland in the days of Late Antiquity.

ORDER NOW

This book is an easy read – but its content is thoroughly scholarly. It studies the art, architecture, monastic traditions, manuscript writing, and liturgy from the time of the earliest Christians in Ireland — and finds evidence of influence from Egypt, Armenia, and points east.

There are abundant footnotes and documentation, and an abundance of other resources to inspire further study. 

As you read about the origins and legacy of the first Christians in Ireland, you will learn:

  • How the faith actually came to Ireland and who visited the Emerald Isle, according to artifacts left behind
  • Where the first Christians in Ireland probably came from (you will be surprised!) and how they lived the Faith
  • Who wrote the first non-liturgical hymns to the Virgin Mary in western Europe
  • How great devotion to the Holy Eucharist there led to the later invention of the tabernacle
  • The identity of the real St. Patrick

For centuries, scholars didn’t think there could possibly be links between Ireland and the Mediterranean. Now, however, research shows that some practices and customs were known only in Ireland and the Mediterranean world – but nowhere else in Europe! Connie Marshner reveals how Irish monasticism came from Egypt – and how Irish monastic traditions eventually took permanent shape as the Sacrament of Confession as we know it. She rediscovers magnificent hymns and prayers to Mary — the earliest ever written. Additionally, she unveils the development of the celebration of the Mass from the time of St. Patrick, and other liturgical prayers in ancient Ireland – and their roots in Eastern Christianity.

Monastery and High Cross presents convincing evidence that the earliest Christians in Ireland came from the Mediterranean and brought with them deep asceticism, fervent devotion to the Mother of God, and the Eastern elements in the Gallican liturgy — along with beehive huts, high crosses, and manuscript decoration. That early Celtic Christianity came from the heart of the Catholic Church as it was in the first centuries.