Mystery of the Missing Irish Monasteries

I recently purchased the Folio Society edition of Christopher Brooke’s The Rise and Fall of the Medieval Monastery (it’s a beautiful book, so if you don’t already have it, you’ll want it. But do like me and locate a used copy, although you may have to be patient — they’re hard to come by). My copy arrived today, and in between oohing and aahing at all the lovely illustrations, I noticed something very mysterious indeed. On the inside covers is a hand-drawn map of the “Monastic Sites of Europe.” Presumably, of course, this refers to medieval monasteries, given the scope of the book; most of the foundations seem to be clustered in Italy, France and Britain. What confounds me is that only three monasteries are depicted in Ireland: Bangor, Mellifont, and Durrow.

What?!?!

By any calculation, far, far more than three monasteries flourished in medieval Ireland. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Irish history or Celtic Christianity will recognize names like Clonmacnoise… Glendalough… Inishmurray… Kells… Kildare… Kilmacduagh… Skellig Michael. Many lesser known foundations existed in the middle ages, as well; one indicator is the prevalence of Irish round towers, which were often built at monasteries (and over 50 of which remain in existence today).

So if Ireland clearly was the home to so many monasteries in centuries past, why does a book on medieval European monasticism only show three foundations on its map? (more…)

September 5, 2007 | Categories: Celtic Christianity, Ireland, monasticism | 2 Comments »