from paganism to christianity 3 3 te

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From Paganism to Christianity

Abstract

From the third century A.D., when the first visible signs of Christianity in the

British Isles appeared, until the Middle Ages, when the Christian Church replaced Celtic

Religion, Celts most readily accepted Christianity when Christianity adapted to their

beliefs, practices, and symbols. Creolization and concepts within cognitive archeology

provide the most useful theoretical frameworks for understanding how pagan Celtic art

and beliefs intertwined with imported Christianity to form a Celtic version of

Christianity. However, scholars must be cautious about historical and personal

subjectivity when interpreting ancient artifacts and particularly careful when using

experience as an analytical tool when studying religion. Despite the many challenges,

archeologists and historians have been able to learn about this ancient society through the

study of amalgamated artifacts and second hand historical sources that describe the

integration of religious practices.

Timeline55 B.C.-Caesar attempted to invade Britain but had to withdraw54 B.C.-Successful invasion of Britain, but withdrew43 A.D.-Roman invasion of Southwest Britain63 A.D.- Joseph of Arimathia is said to have visited Britain to convert its inhabitants75-77 A.D.-Roman conquest complete312 A.D.- Christianity official religion of Britain and the Roman Empire410 A.D.-Last Romans leave431 A.D.- Christianity is accepted in Ireland596 A.D.-Gregorian Mission (or 600 A.D).- Christianity takes over in Ireland1100 A.D.-Christian Church gains dominance over Celtic Religions

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Introduction

Contact between Christianity and Insular Celtic paganism were initiated before

the declaration of Christianity as the official religion of England in 312 A.D. The

Gregorian Mission in 596 A.D, which decreed conversion of all pagans to Christianity, as

well as the Christian take-over of Ireland by 600 A.D., accelerated the rise of

Christianity. Finally, the Christian Church gained control over the Celtic religion by

1100 A.D (Allen 2004). These centuries of tension and adaptation provide the evidence

for the interaction of Christianity and Celtic religions, but one must use caution when

examining Celtic religion because of potentially biased evidence. For example, since the

Celts did not have a literary tradition, their history is especially subjected to bias.

Historians struggle with bias in second-hand sources, which were mainly by Greek and

Roman writers, the colonizers. Colonizers often believe that they and their cultural

practices are superior to the colonized culture. Thus, if Christians, or Roman or Greek

pagans as the case may be, are writing about Celtic paganism, they might portray the

religion as inferior as well as the people who practice it as barbarians and savages

(Baumiester 1990). The archeological record is also biased, in that it proves difficult to

interpret an ancient people through their artifacts, especially religious artifacts (Sharf

1998). There is danger of interpreting ancient artifacts subjectively, both though

historical subjectivity and an individuals personal subjectivity. These studies create a

challenge in examining the influences of Christianity on Celtic paganism. However, both

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archeological and historical evidence show that Celtic pagans accepted Christianity. This

is seen through the archeological record in the form of artifacts that borrow from both

religions and historical records relating accounts of practices incorporated into Celtic

Christianity.

Theoretical Framework

Interactions between Christianity and Insular Celtic paganism can be analyzed

using both the anthropological theory of creolization and concepts from the subfield of

cognitive archeology. However, when implementing these approaches, one must be

cautious of subjective and other types of bias and the challenges that exist when using

experience as an analytical tool in examining religion (Sharf 1998).

The term creolization originated within linguistic anthropology to describe the

effects of merging two languages together to form a new language. It has recently also

been used within other fields of anthropology, including archeology, with respect to

culture. This concept can then be extended to the cultural aspect of religion. For example,

Celtic paganism and Christianity intertwined to create Celtic Christianity (Webster 2001).

This is different from acculturation because an entirely new culture is created, instead of

merely having a reaction to the invading culture, whether that is resistance, acceptance, or

adaptation (Redfield 1936). Creolization often occurs on frontiers. A frontier is the land

or territory that forms the furthest extent of a country's settled or inhabited regions. When

studying these regions, scholars examine the culture that has grown up within them.

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Many cultures on the frontier either forgo their culture in favor of another or incorporate

elements of the invading culture into their own. I will show here that creolization is an

appropriate concept for this case study, as Celtic paganism incorporated the invading

religion of Christianity (McCarthy 2005).

The subfield of cognitive archeology attempts to psychoanalyze past societies by

way of interpreting the meanings of artifacts, such as symbols, in order to understand the

interactions of those artifacts and symbols. Each society employs symbolic images as

social tools to either signify meaning or explain concepts of the societies natural and

cultural environment (Renfew 2008). For example, each letter of the alphabet signifies a

sound which, when combined into words, sentences and paragraphs, symbolize language

and convey intellectual meaning. In some cultures, such as Mayan culture as well as

those of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, writing started as pictorial symbols of natural

phenomena, animals, food, plant life and artifacts. These are known as hieroglyphs and

are the meaningful precursors to the arbitrary symbolic letters, which only signify

meaning when they come together (Wilson 2003).

Further subfields of cognitive archeology include those that examine purposeful

design, concepts of schedules and time including those that represent the forethought of

planning them out, and measurement in terms of devices and units. Other subfields

examine social relations to structure and regulation of inter-personal behavior; symbols

that explain the supernatural and that represent relations between humans and gods, and

iconic embodiments of reality (Renfew 2008). For example, measuring devices were

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found in the town of Mohenjo-Daro, part of the Indus Valley, in what is now part of

Pakistan. The Indus Valley was then home to the Harappan civilization, which lasted

from 3000 to 1500 B.C. These weights were stone blocks from 2,000 B.C thought to be

used for the measurement of goods in manufacture and trade. Each block is a multiple

weight of the last. Thus, one stone weighs one ounce, the next three ounces and the next

nine ounces. This indicates that the Harappan civilization understood the concept that

things could be measured, how to measure, and that objects have a constant weight and

the multiplicative rule (Miller 1985).

One challenge of the approach of cognitive archeology is that archeologists have

to be mindful not to be subjective in their interpretations. This difficulty arises because

each individual is inherently subjective, interpreting his or her environment through the

lenses of his or her own language, cultural background, and personal experiences in

social and personal contexts. Because of this potential bias, archeologists must not

assume that their way of conceptualizing religious experiences is the only correct way

(McGee 2008).

In addition to the challenges of cognitive archeology and the difficulty in

overcoming ones own tendency for subjective analysis, archeologists must also be

cautious about other potentially bias factors influencing their interpretations. For

example, Kristen Gremillion, an archeologist and paleoenthnobotanist at Ohio State

University, points out that archeologists do not always look at historical evidence and

historians do not always look at archeological data. Since these scholars are not experts in

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each others disciplines, they lack the knowledge to interpret data from the other

discipline. This creates an informational bias that denies the public a coherent picture

(Gremillion 2002).

Another problem is that of religious interpretation. Many historians do not attempt

to interpret the thoughts of people who did not leave written documents. The result is

biased texts. Religious scholar Robert Sharf argues that the study of ancient religions is

difficult because the often-used, elusive term experience puts emphasis on the personal,

subjective and private. These elements are emphasized instead of the objective and

empirical when attempting to extract an individual or groups personal religious

experiences. Therefore these experiences are too subjective to be analyzed. Even when

texts are available, it is impossible to know exactly what experiences were like because

the experiences of the participant and observer are too different; scholars cannot know

what an experience is like without having undergone it themselves. Experience can have

different interpretations depending on the situation as well as different definitions across

cultures (Sharf thinks that religious experience is a Western construct). Therefore we

cannot subjectively interpret the experience of other cultures, but have to understand their

worldview and what experience means to them. Even if we forgo the objective

definition and merely look at religious experience, the concepts are too broad. Instead,

we have to differentiate between ritualistic experience and mythical experience (Sharf

1998). Even so, many scholars use indirect data to try to understand experience, even

though there is debate as to whether experience should be used as an analytical tool

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(Sharf 1998).

In this paper, I will show that the pagan Celts readily accepted Christianity as

seen through the adoption of Celtic religious practices, traditions and incorporation of

symbols, artistic styles and concepts artifacts.

Background

The Celts

The term Celts encompasses many different people and tribes that can be

traced back at least twenty-five centuries, well before literate societies existed north of

the Alps. These tribes were loosely connected by language, art, culture and religion

(James 1993). Most historians agree that the Celtic culture can be definitively traced back

to about 800 B.C, the start of the first Celtic period, known as the Hallstat period (Wood

1998). It is widely accepted that during the Hallstat period, the Celts were located in

areas from the Balkans to present-day southern Germany. They later moved across

Europe and spread throughout Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Turkey, as well as

Ireland and England by 300 A.D (Wood 1998). However, Peter Berresford Ellia, one

well-known historian and authority on the Celts, believes that they immigrated to

England between 2000 and no later than 1000 B.C. (Ellis 1985).

One of the earliest uses of the term Celt was in a poem, Ora Maritima, written

by the Latin writer Rufus Festus Avienus in the late fourth century B.C (Cunliffe 1997).

Greeks called the Celts bothKeltoi and Galatae while theRomans called them Celte and

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Galli (James 1993). Rufus Festus Avienus quoted the merchants handbook,Massilliot

Periplus, which described sea routes around Iron Age Europe. Thought to date back to

600 B.C, it referenced a land with a people called the Celts (Cunliffe 1997).

According to Simon James, a professor of archeology and ancient history at the

University of Leicester, Celtic lands were well populated and farmed, with smatterings of

settlements, forts, and shrines. Societies consisted of small territorially based sub-tribes

known aspagi. These were essentially kin-groups and their dependents and followers,

such as slaves. Even though there was slavery, there was not as much as in the Classical

world, and slaves might have had the most value as exports. Pagi were made up of a king

or chief, warrior nobility, and men of art who included craftsmen, seers, bards and druids.

Priests of their day, druids played a great role in society, connecting people to other tribal

communities, the gods and the dead as well as keeping an oral history of settlements. The

bards would sing the praises of the nobility. Artisans were important not only because

they made tools and everyday objects, but because they would also make the clothing and

jewelry worn by nobility. The archeological record shows that Celts must have been very

advanced in the technological and artistic aspects of metalwork due to the intricacy of

their metal objects (James 1993). Although Celtic society was very patriarchal, there

were women warriors and marriage was more of a partnership than a transfer of power

over the woman from father to husband (James 1993).

The Celts, a war-like tribal people, often fought amongst themselves. Because

they feared attacks by neighboring tribes, they never built roads, which seriously

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hampered trade (Zweifel 2000). Thus, according to Mike McCarthy, an archeologist at

Oxford University in England, before the mid-first century A.D., manufacturing was

most likely on a small scale and an as-needed basis, for there is no evidence of large

production sites. However, there is evidence of trade of essential goods such as sea-salt in

northeast England, which implies that there were probably trade networks in northwest

England as well as southeast Scotland. Celts used a barter system, bartering goods and

gifts, calculating their wealth in livestock, particularly cows. Caesar suggested that

Northern trades routes were controlled by very powerful sea-faring Celts called Venetti.

(McCarthy 2005).

Even though it is unclear that there were trade networks in the North, in southern

England contacts with the Mediterranean world existed and continued throughout the

Iron Age. In the first century B.C., England belonged to the trade routes that stretched

from Roman provinces to Gaul, trading wine as evidenced by glass and wine amphorae

found near the Thames. However, despite these contacts, Britain was largely an unknown

land, which was self-sufficient. (James 1993).

Religion

Although most of our knowledge of the Celts comes from biased Greek and

Roman writers, it is clearly an unbiased fact that Celtic life centered on the polytheistic

religion of the Mother Goddess (Webster Graham 1986). Celtic gods and goddesses were

subject to the same types of trials and tribulations as ordinary people and thus were not

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natural features such as lakes, groves or springs. Celtic rituals were largely based on both

nature and the passage of time in nature such as the transition between day and night.

This concept of natural change was also seen in the importance of transitions between the

seasons, which also represented changes within the human life cycle. Spring represented

birth, summer represented maturity, autumn represented decay and winter represented

death and re-birth into a new generation (James 1993).

According to Greek writers, the Druidic order was already in place by 200 B.C.

druids preformed religious practices, which included sacrifice and had the power to ban

people from these practices. Banishment from sacrifice was the greatest punishment the

Druids could deliver because that meant the individual was no longer in favor with the

gods. Thus, druids were so powerful that it was considered taboo to attack them. Even in

a warrior society where all tribes were constantly on edge for fear of attack, druids could

travel from village to village unharmed (Ross 1967). They were also magicians, as well

as bards, scientists and intermediaries between the gods, goddesses and mortals because

they knew the secrets of the gods (Green 1986).

Druids taught that death was not to be feared because it is merely a changing of

place and that one would automatically be re-born into an afterlife, which explains why

Celtic warriors had no fear of death (Ross 1967). Celts did not have strict borders

between the realms of the living and the dead. They believed that a constant exchange of

souls took place between the two worlds so that when someone died in the other world, it

would bring a soul to this world (Ellis 1985). These borders seem to have disappeared

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altogether at certain festivals (McNeill 1974). The Celtic belief in an afterlife is apparent

in looking at elaborate grave goods, such as those La Tne style artifacts found at the

Fermanagh passage tomb burial (Foley 1988). These grave goods were to be used and

enjoyed by the dead in the afterlife (Lloyd 2006).

Transition

Christianity comes to the British Isles

Christianity came to England with Roman military administrators both before and

after it became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 312 A.D. (Davies 1999). The

first visible signs of Christianity in the British Isles appeared in the early third century

A.D. However, there are not many Christian artifacts from that period, and this is thought

to be because many Romans continued to worship the Roman pagan gods to which they

were accustomed. Among the few conspicuous marks of Christianity during this time

may be the destruction of a Mithraic temple, which had been carried out because some

aspects of the cult were taken to be blasphemous imitations of Christian rituals (Muir and

Welfare 1983).

Christianity continued to spread with the help of St. Patricks mission, which

established the religion in Ireland in 413 A.D. This Catholic mission lasted about 40

years and is the origin of St. Patricks Day and root of Irish Catholicism as a major

Christian sect (Muir and Welfare 1983). Thus, Christianity extinguished the power of the

Irish Druids. This take-over was accelerated by legends of St. Patrick, which recounted

how his powers overwhelmed those of his Druidic opponents (McNeill 1974). Even

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though St. Patrick was key in establishing Christianity in Ireland, it is reasonable to

suppose that such a community of believers evolved through contact with the Celtic

Church of Western Britain prior to the missionary activity of Patrick (Davies 1999).

Similar Celtic and Christian Beliefs

There were several reasons for Christianitys eventual acceptance into Celtic

society. One reason was the concept of the Christian Godhead being a Trinity, or three

persons in one God. The fact that the Christian God took three separate forms, which

were the Father (creator), Son (savior), and Holy Spirit (sanctifier), was also a concept

familiar to the Celts since their own deities took different forms depending on their

functions (Lloyd 2006).

The doctrine of immortality taught by the Christians was also similar to that of the

Celts. The Celtic gods and goddesses were immortal and the pagan Celtic religion was

one of the first to develop a doctrine of immortality (Ellis 1985). Christianity taught that

God was eternal and Christs promise of eternal life to all believers was readily accepted

by the Celts because they were already used to the idea of an afterlife.

Celtic Practices incorporated into Christianity

The coming of Christianity was not an abrupt change for the Celts (Pennick

1996). In fact, I argue that the incorporation and recognition of pagan practices in

Christianity made it much easier for Celts to accept the new religion because of the

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abundant evidence of a creolized Celtic Christianity. For instance, Christian sites of

worship were built recognizing Celtic place-souls (Pennick 1996). Celts believed that

the land was a living entity and that each location had a place-soul oranima loci, a

personality. Many early members of the Celtic Christian Church were druids. In one of

the earliest saintLives, St. Illtyd is referred to as a druid by descent. (Ellis 1985:82).

Irish monastic Christian schools were built on the sites of Druidic bardic schools

in Ireland (Ellis 1985). The mingling of Christian, Celtic, and Classical civilization,

which is now referred to as the Insular culture, remains a powerful force in European art

and learning (Wood 1998).

Many Celtic images can be found at Christian sites. For example, the stone head

of an antlered deity, probably Cernunnos, was found at a cemetery dedicated to St.

Fergus on the island of Inishkeen in Upper Lough Erne, Ireland (Pennick 1996). Another

Celtic deitys image: a Janus figure with a stoup or basin for holy water positioned

between the heads was found in the churchyard of Caldragh, on Boa Island near the north

shore of Lower Lough Erne, in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland (Pennick 1996).

Further evidence survives in a Tau cross with faces on the upper side in the traditional

pagan Celtic style at Rougham in County Clare (Pennick 1996).

Another image that was adopted by Christianity was the Celtic High Cross, a pre-

Christian symbol, which was later amalgamated with the Christian crucifix (Sullivan

2008). The High Celtic Cross is perhaps the best example of the link between pagan

Celtic and Christian traditions. During the Hallstatt period, the continental Celts set up

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symbolic stones that appear to have been the forerunners of the later insular Celtic

crosses (Pennick 1996). Some of these crosses were made in a humanoid form that

resembles older representations of the Celtic Great Goddess. The head portions have the

x-pattern seen on later Cornish stone crosses, but date to almost a thousand years before

the adoption of the cross as a Christian symbol.

The form of the cross had geomantic (divination by lines and figures)

connotations for the Celts before it was ever adopted as a Christian symbol (Ellis 1985).

There is a pillar-cross from the Hallstatt period in Kilchberg, near Tbingen in south

Germany that closely resembles many of the later crosses of Cornwall and Ireland (Ellis

1985). Crosses exist in the diaper-carved work of Celtic memorials of the La Tne period,

characterized by intricate knot and interlace designs. A fragment from Steinenbronn

contains patterns that show up later in Irish Christian manuscripts and church carvings

(Ellis 1985).

Megaliths were often Christianized in the early days of the Church by being

marked with crosses. Some Ogham (a native Irish alphabet) stones were reused as

Christian gravestones, such as those at Port St. Mary on the Isle of Man (Archaeology

Data Service: The Cronk 2007). TheLife of St. Samson tells of how he carved crosses

into a pagan stone at Tregeare (Ellis 1985). At Bridell in Dyfed, there is a ninth century

A.D. cross that has been carved onto an earlier Ogham-inscribed standing stone (Ellis

1985).

Peter Berresford Ellis offers an interesting interpretation of the continuity of the

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Celtic Cross from pagan to Christian times:

In its fully developed form, the wheel-headed Celtic high cross is a version of the

worlds axis. It stands on a foursquare pyramidal base representing the world-

mountain whose roots are buried in the earth. From the center of this arises the shaft,

the axis proper. Close to the top is the Celtic cross itself. It is a sunwheel, reproducing

a natural phenomenon observed occasionally in the skies when the suns light,

shining through ice crystals, is diffracted into a cross-and circle pattern. At the center

of the wheel is Christ, the cosmic man. A house-like form, the hall of heaven, the

abode of God, which resembles a Celtic reliquary, tops the cross (Ellis 1985: 49).

The cross base, in addition to representing the world-mountain, could also relate to the

Lammas Hill tradition of the pagan Celts. The axis of the cross, then, could represent the

flagstaff that usually was placed at the center of the Lammas Hill. Several pre-Christian

carvings depicting the sunwheel exist among pagan Celtic material culture. It has also

been hypothesized that the circle represents the Celtic torc, a symbol of authority and

power. The Christian interpretation is that the circle is a halo, like those depicted in the

Irish manuscripts. The world-mountain base, the axis, and the sunwheel were holdovers

from the pagan Celtic beliefs and iconography, while the Christ at the middle and the hall

of heaven at the top was added to the cross to form what we now recognize as the

Christian Celtic Cross.

The continuation of the use of Ogham, a native Irish alphabet that was composed

of sets of short lines that stood for letters, in the Christian Celtic Church is another

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example of amalgamation. These lines were either drawn up to a base line or crossed it,

and those found on upright pillar stones were usually carved horizontally. It has been

argued that the first inscriptions were carved in a language that was no longer spoken

during the time of its use and that it was a religious language that had been used by the

druids (Ellis 1985). Early Christian symbols such as the Chi-Rho monograms (of the

name of Christ) and theDextera Dei ("Right hand of God"), appear at some sites together

with the Ogham texts. There are 215 Ogham inscriptions in Ireland and 48 in England

and Wales (Ellis 1985). Many Ogham stones exist within Christians sites, such as the

early Christian site of Templemanaghan, containing an oratory, various standing-stones,

an ogham stone, and a burial ground and dating between the fifth and seventh centuries

A.D. (Ketchum 2005).

Most early Christian cemeteries were circular and preceded any buildings such as

churches or monasteries because early Christians, like the pagans, did not require a

building in which to worship, but merely a place to worship. Pagan Celts usually chose

places near a grave, or near an image of a grave, and the Celtic Christians continued this

practice. Celtic Christians also worshipped in stone circles that were called churches both

in Gaelic and Lowland Scots languages, even though there werent actual buildings

constructed there. It is very possible that the early missionaries chose the rings of

standing stones as places of worship precisely because the pagan inhabitants of the region

had also assembled there for ceremonial purposes. According to A. Hadrian Allcroft,

Many ancient churches occupy precisely those sites, which would naturally be

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selected for barrows or burial mounds, and in very many cases it is yet possible to see

beneath them the swell of an original barrow. The words hlaw and howe, elements in

a long list of English parish-names point to the fact that the churches of these parishes

are actually reared on barrows. Names like Kirkbergh, Kirkbarrow, and Chapel-le-

How tell the same story, as probably do many names in bury, andborough (beorh,

a barrow). (Allcroft 1930:II:254). Circular sepulchral monuments ringworks,

cromlechs, and barrows were called kirk and church because the original circ

was a circular place of burial. (Allcroft 1930:II:276).

It should be noted that there was at least one difference between the way pagan and

Christian Celts treated their dead. The pagans generally made their burial-places a rather

large distance from the dwellings of the living. They visited the dead regularly at certain

seasons and celebrated their memories with feasts and games, but otherwise kept their

distance from these places of burial (Allcroft 1930:II). The new tradition that Christianity

brought in was its tendency to share quite close quarters with the dead. The Christian

Celts celebrated the memories of the dead with daily ritual and built their temples

amongst the tombs (Allcroft 1930:II).

Over and over again, pre-Christian burials have been found beneath old churches

and churchyards. There is a rather long list of churches that stand on or beside grave

barrows. Excavations and documentary evidence such as the Capitularies, a royal

ordinance under the Merovingian dynasty, have shown that for a long time Christians

continued to bury their dead within the pagan barrows. For example, at Fimber, near

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Sledmere, an excavation revealed internments extending through the Bronze Age, Roman

period, and Saxon period (Allcroft 1930:II). A churchyard was later built over these

burials and a church was constructed over the barrow. Another example can be found in

Sligo County, Ireland, where a Christian cemetery surrounds two pre-Christian cairns

(Mount 1994). Excavations have also revealed Christian ornaments among pagan grave-

furniture in Saxon cemeteries (Allcroft 1930:II). This practice of churches and

churchyards being built on top of graves situated in the pagan barrows continued for

some time. Pagan grave furniture can sometimes be found within these graves and

graves of the Anglo-Saxon Period (Allcroft 1930).

The Celtic barrow circle was a symbol of mortality, and contained the graves of

the Celtic dead. Oratories, the pre-cursors of churches, were later built on these barrows.

Because they were placed on burial sites, a church became more sacred the more burials

there were in a site (Allcroft 1930). Early Christian churches were built on the

foundations of sacred circular henges and not rectangular foundations like the Roman

churches such as Knowlton Church in England (English Heritage 2007). An excavation

of Alphamstone in Essex revealed that the church was constructed on a pagan stone circle

and urns and the remains of sepultures were found nearby. Stone and bronze burial

objects have been unearthed at many similar churchyard sites (Allcroft 1930).

Other artifacts that connect these religions are found in County Claire, Ireland.

For instance, a large cross-slab, found in a graveyardnear the chancel of St. Caimins

Church, depicts a cross with two footprints. It is a ringed Latin cross carved in false relief

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with semi-circular expansions at the terminals and two petals forming the bottom of the

cross. The outlines of two shod footprints are incised to the right of the cross, one above

the other. The text (Irish) reads Coscrach Laignech (Cosgrach the Leinsterman), who

might be identified as the son of Angid and Bishop of Killaloe, who died in 1038. It has

been suggested that the footprints indicate that the person commemorated died while on a

pilgrimage to the island on which the monument was found. The prints may represent his

status as an outsider (made explicit by the use ofLaignech, an ethnic label not found

anywhere else in Ireland).

Places with natural and carved stone impressions were sacred to the Celts. For

example, a Celtic chieftain-to-be would step on a set of carved footprints to indicate his

rise to power, and that he was a rightful ruler. Stone impressions of footprints were

reinterpreted by Christians as marks left by the saints, still retaining the pagan Celtic

belief in the sanctity of such marks. If Coscrachs father really was a bishop, then it is

possible that Coscrach gained a prominent position in the church as well.

Because Celtic Christian clergy positions were drawn from high power positions

in the pagan community, there are multiple occurrences all around the Celtic world of

saints footprint stones commemorating a great act. These footprint stones exist in all

Celtic lands (Pennick 1996). There is a set of footprints carved near a chapel of Keil,

between Dunaverty Bay and Carskey in Kintyre, Ireland at a place that is reputed to have

been where St Columa first landed in Dalriada (Pennick 1996). At another location, on a

rock on the east end of Hollyhead Church in Anglesey, Wales is a single footprint that is

said to be of St. Cybi (Pennick 1996). There were also stone footprints of St. lann found

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on a boulder near St. lanns Well at Coolineagh, County Cork (Pennick 1996).

In addition to footprints, body prints, knee prints, and handprints have been found

in natural stone. Knee marks of a saint have been found on a flat rock in the River Ceri.

In fact, St. Gwredfyw had a rock chair, bed, and knee prints dedicated to him at

Llanllyfni, Ireland. Other rocks have his thumbprint and the hoof prints of his royal

horses. The hoof prints are telling because royal horses were sacred to the Celtic goddess

Epona. The pagan Celts were well-known for their representations of animals on both

their artifacts and in their mythology and horses were especially favored as noble

creatures. It appears that some regard for animal representation had remained into the

Christian period (Pennick 1996).

A cross-slab depicting a cross with inscriptions indicative of family relationships

was found in Teampall Seanin, St. Senans Church, County Clare, Ireland. The Celts

had a tradition of adopting foster parents in addition to ones own parents who would

then teach the child a trade or skill and were thus greatly respected by the foster child.

This is similar to the tradition of godparents in Christianity. The stone is incised with a

Latin cross made from a two-stranded interlace design ending in triquetra knots at each of

the crosss terminals. The first text reads, a prayer for Monach and the second, a

prayer for Menach tutor of Mogrn. Most people commemorated on slabs were

identified only by their given name. The few that indicate relationship are written as

being sons or grandsons of certain named people. This stone from Scattery Island is

exceptional in that it identifies a person with a foster relationship. The mention of this

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foster relationship found on the Scattery Island slab could indicate an echo of that ancient

Celtic view of the important bond between a teacher and student; between a foster child

and foster parent.

Christian Celts continued the pagan practice of hanging treasures in trees. For

instance, a traveling priest would hang his belongings in a tree before he slept, so that the

tree would protect him physically and the trees spirit would be honored by the sacred

objects hanging in them. The sacristy of trees was recognized by the Christians and

somewhat incorporated into other ceremonies. For example, weddings were often held

under trees (Pennick 1996). Celtic pagans placed stones on cairns, which were human

made piles of stones, usually on top of hills. This practice was akin to leaving a part of

yourself. Cairns, which are usually at the top of hills, became resting places for Christian

pilgrims, who carried on the tradition through the Christian practice of placing small

stones on tombs and dry stone altars (called leachta). Ancient leachta in Irish Celtic

monasteries hold large pebbles, some of which are carved with sacred sigils (Pennick

1996). These stones were left to carry the prayers of the people who left them or as a

votive offering (Pennick 1996). The Priests Grave is a cairn near St Buonias Well at

Killabuoria in County Kerry that was frequently honored by pilgrims (Pennick 1996).

Celtic monks would also worship in rivers, lakes and under waterfalls,

perpetuating the pagan belief that water is holy. Water was sacred and offerings would be

thrown into natural water sources for the many gods and goddesses of the lakes and

rivers. The site of Llyn Cerrig Bach, for example, contains 150 ritually deposited objects

(mostly martial in nature) within a marsh that used to be a lake (Green 1994). Lakes and

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rivers were thought of as places of healing. Almost every Irish, British, French tradition

has a holy well named after one or more of their saints. Its clear that many of the holy

wells existed well before the introduction of Christianity into the Celtic lands. Renaming

these holy wells was a monotheistic reinterpretation of the spirit that dwells within and

guards the (often) healing waters (Pennick 1996:68). These wells were usually natural

springs that had buildings built over them for protection and into the Christian tradition,

many of them were still believed to contain healing properties. Some wells reputedly

sprang up when a saint was beheaded, such as the wells of St. Reina, St. Jutwara, St.

Ludd, St. Noyala, and St. Gwenfrewi (Pennick 1996).

Islands were especially sacred to the Celts because they were isolated from

unwanted influences of the mainland. Priests lived on islands because it was thought

that magic and evil spirits would not cross water. Because islands were so sacred they

would often serve as resting places or destinations for pilgrims (Green 1994). Some

islands contained many sacred loci, increasing the overall sacred power of the island.

Iona, for example, had a cathedral, oratories, high crosses, a holy hill, holy wells, a sacred

road, and a cemetery (Pennick 1996). Island monasteries, both major and minor, were not

uncommon. A classic example would be the remote site of Skellig Michael, Co. Kerry.

Some other examples include Irishmurray in Ireland and Priestholm off Anglesey in

Wales (Laing 1975). Promontories were sometimes utilized such as at St. Abbs Head,

Berwickshire and the Brough of Deerness, Orkney (Laing 1975). A number of chapel

sites in remote situations fit into the category of hermitages such as the chapel site on

Pygmies Isle off the coast of Lewis (Laing 1975).

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Celts believed that, if you were lucky enough and in the right state of mind at the

right time, you would see the fish jump out of a body of water which would then open

up the unconscious (Pennick 1996). Celts chose this symbol because of their association

of salmon with wisdom. In the Celtic myth ofCulhwch and Olwen, many different

animals were sought for information on where a man by the name of Mabon was located.

The last and oldest creature to be asked was a salmon and because he was the oldest and

wisest of the creatures, he was the only one able to give the location of the elusive Mabon

(Bellingham 1990).

This fish idea became the symbol for Christ as a fully realized human being in

Celtic Christianity (Wood 1998). In Christian tradition, a fish is the symbol that

represents Jesus because of the miracle that Jesus rendered when he produced enough

food for 5000 people from five loaves of bread and two fish. The initial letters of the

Greek phrase "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior" form the Greek word Ichthus, which

means fish. Objects dated as far back as the second century C.E. have been found bearing

this figure along with ICHTHS. This is a cipher for the Greek expression Iesous

CHristos THeou Yios Soter.

Mountains were also sacred to the Celts because they were close to the sun and

that was where sun worship would take place. Later, some of these mountains of light

were dedicated to St. Michael. In Christian cosmology, St. Michael is the sun, holding the

same position in a system of archangels as the sun holds within our planetary system.

Michaels Mount and Mont-Saint-Michel are two holy mountains that are unique in that

they are neither entirely in the sea nor on the land, since they are connected to the

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mainland by causeways that are passable only at low tide. During Celto-Roman times,

Mont-Saint-Michel was an island-mountain Celtic solar sanctuary called Dinsul or Belen

(Pennick 1996).

Even man-made elevation was important to Celts, such as man-made hills. This

might be connected to the elevation of Christian High Crosses on stone steps (Pennick

1996). There was a widespread custom in Celtic lands of building temporary hills to

celebrate the harvest festival of Lammas that occurred on August 1 (Pennick 1996). Often

a hole was left in the center of the hill to hold a flagstaff for a festival flag. Some Celtic

crosses today, such as Muiredach's High Cross (Sullivan 2008), can be found raised to

above-ground level on stone steps, which seem to reflect the Lammas hill tradition

(Pennick 1996).

Another place that was sacred to Celts were caves. These were mystical places

and were believed to lead to the Otherworld (Pennick 1996). The remains of early

monasticism still exist in some of those caves that are named after the saints who once

lived and/or worshipped there. In St. Ninians Cave near Whithorn, crosses can be seen

carved into the walls and there are several stone grave markers present (Pennick 1996).

Some other caves used by Celtic Christians include: St. Kierans Cave by Loch

Kilkerran, Cave of St. Moloe on Holy Island in the Clyde, and the cave at Caplawchy in

Fife in which St. Adrian and his followers lived (Pennick 1996). Before the widespread

use of temples, even Christian ceremonies were held in caves (Ellis 1985).

Celts thought West was the direction of the Otherworld. The Celtic Christians

continued this tradition, and many early Christian graves faced east west with their heads

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facing towards the west because it was the direction of the setting sun and the direction of

perfection. Graves oriented in such a way have been found at Ardnagross, Westmeath,

Ireland.

Many Christian saints were once worshiped as Druids and Celtic gods and

goddesses. The sun god Bel was meshed into Christianity with the worship of St.

Michael. Also, many Celtic places of worship were re-dedicated as Christian churches.

The traditions of Celtic ancestor worship can be said to continue within Christianity in

the worship of former saints.

Textual Evidence

The stunning manuscripts, which were created within a rather short period during

the seventh and eighth centuries A.D., could be considered the most magnificent pieces

of Insular Art. These manuscripts comprised the four New Testament Gospels in the

Latin Vulgate. Portraits of the evangelists and scenes from the life of Christ appeared at

various points in the text of the manuscripts (Wood 1998).

Many of the grave-slabs at monasteries contain decoration, which illustrates the

universal Celtism of the time. There was a striking similarity from the patterns,

characters, and decorations on the stones to those of Irish manuscripts of the sixth and

seventh centuries. Examples of these manuscripts would be the Gospels of St. Columba

and St. Ceadda and theBook of Kells and Armagh (Allcroft 1930).

The illustrative designs that were integrated throughout the text drew on both

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Celtic and Classical tradition. The Interlace patterns, which were often combined with

animal forms, reflected the spirals and shapes of La Tne carving, jewelry, and

metalwork of centuries earlier. The colors and forms of animals and human figures may

have been influenced by those found on Celtic enamel work of the later La Tne period.

The eternal knot is characteristic of Celtic book decoration. Its origins lay in the plait

motifs of the La Tne culture. For the Celtic Christians, the endless knot was an ideal

expression of the boundlessness of God. TheBook of Kells is perhaps the most

spectacular of the surviving Insular manuscripts (Wood 1998).

Early Christian tradition viewed a variety of creatures as symbols of Christ and

the evangelists. Given the Celts associations between divinity and metamorphosis, the

Irish manuscript artists had no trouble continuing this tradition of animal symbolism in

the context of Christian themes. An example would be the belief held by the Celts that

the flesh of the peacock was incorruptible, and thus the bird came to represent the eternal,

resurrected Christ. Similarly, the early Church associated the gospel writers with

heavenly creatures that appeared in the Bible. A man or an angel symbolized Matthew,

but the rest of the evangelists were all animals. Mark took the form of a lion, Luke was

symbolized as an ox, and an eagle represented John (Wood 1998).

Analysis

Celtic Christianity was a creolized religion because it took various elements,

including practices and artistic styles, from both Celtic paganism and Christianity and

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formed an amalgamated religion. Therefore, Christianity did not assimilate into Celtic

paganism or vice versa. Neither religion had to accept, resist, or adapt to one or the other

religion because it was amalgamated.

I believe that the amalgamated artifacts show that Christianity incorporated Celtic

practice and symbols and that this made the Celts comfortable enough to fully accept

Christianity.

A stone head found at a cemetery dedicated to a saint probably means that Celtic

Christians worshiped there, thus accepting Christianity but also amalgamating their Celtic

beliefs, traditions, gods, and practices in some forms.

The Celtic High Cross could be amalgamated in order to symbolize the

synchronized religion of Celtic Christianity. Thus, by taking artistic and symbolic images

from both Celtic paganism and Christianity, a new creolized symbol was formed

representing the new religion.

Christianity was flexible because it sought to incorporate many local religious

practices and traditions in order to be accepted within those various cultures. In many

cultures in Europe, Christianity was incorporated into the local folk religions thus

forming several different branches of Christianity. Many of these new religious branches

are the country-named ones we think of today. For example, when Christianity came to

various regions, it resulted in the formation of the Latin, Germanic, Greek, Russian and

Armenian churches. The mixing of Christian traditions with these pagan, folk traditions

resulted in religions such as Roman Catholicism, Irish Catholicism and Greek and

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Russian Orthodoxy. Thus, this flexibility lead to the great variety we see in Christianity

today. For example, the Russian Orthodox Church has a different calendar from most of

Christianity. Other sects of Christianity use the Gregorian and Julian calendars.

There are several holidays within the Christian calendar that have pagan

influences. In fact, Jehovahs Witnesses, although they are Christians, do not celebrate

any Christian holidays precisely because of these pagan influences. They aim to practice

a pure form of Christianity and therefore follow the Bible verbatim. For instance,

Christmas is the holiday with the most pagan influences. This holiday, which celebrates

Jesus birth, was moved from when it is believed he was born, October, to coincide with

the Yule and Winter Solstice. Yule is celebrated within the Celtic Pagan calendar from

December 20-23rd and Christmas is December 25th. During Yule, Celts gathered to

exchange presents in celebration of the Sun Child and his mother, marking the end of the

dark months and the beginning of the return of light. The burning of the Yule log would

bring good luck and banish evil spirits. Similairly Yule, the son (Jesus) and his mother

(Mary) are some of the main images at Christmas. Jesus has a halo, which can be seen as

the sun. And the Yule log has survived in the form of a traditional cake. The Christmas

tree relates to the Celtic belief of trees being sacred. And the hanging of ornaments on the

Christmas tree could be related to the hanging of sacred objects in trees in order to protect

them. December 25th was also the Roman celebration of the Sun God, Apollo. Numerous

Christmas traditions also were adapted from previous Greek and Roman religious and

cultural traditions.

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The second most amalgamated Christian holiday is Easter. The egg tradition

comes from the Celts and has nothing to do with Jesus resurrection. The name and date

of Easter come from a pagan feast commemorating the Spring sun and it takes place on

the first Sunday following the first full moon after the first day of Spring. Because it is in

Spring, Easter is connected to birth in the Celtic tradition creation stories, which show the

earth as an egg. This belief is akin to egg-laying creatures who lay their eggs and the

young emerges when they crack. Eggs were offered as sacrifices to appease the spirits

because they represented rejuvenation.

Conclusion

Celts accepted Christianity when Christianity accepted them. Continuity of pagan

practices through Celtic Christian traditions ensured that the old Celtic culture did not die

out with the advent of Christianity in Britain. Pagan Celtic art and beliefs intertwined

with Christian ones to form Celtic Christianity. Celtic Christianity left its mark in the

archaeological record in the form of monasteries, cemeteries, chapels, and inscribed

stones, as Christianity spread over Britain and Ireland. Christianity served to create a new

culture in Britain and Ireland that manifested itself in a unique combination of old Celtic

art and new Christian symbolism.

However, scholars have to be cautious when studying religion because it is

qualitative and because we can never know how similar religious experiences were to

those today. There is no way to extract the cognitive processes of members of the ancient

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religions.

In addition to the internal difficulties that exist in Celtic Studies today, there are

few places to study ancient Celtic tribal culture. Celtic Studies may be heavily studied in

Ireland and Catholic communities, but not so elsewhere. Celtic Archeology is not as

popular as Classical archeology, not as publicized, and certainly not as well represented

in museums. This is probably in part due to the limited number of artifacts and the

difficulties of interpreting second-hand sources for a civilization without a literary

tradition.

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