Celtic Churches Research Articles

Auricular Confession: the Celtic Gift to the Church

Abstract This article traces the evolution of auricular confession from its origins in the spiritual diakresis in the early desert tradition and argues that through the Celtic churches of Northern Europe the practice is introduced into the Western Church culminating in the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. By developing the desert tradition of diakresis it will be argued that the Celtic system triumphed because of its stronger psychological verisimilitude compared to the Southern Mediterranean traditions of public one-off penance.

Northumbrian angels in Rome: religion and politics in the anecdote of St Gregory

The article examines the legend of Pope Gregory's encounter with boys – Angli – in a Roman market. The legend takes the form of an anecdote which dramatises Gregory's decision to launch a mission to Britain. It is argued that this oft-cited story had political resonance and that this is discernible in the early sources of the legend: the anonymous Vita S. Gregorii and Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. A new perspective is opened up by re-inserting the legend into the Northumbrian debates of the late seventh and early eighth centuries. By reading internal evidence with external contexts, the article establishes that the anecdote represents an attempt to revise the history of the conversion in Northumbria. This revision is intrinsically connected with a number of overlapping discourses: the stigma of the belated Northumbrian acceptance of Roman orthodoxy, the threat of the Celtic churches, monastic competition for primacy and status, and possibly dynastic rifts.

Nancy Edwards, ed., The Archaeology of the Early Medieval Celtic Churches. Proceedings of a Conference on the Archaeology of the Early Medieval Celtic Churches, September 2004. (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monographs, 29; The Society for Church Archaeology Monographs, 1.) Leeds: Maney, 2009. Pp. xii, 411; many black-and-white and color figures. $95. Distributed in North America by the David Brown

Nancy Edwards, ed., <i>The Archaeology of the Early Medieval Celtic Churches</i>. Proceedings of a Conference on the Archaeology of the Early Medieval Celtic Churches, September 2004. (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monographs, 29; The Society for Church Archaeology Monographs, 1.) Leeds: Maney, 2009. Pp. xii, 411; many black-and-white and color figures. $95. Distributed in North America by the David Brown

The Archaeology of the Early Medieval Celtic Churches Society for Medieval Archaeology/Society for Church Archaeology, Bangor, September 2004.

The Archaeology of the Early Medieval Celtic Churches <i>Society for Medieval Archaeology/Society for Church Archaeology, Bangor, September 2004.</i>

The British Isles and Great Moravia in the early middle ages

The work of the Irish or Iro-Scottish missioneries on the continent of Europe in the sixth to eighth centuries is well known. An attempt is made here to show how the characteristic design of early Celtic churches found its way partly via Bavaria, where for example the Irishman Virgil became bishop of Salzburg in the mid-eight century, into Moravia, along with other Iro-Scottish cultural influences, a century or so before the well-known Christianizing mission launched into that area from Byzantium by the two brothers SS Cyril and Methodius, in 863.

The Celtic Churches; A History A.D. 200-1200, by John T. McNeill

"The Celtic Churches; A History A.D. 200-1200, by John T. McNeill." Canadian Journal of History, 12(1), pp. 87–88

The Celtic Churches: A History, A. D. 200 to 1200

The Celtic Churches: A History, A. D. 200 to 1200

Book Review: The Celtic Churches: A History, A.D. 200 to 1200

Book Review: The Celtic Churches: A History, A.D. 200 to 1200

The Celtic Churches: A History, A.D. 200 to 1200

The Celtic Churches: A History, A.D. 200 to 1200

The Celtic Churches: A History, A.D. 200 to 1200

The Celtic Churches: A History, A.D. 200 to 1200

Rome and the Celtic ChurchesThe Celtic Church and the See of Peter. John Campbell MacNaught

Rome and the Celtic Churches<i>The Celtic Church and the See of Peter</i>. John Campbell MacNaught

CELTIC CHURCHES

CELTIC CHURCHES