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From Paganism to Christianity
Abstract
From the third century A.D., when the first visible signs of Christianity in the
British Isles appeared, until the Middle Ages, when the Christian Church replaced Celtic
Religion, Celts most readily accepted Christianity when Christianity adapted to their
beliefs, practices, and symbols. Creolization and concepts within cognitive archeology
provide the most useful theoretical frameworks for understanding how pagan Celtic art
and beliefs intertwined with imported Christianity to form a Celtic version of
Christianity. However, scholars must be cautious about historical and personal
subjectivity when interpreting ancient artifacts and particularly careful when using
experience as an analytical tool when studying religion. Despite the many challenges,
archeologists and historians have been able to learn about this ancient society through the
study of amalgamated artifacts and second hand historical sources that describe the
integration of religious practices.
Timeline55 B.C.-Caesar attempted to invade Britain but had to withdraw54 B.C.-Successful invasion of Britain, but withdrew43 A.D.-Roman invasion of Southwest Britain63 A.D.- Joseph of Arimathia is said to have visited Britain to convert its inhabitants75-77 A.D.-Roman conquest complete312 A.D.- Christianity official religion of Britain and the Roman Empire410 A.D.-Last Romans leave431 A.D.- Christianity is accepted in Ireland596 A.D.-Gregorian Mission (or 600 A.D).- Christianity takes over in Ireland1100 A.D.-Christian Church gains dominance over Celtic Religions
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Introduction
Contact between Christianity and Insular Celtic paganism were initiated before
the declaration of Christianity as the official religion of England in 312 A.D. The
Gregorian Mission in 596 A.D, which decreed conversion of all pagans to Christianity, as
well as the Christian take-over of Ireland by 600 A.D., accelerated the rise of
Christianity. Finally, the Christian Church gained control over the Celtic religion by
1100 A.D (Allen 2004). These centuries of tension and adaptation provide the evidence
for the interaction of Christianity and Celtic religions, but one must use caution when
examining Celtic religion because of potentially biased evidence. For example, since the
Celts did not have a literary tradition, their history is especially subjected to bias.
Historians struggle with bias in second-hand sources, which were mainly by Greek and
Roman writers, the colonizers. Colonizers often believe that they and their cultural
practices are superior to the colonized culture. Thus, if Christians, or Roman or Greek
pagans as the case may be, are writing about Celtic paganism, they might portray the
religion as inferior as well as the people who practice it as barbarians and savages
(Baumiester 1990). The archeological record is also biased, in that it proves difficult to
interpret an ancient people through their artifacts, especially religious artifacts (Sharf
1998). There is danger of interpreting ancient artifacts subjectively, both though
historical subjectivity and an individuals personal subjectivity. These studies create a
challenge in examining the influences of Christianity on Celtic paganism. However, both
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archeological and historical evidence show that Celtic pagans accepted Christianity. This
is seen through the archeological record in the form of artifacts that borrow from both
religions and historical records relating accounts of practices incorporated into Celtic
Christianity.
Theoretical Framework
Interactions between Christianity and Insular Celtic paganism can be analyzed
using both the anthropological theory of creolization and concepts from the subfield of
cognitive archeology. However, when implementing these approaches, one must be
cautious of subjective and other types of bias and the challenges that exist when using
experience as an analytical tool in examining religion (Sharf 1998).
The term creolization originated within linguistic anthropology to describe the
effects of merging two languages together to form a new language. It has recently also
been used within other fields of anthropology, including archeology, with respect to
culture. This concept can then be extended to the cultural aspect of religion. For example,
Celtic paganism and Christianity intertwined to create Celtic Christianity (Webster 2001).
This is different from acculturation because an entirely new culture is created, instead of
merely having a reaction to the invading culture, whether that is resistance, acceptance, or
adaptation (Redfield 1936). Creolization often occurs on frontiers. A frontier is the land
or territory that forms the furthest extent of a country's settled or inhabited regions. When
studying these regions, scholars examine the culture that has grown up within them.
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Many cultures on the frontier either forgo their culture in favor of another or incorporate
elements of the invading culture into their own. I will show here that creolization is an
appropriate concept for this case study, as Celtic paganism incorporated the invading
religion of Christianity (McCarthy 2005).
The subfield of cognitive archeology attempts to psychoanalyze past societies by
way of interpreting the meanings of artifacts, such as symbols, in order to understand the
interactions of those artifacts and symbols. Each society employs symbolic images as
social tools to either signify meaning or explain concepts of the societies natural and
cultural environment (Renfew 2008). For example, each letter of the alphabet signifies a
sound which, when combined into words, sentences and paragraphs, symbolize language
and convey intellectual meaning. In some cultures, such as Mayan culture as well as
those of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, writing started as pictorial symbols of natural
phenomena, animals, food, plant life and artifacts. These are known as hieroglyphs and
are the meaningful precursors to the arbitrary symbolic letters, which only signify
meaning when they come together (Wilson 2003).
Further subfields of cognitive archeology include those that examine purposeful
design, concepts of schedules and time including those that represent the forethought of
planning them out, and measurement in terms of devices and units. Other subfields
examine social relations to structure and regulation of inter-personal behavior; symbols
that explain the supernatural and that represent relations between humans and gods, and
iconic embodiments of reality (Renfew 2008). For example, measuring devices were
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found in the town of Mohenjo-Daro, part of the Indus Valley, in what is now part of
Pakistan. The Indus Valley was then home to the Harappan civilization, which lasted
from 3000 to 1500 B.C. These weights were stone blocks from 2,000 B.C thought to be
used for the measurement of goods in manufacture and trade. Each block is a multiple
weight of the last. Thus, one stone weighs one ounce, the next three ounces and the next
nine ounces. This indicates that the Harappan civilization understood the concept that
things could be measured, how to measure, and that objects have a constant weight and
the multiplicative rule (Miller 1985).
One challenge of the approach of cognitive archeology is that archeologists have
to be mindful not to be subjective in their interpretations. This difficulty arises because
each individual is inherently subjective, interpreting his or her environment through the
lenses of his or her own language, cultural background, and personal experiences in
social and personal contexts. Because of this potential bias, archeologists must not
assume that their way of conceptualizing religious experiences is the only correct way
(McGee 2008).
In addition to the challenges of cognitive archeology and the difficulty in
overcoming ones own tendency for subjective analysis, archeologists must also be
cautious about other potentially bias factors influencing their interpretations. For
example, Kristen Gremillion, an archeologist and paleoenthnobotanist at Ohio State
University, points out that archeologists do not always look at historical evidence and
historians do not always look at archeological data. Since these scholars are not experts in
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each others disciplines, they lack the knowledge to interpret data from the other
discipline. This creates an informational bias that denies the public a coherent picture
(Gremillion 2002).
Another problem is that of religious interpretation. Many historians do not attempt
to interpret the thoughts of people who did not leave written documents. The result is
biased texts. Religious scholar Robert Sharf argues that the study of ancient religions is
difficult because the often-used, elusive term experience puts emphasis on the personal,
subjective and private. These elements are emphasized instead of the objective and
empirical when attempting to extract an individual or groups personal religious
experiences. Therefore these experiences are too subjective to be analyzed. Even when
texts are available, it is impossible to know exactly what experiences were like because
the experiences of the participant and observer are too different; scholars cannot know
what an experience is like without having undergone it themselves. Experience can have
different interpretations depending on the situation as well as different definitions across
cultures (Sharf thinks that religious experience is a Western construct). Therefore we
cannot subjectively interpret the experience of other cultures, but have to understand their
worldview and what experience means to them. Even if we forgo the objective
definition and merely look at religious experience, the concepts are too broad. Instead,
we have to differentiate between ritualistic experience and mythical experience (Sharf
1998). Even so, many scholars use indirect data to try to understand experience, even
though there is debate as to whether experience should be used as an analytical tool
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(Sharf 1998).
In this paper, I will show that the pagan Celts readily accepted Christianity as
seen through the adoption of Celtic religious practices, traditions and incorporation of
symbols, artistic styles and concepts artifacts.
Background
The Celts
The term Celts encompasses many different people and tribes that can be
traced back at least twenty-five centuries, well before literate societies existed north of
the Alps. These tribes were loosely connected by language, art, culture and religion
(James 1993). Most historians agree that the Celtic culture can be definitively traced back
to about 800 B.C, the start of the first Celtic period, known as the Hallstat period (Wood
1998). It is widely accepted that during the Hallstat period, the Celts were located in
areas from the Balkans to present-day southern Germany. They later moved across
Europe and spread throughout Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Turkey, as well as
Ireland and England by 300 A.D (Wood 1998). However, Peter Berresford Ellia, one
well-known historian and authority on the Celts, believes that they immigrated to
England between 2000 and no later than 1000 B.C. (Ellis 1985).
One of the earliest uses of the term Celt was in a poem, Ora Maritima, written
by the Latin writer Rufus Festus Avienus in the late fourth century B.C (Cunliffe 1997).
Greeks called the Celts bothKeltoi and Galatae while theRomans called them Celte and
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Galli (James 1993). Rufus Festus Avienus quoted the merchants handbook,Massilliot
Periplus, which described sea routes around Iron Age Europe. Thought to date back to
600 B.C, it referenced a land with a people called the Celts (Cunliffe 1997).
According to Simon James, a professor of archeology and ancient history at the
University of Leicester, Celtic lands were well populated and farmed, with smatterings of
settlements, forts, and shrines. Societies consisted of small territorially based sub-tribes
known aspagi. These were essentially kin-groups and their dependents and followers,
such as slaves. Even though there was slavery, there was not as much as in the Classical
world, and slaves might have had the most value as exports. Pagi were made up of a king
or chief, warrior nobility, and men of art who included craftsmen, seers, bards and druids.
Priests of their day, druids played a great role in society, connecting people to other tribal
communities, the gods and the dead as well as keeping an oral history of settlements. The
bards would sing the praises of the nobility. Artisans were important not only because
they made tools and everyday objects, but because they would also make the clothing and
jewelry worn by nobility. The archeological record shows that Celts must have been very
advanced in the technological and artistic aspects of metalwork due to the intricacy of
their metal objects (James 1993). Although Celtic society was very patriarchal, there
were women warriors and marriage was more of a partnership than a transfer of power
over the woman from father to husband (James 1993).
The Celts, a war-like tribal people, often fought amongst themselves. Because
they feared attacks by neighboring tribes, they never built roads, which seriously
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hampered trade (Zweifel 2000). Thus, according to Mike McCarthy, an archeologist at
Oxford University in England, before the mid-first century A.D., manufacturing was
most likely on a small scale and an as-needed basis, for there is no evidence of large
production sites. However, there is evidence of trade of essential goods such as sea-salt in
northeast England, which implies that there were probably trade networks in northwest
England as well as southeast Scotland. Celts used a barter system, bartering goods and
gifts, calculating their wealth in livestock, particularly cows. Caesar suggested that
Northern trades routes were controlled by very powerful sea-faring Celts called Venetti.
(McCarthy 2005).
Even though it is unclear that there were trade networks in the North, in southern
England contacts with the Mediterranean world existed and continued throughout the
Iron Age. In the first century B.C., England belonged to the trade routes that stretched
from Roman provinces to Gaul, trading wine as evidenced by glass and wine amphorae
found near the Thames. However, despite these contacts, Britain was largely an unknown
land, which was self-sufficient. (James 1993).
Religion
Although most of our knowledge of the Celts comes from biased Greek and
Roman writers, it is clearly an unbiased fact that Celtic life centered on the polytheistic
religion of the Mother Goddess (Webster Graham 1986). Celtic gods and goddesses were
subject to the same types of trials and tribulations as ordinary people and thus were not
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natural features such as lakes, groves or springs. Celtic rituals were largely based on both
nature and the passage of time in nature such as the transition between day and night.
This concept of natural change was also seen in the importance of transitions between the
seasons, which also represented changes within the human life cycle. Spring represented
birth, summer represented maturity, autumn represented decay and winter represented
death and re-birth into a new generation (James 1993).
According to Greek writers, the Druidic order was already in place by 200 B.C.
druids preformed religious practices, which included sacrifice and had the power to ban
people from these practices. Banishment from sacrifice was the greatest punishment the
Druids could deliver because that meant the individual was no longer in favor with the
gods. Thus, druids were so powerful that it was considered taboo to attack them. Even in
a warrior society where all tribes were constantly on edge for fear of attack, druids could
travel from village to village unharmed (Ross 1967). They were also magicians, as well
as bards, scientists and intermediaries between the gods, goddesses and mortals because
they knew the secrets of the gods (Green 1986).
Druids taught that death was not to be feared because it is merely a changing of
place and that one would automatically be re-born into an afterlife, which explains why
Celtic warriors had no fear of death (Ross 1967). Celts did not have strict borders
between the realms of the living and the dead. They believed that a constant exchange of
souls took place between the two worlds so that when someone died in the other world, it
would bring a soul to this world (Ellis 1985). These borders seem to have disappeared
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altogether at certain festivals (McNeill 1974). The Celtic belief in an afterlife is apparent
in looking at elaborate grave goods, such as those La Tne style artifacts found at the
Fermanagh passage tomb burial (Foley 1988). These grave goods were to be used and
enjoyed by the dead in the afterlife (Lloyd 2006).
Transition
Christianity comes to the British Isles
Christianity came to England with Roman military administrators both before and
after it became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 312 A.D. (Davies 1999). The
first visible signs of Christianity in the British Isles appeared in the early third century
A.D. However, there are not many Christian artifacts from that period, and this is thought
to be because many Romans continued to worship the Roman pagan gods to which they
were accustomed. Among the few conspicuous marks of Christianity during this time
may be the destruction of a Mithraic temple, which had been carried out because some
aspects of the cult were taken to be blasphemous imitations of Christian rituals (Muir and
Welfare 1983).
Christianity continued to spread with the help of St. Patricks mission, which
established the religion in Ireland in 413 A.D. This Catholic mission lasted about 40
years and is the origin of St. Patricks Day and root of Irish Catholicism as a major
Christian sect (Muir and Welfare 1983). Thus, Christianity extinguished the power of the
Irish Druids. This take-over was accelerated by legends of St. Patrick, which recounted
how his powers overwhelmed those of his Druidic opponents (McNeill 1974). Even
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though St. Patrick was key in establishing Christianity in Ireland, it is reasonable to
suppose that such a community of believers evolved through contact with the Celtic
Church of Western Britain prior to the missionary activity of Patrick (Davies 1999).
Similar Celtic and Christian Beliefs
There were several reasons for Christianitys eventual acceptance into Celtic
society. One reason was the concept of the Christian Godhead being a Trinity, or three
persons in one God. The fact that the Christian God took three separate forms, which
were the Father (creator), Son (savior), and Holy Spirit (sanctifier), was also a concept
familiar to the Celts since their own deities took different forms depending on their
functions (Lloyd 2006).
The doctrine of immortality taught by the Christians was also similar to that of the
Celts. The Celtic gods and goddesses were immortal and the pagan Celtic religion was
one of the first to develop a doctrine of immortality (Ellis 1985). Christianity taught that
God was eternal and Christs promise of eternal life to all believers was readily accepted
by the Celts because they were already used to the idea of an afterlife.
Celtic Practices incorporated into Christianity
The coming of Christianity was not an abrupt change for the Celts (Pennick
1996). In fact, I argue that the incorporation and recognition of pagan practices in
Christianity made it much easier for Celts to accept the new religion because of the
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abundant evidence of a creolized Celtic Christianity. For instance, Christian sites of
worship were built recognizing Celtic place-souls (Pennick 1996). Celts believed that
the land was a living entity and that each location had a place-soul oranima loci, a
personality. Many early members of the Celtic Christian Church were druids. In one of
the earliest saintLives, St. Illtyd is referred to as a druid by descent. (Ellis 1985:82).
Irish monastic Christian schools were built on the sites of Druidic bardic schools
in Ireland (Ellis 1985). The mingling of Christian, Celtic, and Classical civilization,
which is now referred to as the Insular culture, remains a powerful force in European art
and learning (Wood 1998).
Many Celtic images can be found at Christian sites. For example, the stone head
of an antlered deity, probably Cernunnos, was found at a cemetery dedicated to St.
Fergus on the island of Inishkeen in Upper Lough Erne, Ireland (Pennick 1996). Another
Celtic deitys image: a Janus figure with a stoup or basin for holy water positioned
between the heads was found in the churchyard of Caldragh, on Boa Island near the north
shore of Lower Lough Erne, in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland (Pennick 1996).
Further evidence survives in a Tau cross with faces on the upper side in the traditional
pagan Celtic style at Rougham in County Clare (Pennick 1996).
Another image that was adopted by Christianity was the Celtic High Cross, a pre-
Christian symbol, which was later amalgamated with the Christian crucifix (Sullivan
2008). The High Celtic Cross is perhaps the best example of the link between pagan
Celtic and Christian traditions. During the Hallstatt period, the continental Celts set up
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symbolic stones that appear to have been the forerunners of the later insular Celtic
crosses (Pennick 1996). Some of these crosses were made in a humanoid form that
resembles older representations of the Celtic Great Goddess. The head portions have the
x-pattern seen on later Cornish stone crosses, but date to almost a thousand years before
the adoption of the cross as a Christian symbol.
The form of the cross had geomantic (divination by lines and figures)
connotations for the Celts before it was ever adopted as a Christian symbol (Ellis 1985).
There is a pillar-cross from the Hallstatt period in Kilchberg, near Tbingen in south
Germany that closely resembles many of the later crosses of Cornwall and Ireland (Ellis
1985). Crosses exist in the diaper-carved work of Celtic memorials of the La Tne period,
characterized by intricate knot and interlace designs. A fragment from Steinenbronn
contains patterns that show up later in Irish Christian manuscripts and church carvings
(Ellis 1985).
Megaliths were often Christianized in the early days of the Church by being
marked with crosses. Some Ogham (a native Irish alphabet) stones were reused as
Christian gravestones, such as those at Port St. Mary on the Isle of Man (Archaeology
Data Service: The Cronk 2007). TheLife of St. Samson tells of how he carved crosses
into a pagan stone at Tregeare (Ellis 1985). At Bridell in Dyfed, there is a ninth century
A.D. cross that has been carved onto an earlier Ogham-inscribed standing stone (Ellis
1985).
Peter Berresford Ellis offers an interesting interpretation of the continuity of the
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Celtic Cross from pagan to Christian times:
In its fully developed form, the wheel-headed Celtic high cross is a version of the
worlds axis. It stands on a foursquare pyramidal base representing the world-
mountain whose roots are buried in the earth. From the center of this arises the shaft,
the axis proper. Close to the top is the Celtic cross itself. It is a sunwheel, reproducing
a natural phenomenon observed occasionally in the skies when the suns light,
shining through ice crystals, is diffracted into a cross-and circle pattern. At the center
of the wheel is Christ, the cosmic man. A house-like form, the hall of heaven, the
abode of God, which resembles a Celtic reliquary, tops the cross (Ellis 1985: 49).
The cross base, in addition to representing the world-mountain, could also relate to the
Lammas Hill tradition of the pagan Celts. The axis of the cross, then, could represent the
flagstaff that usually was placed at the center of the Lammas Hill. Several pre-Christian
carvings depicting the sunwheel exist among pagan Celtic material culture. It has also
been hypothesized that the circle represents the Celtic torc, a symbol of authority and
power. The Christian interpretation is that the circle is a halo, like those depicted in the
Irish manuscripts. The world-mountain base, the axis, and the sunwheel were holdovers
from the pagan Celtic beliefs and iconography, while the Christ at the middle and the hall
of heaven at the top was added to the cross to form what we now recognize as the
Christian Celtic Cross.
The continuation of the use of Ogham, a native Irish alphabet that was composed
of sets of short lines that stood for letters, in the Christian Celtic Church is another
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example of amalgamation. These lines were either drawn up to a base line or crossed it,
and those found on upright pillar stones were usually carved horizontally. It has been
argued that the first inscriptions were carved in a language that was no longer spoken
during the time of its use and that it was a religious language that had been used by the
druids (Ellis 1985). Early Christian symbols such as the Chi-Rho monograms (of the
name of Christ) and theDextera Dei ("Right hand of God"), appear at some sites together
with the Ogham texts. There are 215 Ogham inscriptions in Ireland and 48 in England
and Wales (Ellis 1985). Many Ogham stones exist within Christians sites, such as the
early Christian site of Templemanaghan, containing an oratory, various standing-stones,
an ogham stone, and a burial ground and dating between the fifth and seventh centuries
A.D. (Ketchum 2005).
Most early Christian cemeteries were circular and preceded any buildings such as
churches or monasteries because early Christians, like the pagans, did not require a
building in which to worship, but merely a place to worship. Pagan Celts usually chose
places near a grave, or near an image of a grave, and the Celtic Christians continued this
practice. Celtic Christians also worshipped in stone circles that were called churches both
in Gaelic and Lowland Scots languages, even though there werent actual buildings
constructed there. It is very possible that the early missionaries chose the rings of
standing stones as places of worship precisely because the pagan inhabitants of the region
had also assembled there for ceremonial purposes. According to A. Hadrian Allcroft,
Many ancient churches occupy precisely those sites, which would naturally be
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selected for barrows or burial mounds, and in very many cases it is yet possible to see
beneath them the swell of an original barrow. The words hlaw and howe, elements in
a long list of English parish-names point to the fact that the churches of these parishes
are actually reared on barrows. Names like Kirkbergh, Kirkbarrow, and Chapel-le-
How tell the same story, as probably do many names in bury, andborough (beorh,
a barrow). (Allcroft 1930:II:254). Circular sepulchral monuments ringworks,
cromlechs, and barrows were called kirk and church because the original circ
was a circular place of burial. (Allcroft 1930:II:276).
It should be noted that there was at least one difference between the way pagan and
Christian Celts treated their dead. The pagans generally made their burial-places a rather
large distance from the dwellings of the living. They visited the dead regularly at certain
seasons and celebrated their memories with feasts and games, but otherwise kept their
distance from these places of burial (Allcroft 1930:II). The new tradition that Christianity
brought in was its tendency to share quite close quarters with the dead. The Christian
Celts celebrated the memories of the dead with daily ritual and built their temples
amongst the tombs (Allcroft 1930:II).
Over and over again, pre-Christian burials have been found beneath old churches
and churchyards. There is a rather long list of churches that stand on or beside grave
barrows. Excavations and documentary evidence such as the Capitularies, a royal
ordinance under the Merovingian dynasty, have shown that for a long time Christians
continued to bury their dead within the pagan barrows. For example, at Fimber, near
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Sledmere, an excavation revealed internments extending through the Bronze Age, Roman
period, and Saxon period (Allcroft 1930:II). A churchyard was later built over these
burials and a church was constructed over the barrow. Another example can be found in
Sligo County, Ireland, where a Christian cemetery surrounds two pre-Christian cairns
(Mount 1994). Excavations have also revealed Christian ornaments among pagan grave-
furniture in Saxon cemeteries (Allcroft 1930:II). This practice of churches and
churchyards being built on top of graves situated in the pagan barrows continued for
some time. Pagan grave furniture can sometimes be found within these graves and
graves of the Anglo-Saxon Period (Allcroft 1930).
The Celtic barrow circle was a symbol of mortality, and contained the graves of
the Celtic dead. Oratories, the pre-cursors of churches, were later built on these barrows.
Because they were placed on burial sites, a church became more sacred the more burials
there were in a site (Allcroft 1930). Early Christian churches were built on the
foundations of sacred circular henges and not rectangular foundations like the Roman
churches such as Knowlton Church in England (English Heritage 2007). An excavation
of Alphamstone in Essex revealed that the church was constructed on a pagan stone circle
and urns and the remains of sepultures were found nearby. Stone and bronze burial
objects have been unearthed at many similar churchyard sites (Allcroft 1930).
Other artifacts that connect these religions are found in County Claire, Ireland.
For instance, a large cross-slab, found in a graveyardnear the chancel of St. Caimins
Church, depicts a cross with two footprints. It is a ringed Latin cross carved in false relief
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with semi-circular expansions at the terminals and two petals forming the bottom of the
cross. The outlines of two shod footprints are incised to the right of the cross, one above
the other. The text (Irish) reads Coscrach Laignech (Cosgrach the Leinsterman), who
might be identified as the son of Angid and Bishop of Killaloe, who died in 1038. It has
been suggested that the footprints indicate that the person commemorated died while on a
pilgrimage to the island on which the monument was found. The prints may represent his
status as an outsider (made explicit by the use ofLaignech, an ethnic label not found
anywhere else in Ireland).
Places with natural and carved stone impressions were sacred to the Celts. For
example, a Celtic chieftain-to-be would step on a set of carved footprints to indicate his
rise to power, and that he was a rightful ruler. Stone impressions of footprints were
reinterpreted by Christians as marks left by the saints, still retaining the pagan Celtic
belief in the sanctity of such marks. If Coscrachs father really was a bishop, then it is
possible that Coscrach gained a prominent position in the church as well.
Because Celtic Christian clergy positions were drawn from high power positions
in the pagan community, there are multiple occurrences all around the Celtic world of
saints footprint stones commemorating a great act. These footprint stones exist in all
Celtic lands (Pennick 1996). There is a set of footprints carved near a chapel of Keil,
between Dunaverty Bay and Carskey in Kintyre, Ireland at a place that is reputed to have
been where St Columa first landed in Dalriada (Pennick 1996). At another location, on a
rock on the east end of Hollyhead Church in Anglesey, Wales is a single footprint that is
said to be of St. Cybi (Pennick 1996). There were also stone footprints of St. lann found
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on a boulder near St. lanns Well at Coolineagh, County Cork (Pennick 1996).
In addition to footprints, body prints, knee prints, and handprints have been found
in natural stone. Knee marks of a saint have been found on a flat rock in the River Ceri.
In fact, St. Gwredfyw had a rock chair, bed, and knee prints dedicated to him at
Llanllyfni, Ireland. Other rocks have his thumbprint and the hoof prints of his royal
horses. The hoof prints are telling because royal horses were sacred to the Celtic goddess
Epona. The pagan Celts were well-known for their representations of animals on both
their artifacts and in their mythology and horses were especially favored as noble
creatures. It appears that some regard for animal representation had remained into the
Christian period (Pennick 1996).
A cross-slab depicting a cross with inscriptions indicative of family relationships
was found in Teampall Seanin, St. Senans Church, County Clare, Ireland. The Celts
had a tradition of adopting foster parents in addition to ones own parents who would
then teach the child a trade or skill and were thus greatly respected by the foster child.
This is similar to the tradition of godparents in Christianity. The stone is incised with a
Latin cross made from a two-stranded interlace design ending in triquetra knots at each of
the crosss terminals. The first text reads, a prayer for Monach and the second, a
prayer for Menach tutor of Mogrn. Most people commemorated on slabs were
identified only by their given name. The few that indicate relationship are written as
being sons or grandsons of certain named people. This stone from Scattery Island is
exceptional in that it identifies a person with a foster relationship. The mention of this
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foster relationship found on the Scattery Island slab could indicate an echo of that ancient
Celtic view of the important bond between a teacher and student; between a foster child
and foster parent.
Christian Celts continued the pagan practice of hanging treasures in trees. For
instance, a traveling priest would hang his belongings in a tree before he slept, so that the
tree would protect him physically and the trees spirit would be honored by the sacred
objects hanging in them. The sacristy of trees was recognized by the Christians and
somewhat incorporated into other ceremonies. For example, weddings were often held
under trees (Pennick 1996). Celtic pagans placed stones on cairns, which were human
made piles of stones, usually on top of hills. This practice was akin to leaving a part of
yourself. Cairns, which are usually at the top of hills, became resting places for Christian
pilgrims, who carried on the tradition through the Christian practice of placing small
stones on tombs and dry stone altars (called leachta). Ancient leachta in Irish Celtic
monasteries hold large pebbles, some of which are carved with sacred sigils (Pennick
1996). These stones were left to carry the prayers of the people who left them or as a
votive offering (Pennick 1996). The Priests Grave is a cairn near St Buonias Well at
Killabuoria in County Kerry that was frequently honored by pilgrims (Pennick 1996).
Celtic monks would also worship in rivers, lakes and under waterfalls,
perpetuating the pagan belief that water is holy. Water was sacred and offerings would be
thrown into natural water sources for the many gods and goddesses of the lakes and
rivers. The site of Llyn Cerrig Bach, for example, contains 150 ritually deposited objects
(mostly martial in nature) within a marsh that used to be a lake (Green 1994). Lakes and
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rivers were thought of as places of healing. Almost every Irish, British, French tradition
has a holy well named after one or more of their saints. Its clear that many of the holy
wells existed well before the introduction of Christianity into the Celtic lands. Renaming
these holy wells was a monotheistic reinterpretation of the spirit that dwells within and
guards the (often) healing waters (Pennick 1996:68). These wells were usually natural
springs that had buildings built over them for protection and into the Christian tradition,
many of them were still believed to contain healing properties. Some wells reputedly
sprang up when a saint was beheaded, such as the wells of St. Reina, St. Jutwara, St.
Ludd, St. Noyala, and St. Gwenfrewi (Pennick 1996).
Islands were especially sacred to the Celts because they were isolated from
unwanted influences of the mainland. Priests lived on islands because it was thought
that magic and evil spirits would not cross water. Because islands were so sacred they
would often serve as resting places or destinations for pilgrims (Green 1994). Some
islands contained many sacred loci, increasing the overall sacred power of the island.
Iona, for example, had a cathedral, oratories, high crosses, a holy hill, holy wells, a sacred
road, and a cemetery (Pennick 1996). Island monasteries, both major and minor, were not
uncommon. A classic example would be the remote site of Skellig Michael, Co. Kerry.
Some other examples include Irishmurray in Ireland and Priestholm off Anglesey in
Wales (Laing 1975). Promontories were sometimes utilized such as at St. Abbs Head,
Berwickshire and the Brough of Deerness, Orkney (Laing 1975). A number of chapel
sites in remote situations fit into the category of hermitages such as the chapel site on
Pygmies Isle off the coast of Lewis (Laing 1975).
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Celts believed that, if you were lucky enough and in the right state of mind at the
right time, you would see the fish jump out of a body of water which would then open
up the unconscious (Pennick 1996). Celts chose this symbol because of their association
of salmon with wisdom. In the Celtic myth ofCulhwch and Olwen, many different
animals were sought for information on where a man by the name of Mabon was located.
The last and oldest creature to be asked was a salmon and because he was the oldest and
wisest of the creatures, he was the only one able to give the location of the elusive Mabon
(Bellingham 1990).
This fish idea became the symbol for Christ as a fully realized human being in
Celtic Christianity (Wood 1998). In Christian tradition, a fish is the symbol that
represents Jesus because of the miracle that Jesus rendered when he produced enough
food for 5000 people from five loaves of bread and two fish. The initial letters of the
Greek phrase "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior" form the Greek word Ichthus, which
means fish. Objects dated as far back as the second century C.E. have been found bearing
this figure along with ICHTHS. This is a cipher for the Greek expression Iesous
CHristos THeou Yios Soter.
Mountains were also sacred to the Celts because they were close to the sun and
that was where sun worship would take place. Later, some of these mountains of light
were dedicated to St. Michael. In Christian cosmology, St. Michael is the sun, holding the
same position in a system of archangels as the sun holds within our planetary system.
Michaels Mount and Mont-Saint-Michel are two holy mountains that are unique in that
they are neither entirely in the sea nor on the land, since they are connected to the
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mainland by causeways that are passable only at low tide. During Celto-Roman times,
Mont-Saint-Michel was an island-mountain Celtic solar sanctuary called Dinsul or Belen
(Pennick 1996).
Even man-made elevation was important to Celts, such as man-made hills. This
might be connected to the elevation of Christian High Crosses on stone steps (Pennick
1996). There was a widespread custom in Celtic lands of building temporary hills to
celebrate the harvest festival of Lammas that occurred on August 1 (Pennick 1996). Often
a hole was left in the center of the hill to hold a flagstaff for a festival flag. Some Celtic
crosses today, such as Muiredach's High Cross (Sullivan 2008), can be found raised to
above-ground level on stone steps, which seem to reflect the Lammas hill tradition
(Pennick 1996).
Another place that was sacred to Celts were caves. These were mystical places
and were believed to lead to the Otherworld (Pennick 1996). The remains of early
monasticism still exist in some of those caves that are named after the saints who once
lived and/or worshipped there. In St. Ninians Cave near Whithorn, crosses can be seen
carved into the walls and there are several stone grave markers present (Pennick 1996).
Some other caves used by Celtic Christians include: St. Kierans Cave by Loch
Kilkerran, Cave of St. Moloe on Holy Island in the Clyde, and the cave at Caplawchy in
Fife in which St. Adrian and his followers lived (Pennick 1996). Before the widespread
use of temples, even Christian ceremonies were held in caves (Ellis 1985).
Celts thought West was the direction of the Otherworld. The Celtic Christians
continued this tradition, and many early Christian graves faced east west with their heads
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facing towards the west because it was the direction of the setting sun and the direction of
perfection. Graves oriented in such a way have been found at Ardnagross, Westmeath,
Ireland.
Many Christian saints were once worshiped as Druids and Celtic gods and
goddesses. The sun god Bel was meshed into Christianity with the worship of St.
Michael. Also, many Celtic places of worship were re-dedicated as Christian churches.
The traditions of Celtic ancestor worship can be said to continue within Christianity in
the worship of former saints.
Textual Evidence
The stunning manuscripts, which were created within a rather short period during
the seventh and eighth centuries A.D., could be considered the most magnificent pieces
of Insular Art. These manuscripts comprised the four New Testament Gospels in the
Latin Vulgate. Portraits of the evangelists and scenes from the life of Christ appeared at
various points in the text of the manuscripts (Wood 1998).
Many of the grave-slabs at monasteries contain decoration, which illustrates the
universal Celtism of the time. There was a striking similarity from the patterns,
characters, and decorations on the stones to those of Irish manuscripts of the sixth and
seventh centuries. Examples of these manuscripts would be the Gospels of St. Columba
and St. Ceadda and theBook of Kells and Armagh (Allcroft 1930).
The illustrative designs that were integrated throughout the text drew on both
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Celtic and Classical tradition. The Interlace patterns, which were often combined with
animal forms, reflected the spirals and shapes of La Tne carving, jewelry, and
metalwork of centuries earlier. The colors and forms of animals and human figures may
have been influenced by those found on Celtic enamel work of the later La Tne period.
The eternal knot is characteristic of Celtic book decoration. Its origins lay in the plait
motifs of the La Tne culture. For the Celtic Christians, the endless knot was an ideal
expression of the boundlessness of God. TheBook of Kells is perhaps the most
spectacular of the surviving Insular manuscripts (Wood 1998).
Early Christian tradition viewed a variety of creatures as symbols of Christ and
the evangelists. Given the Celts associations between divinity and metamorphosis, the
Irish manuscript artists had no trouble continuing this tradition of animal symbolism in
the context of Christian themes. An example would be the belief held by the Celts that
the flesh of the peacock was incorruptible, and thus the bird came to represent the eternal,
resurrected Christ. Similarly, the early Church associated the gospel writers with
heavenly creatures that appeared in the Bible. A man or an angel symbolized Matthew,
but the rest of the evangelists were all animals. Mark took the form of a lion, Luke was
symbolized as an ox, and an eagle represented John (Wood 1998).
Analysis
Celtic Christianity was a creolized religion because it took various elements,
including practices and artistic styles, from both Celtic paganism and Christianity and
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formed an amalgamated religion. Therefore, Christianity did not assimilate into Celtic
paganism or vice versa. Neither religion had to accept, resist, or adapt to one or the other
religion because it was amalgamated.
I believe that the amalgamated artifacts show that Christianity incorporated Celtic
practice and symbols and that this made the Celts comfortable enough to fully accept
Christianity.
A stone head found at a cemetery dedicated to a saint probably means that Celtic
Christians worshiped there, thus accepting Christianity but also amalgamating their Celtic
beliefs, traditions, gods, and practices in some forms.
The Celtic High Cross could be amalgamated in order to symbolize the
synchronized religion of Celtic Christianity. Thus, by taking artistic and symbolic images
from both Celtic paganism and Christianity, a new creolized symbol was formed
representing the new religion.
Christianity was flexible because it sought to incorporate many local religious
practices and traditions in order to be accepted within those various cultures. In many
cultures in Europe, Christianity was incorporated into the local folk religions thus
forming several different branches of Christianity. Many of these new religious branches
are the country-named ones we think of today. For example, when Christianity came to
various regions, it resulted in the formation of the Latin, Germanic, Greek, Russian and
Armenian churches. The mixing of Christian traditions with these pagan, folk traditions
resulted in religions such as Roman Catholicism, Irish Catholicism and Greek and
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Russian Orthodoxy. Thus, this flexibility lead to the great variety we see in Christianity
today. For example, the Russian Orthodox Church has a different calendar from most of
Christianity. Other sects of Christianity use the Gregorian and Julian calendars.
There are several holidays within the Christian calendar that have pagan
influences. In fact, Jehovahs Witnesses, although they are Christians, do not celebrate
any Christian holidays precisely because of these pagan influences. They aim to practice
a pure form of Christianity and therefore follow the Bible verbatim. For instance,
Christmas is the holiday with the most pagan influences. This holiday, which celebrates
Jesus birth, was moved from when it is believed he was born, October, to coincide with
the Yule and Winter Solstice. Yule is celebrated within the Celtic Pagan calendar from
December 20-23rd and Christmas is December 25th. During Yule, Celts gathered to
exchange presents in celebration of the Sun Child and his mother, marking the end of the
dark months and the beginning of the return of light. The burning of the Yule log would
bring good luck and banish evil spirits. Similairly Yule, the son (Jesus) and his mother
(Mary) are some of the main images at Christmas. Jesus has a halo, which can be seen as
the sun. And the Yule log has survived in the form of a traditional cake. The Christmas
tree relates to the Celtic belief of trees being sacred. And the hanging of ornaments on the
Christmas tree could be related to the hanging of sacred objects in trees in order to protect
them. December 25th was also the Roman celebration of the Sun God, Apollo. Numerous
Christmas traditions also were adapted from previous Greek and Roman religious and
cultural traditions.
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The second most amalgamated Christian holiday is Easter. The egg tradition
comes from the Celts and has nothing to do with Jesus resurrection. The name and date
of Easter come from a pagan feast commemorating the Spring sun and it takes place on
the first Sunday following the first full moon after the first day of Spring. Because it is in
Spring, Easter is connected to birth in the Celtic tradition creation stories, which show the
earth as an egg. This belief is akin to egg-laying creatures who lay their eggs and the
young emerges when they crack. Eggs were offered as sacrifices to appease the spirits
because they represented rejuvenation.
Conclusion
Celts accepted Christianity when Christianity accepted them. Continuity of pagan
practices through Celtic Christian traditions ensured that the old Celtic culture did not die
out with the advent of Christianity in Britain. Pagan Celtic art and beliefs intertwined
with Christian ones to form Celtic Christianity. Celtic Christianity left its mark in the
archaeological record in the form of monasteries, cemeteries, chapels, and inscribed
stones, as Christianity spread over Britain and Ireland. Christianity served to create a new
culture in Britain and Ireland that manifested itself in a unique combination of old Celtic
art and new Christian symbolism.
However, scholars have to be cautious when studying religion because it is
qualitative and because we can never know how similar religious experiences were to
those today. There is no way to extract the cognitive processes of members of the ancient
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religions.
In addition to the internal difficulties that exist in Celtic Studies today, there are
few places to study ancient Celtic tribal culture. Celtic Studies may be heavily studied in
Ireland and Catholic communities, but not so elsewhere. Celtic Archeology is not as
popular as Classical archeology, not as publicized, and certainly not as well represented
in museums. This is probably in part due to the limited number of artifacts and the
difficulties of interpreting second-hand sources for a civilization without a literary
tradition.
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