Abstract
This paper begins with a survey and presentation of the main insular monasteries in North-Western Europe during the Early Middle Ages, from the British Isles to the West of France (including Iona, Lindisfarne, Skellig Michael, Crowland, Noirmoutier and the Mont-Saint-Michel). Then, it shows how hagiography presents the islands like small wilderness areas that the sole presence of the holy men (and their disciples) tend to sanctify. But, precisely because of their reputation for holiness, some of them became important places of wealth, culture and power, which made them the main targets of Viking raids. The main consequence was that in the long run most of the early medieval insular monasteries disappeared from the map, and that, although the monks were able to save their spiritual treasures, i.e. their relics, their material riches were lost in the process.
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