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Pulpit Bible, The Parish Church of St.Mary the Virgin, Holy Island
© Courtesy of Ian Britton, freefoto.com
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The Irish mission to Northumbria |
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The Irish Impact
We cannot quantify the numbers of Irish monks involved. However, it was they who effectively evangelised Northumbria, and this led to Irish Christian influence having a major impact on England. Of course, Northumbria would in time have been converted to Christianity in any case, presumably by continental missionaries; but the end result would have been different. 
Boat moored off Holy Island |
Irish Christian practices were in some ways better adapted to barbarian society than Roman ones were. For instance, the Irish paid no attention to the ruins of Roman towns, and instead founded monasteries in the countryside as the bases from which Christian bishops could operate. This suited the rural-based society of the Anglo-Saxons. Again, the Irish had a zest for learning and experience of bringing Christianity to people for whom Latin was a foreign language; and these were amongst the factors which led to Northumbrians mastering Latin so that they could compose their own works in it. The greatest of these was The Ecclesiastical History of the English People written by Bede, a monk of Jarrow, in the early Eighth Century.
Sunset on Holy Island |
The impact of these interchanges between monks from different areas can be seen in the spheres of script and art. The script which the Irish taught the Anglo-Saxons became in time the common working script for all England. In the artistic sphere, the curvilinear decoration typical of the Celts intermingled with Germanic animal ornament and with motifs like the vine-scroll and author portrait which originated in the Mediterranean world. Northumbria was one crucial locus for this cultural interchange, and the Lindisfarne Gospels (early Eighth Century) one of its finest achievements.
Words: Dr Clare Stancliffe
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