Early Christian Ireland
Monasteries
Ainm:
Rang:
What are Monasteries?
•Monasteries were places where groups of men or women could live
together and worship God.
•The men were called monks and the women were called nuns.
•A monastery is sometimes called an 'abbey' or a 'priory'.
Monasteries for women are also sometimes called 'nunneries' or
'convents'.
The Earliest Monasteries in Ireland were probably made from wood
and therefore there is little evidence of their existance today.
However written histories of the time and archaeological evidence
has given us some indication of what life was like in these
monasteries.
The first Irish monks were hermits and lived in isolated places
e.g. Sceilg Mhicil and Inishmurray
The Skellig Islands, are 8 miles off the western coast of
County Kerry.
The are very isolated. They are also quite dangerous. The
paths are very thin and narrow on the island. Some
people have fallen off and died on these islands.
Life was difficult on the island.
They ate fish, sea-birds and whatever small crops they
were able to grow on the thin soils.
If the weather was good – some food and goods may have
come from the mainland
Task:
Imagine you are a monk living on Sceilig Michil
Write an account of your life…
Beehive huts
The monks on Sceilg Mhicil
lived in beehive huts.
The stones fit perfectly on
top of each other. Their
round shape also means
that rain flows off the
roof and walls.
Look at the photo
Why do you think the
doors are really small?
Irish monks and Missionary work Abroad
Columcille (521-597 A.D.)
was the Irish Monk who founded the monastery
on the Island of Iona off Scotland where the
Book of Kells was created, and converted the
pagan Northern Picts (Northern Scots) to
Christ.
He lived about 60 years after St. Patrick.
At the age of 44, Columcille left Ireland –
there are many different stories told as to
why Columcille left Ireland - and founded the
monastery on Iona (563-5 A.D.). It was a base
from which he would bring to Christianity the
Northern Picts of Scotland. It became the
place where the Scottish Kings received final
interment. 100 years later Iona's ninth Abbot,
Adomnan, would write a book called:
Life of St. Columba.
Early Christian Stone Crosses in Ireland
Monks carved and decorated stone crosses at many monastic sites.
Earliest examples were just stone slabs and later the stones have arms
with a circle surrounding the arms
The High Cross was virtually a sermon in stone,
It is covered in carvings of stories and scenes from the
bible.
The circle is the main shape used on a high cross
When high crosses were being made people could not
read, in fact there really weren’t any books.
Manuscripts took a long time to write and they were
expensive to make, besides ordinary people couldn’t read
them!
So the pictures carved on the high crosses helped them
to learn about God. They are like books or even the
internet! Maybe Facebook
1.
2.
3.
5.
4.
1.
Clonfert, Co. Offaly
2.
Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly
3.
Faheen, Co. Kilkenny
4.
Kells, Co. Meath
5.
Monasterboice, Co Louth
The Ardagh Chalice is made of
silver and
dates from around the 8th century. It
has two handles, held. It is decorated
with panels of gold filigree (these are
tiny threads of gold shaped carefully
into a design), There are red and blue
glass studs on the chalice. All
handmade!
The Apostles names are lightly
inscribed
below the filigree band, with the
exception of Judas.
It was discovered in the 1860s
by a boy digging for potatoes!
It is now housed in the National
Museum, Dublin.
Task: Using your drama skills,
divide into pairs – you are the
boy who found the Ardagh
Chalice how would you act it out?
The Tara brooch is a circle
of cast silver gilt covered
with sheets of gold foil, and
beautifully decorated with
beads, twisted and plaited
wires of gold, amber and
glass studs, there are
carvings of animals and
spirals.
Tara Brooch
All of this in a piece less
than 2inches in diameter!
It dates from the 8th
century approximately as
does the Ardagh Chalice.
The Tara Brooch is also kept
in the National Museum.
The Book of Kells
Parts of pages from the book
Manuscript pages were made from
vellum or treated calf skins.
680 individual pages (340 folios) have
survived,
As many as ten different colours
were used. Some of them rare and
expensive dyes that had to be
imported from the continent. The
workmanship is so fine that some of
the details can only be clearly seen
with a magnifying glass.
Some of the best preserved manuscripts of the 8th and 9th
centuries are kept in the library of Trinity College in Dublin.
Task: Do a survey of your classroom or household – what do
they know about the Book of Kells?
Did you know: The town of Kells wants the Book of Kells to
return to the town! But Trinity College have said no!!
What do you think about this?
The Book of Durrow was written in
about AD 675. It is one of the
earliest manuscripts to have a carpet
page, that is a page completely
covered in pattern and colour.
It disappeared from the Abbey in
the 16th century but luckily was
found again!
A farmer was using it to pour water
on it to cure his cattle!
Task: write a newspaper article
about the discovery of the
Book of Durrow!
These are two designs of
interlocking animals from
the book of Kells. It took
the monks a long time to
create these designs and
make sure that they looked
perfect. It took years to
train a monk before he
could work on real
manuscritps
Draw your own High Cross here.
Tell a story of your choice
4.
3.
2.
1.
St. Enda, Aran Islands, Co. Galway
St. Patrick, Armagh, Co. Armagh
St. Brigid, Kildare, Co. Kildare
St. Ciarán, Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly
St. Kevin, Glendalough Co Wicklow
Can you find these monastery locations in your atlas and
put them onto this map? Mark the number
5.