We all know the Irish gave us shamrocks, Notre Dame and St. Patrick’s Day parades. But not too many people would connect the Irish to Homer’s Illiad, Virgil’s Aenid and other such works of classical antiquity.
Medieval historians and people from the Emerald Isle know about the Irish monks who kept classical literature alive after the Roman Empire fell and helped pull Europe out of the Dark Ages. Thomas Cahill gave these monks their due with his 1994 book, How the Irish Saved Civilization. They’re still underrated, but word has gotten around.
Cahill writes with as if he’s talking personally to the reader. He’s like the deft raconteur in an Irish pub, bending your ear over a mug of beer. More a love letter to his Irish heritage than a scholarly work, How the Irish Saved Civilization nevertheless has historical merit.
Common -- and legitimate – criticisms are that the book has a Eurocentric title and doesn’t mention how Islamic scholars paved the way to the Renaissance with their contributions to math, science, literature and the re-discovery of Aristotelian philosophy. But keep in mind, Cahill’s focus is on the re-flowering of Greco-Roman literature, not the sciences. Cahill does mention the preservation work of Byzantine scholars once, but not until nearly the end of the book. In the introduction, he inflates the Irish monks’ role, writing that they “single-handedly refounded European civilization.”
I consider those criticisms to be mild, yet legitimate. Nasty reviews I’ve read, saying the book is full of “lies,” are not. Cahill revels in his Irish roots and at times, he may give way to hyperbole, but overall the book is accurate. I did my own research and confirmed it.
There was, as the book mentions, an Irish monk in the 6th century named Columcille who established a monastery in Scotland called Iona. A monk named Columbanus started famous monestaries like, Luxeil and Bobio. He did travel to present-day France, Switzerland and Italy. Irish saints, such as Brigid of Kildare, Saint Gall of the Alps and Saint Fursey did help restore intellectual life to Europe.
Ireland was renowned for its monestaries; they were the universities of the Medieval period. Irish scholars were instrumental in the Carolingian renaissance of the 8th century, contributing to Charlemagne’s Palatine school. Disciples of Irish monks went on to form their own monasteries and the knowledge proliferated across the continent.
There is a reason Ireland is called the Land of Saints and Scholars. The historical facts bear it out: the Irish helped illuminate the Dark Ages.
I'm posting this video because it's by an Irish
rock band and it's about Detroit. Like Medieval
Europe, Detroit -- original homeland of many
great things -- has been relegated to an
American Dark Ages and is in need of a
Renaissance.
So what made Ireland such an intellectual hub? Location. It was an out of the way island, off the radar screen of the Roman army. Hence, the Barbarians also left it alone. While Germanic Tribes were sacking the Roman Empire and destroying its libraries, learned men retreated to the insular northern isle. When the Irish converted to Christianity, they transcribed the Gospels, followed by the rest of the Bible and went on to the pagan works of the fallen empire.
Cahill does not start talking about these monks until the last quarter of the book, another reason why he might have chosen a different title. At first, it’s unclear why Cahill focuses on the fall of the Roman Empire, St. Augustine and the Latin writer Ausonious. What do they have to do with Irish history? Near the end, it all fits together.
Cahill uses Augustine as a lens from which to view the late Roman Empire, but also as a contrast to St. Patrick. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, was austere, erudite and melancholic. St. Patrick was earthy, unlettered and friendly. Augustine represented the one facet of Roman life that survived when the empire fell – the Catholic Church. St. Patrick represented the unique Irish Catholic Church, “the first de-Romanized Christianity in human history.”
The Celtic cross on the cover of the book is a clue to why St. Patrick was successful in converting the Irish. He met them where they lived and if they wanted to combine their ancient Druidism with their newfound Christianity, it was all good. Such independent thinking enabled the Irish to handle ancient Greco-Roman literature without the hang-ups other European Christians had about pagan works.
Book of Kells
Cahill describes how the Irish related to and influenced the Catholic Church. I did not know until reading this book that confession used to be public. The Irish started the tradition of private confession before a priest. Cahill expressed an interesting view regarding the Irish and The Church:
“It is a shame that private confession is one of the few Irish innovations that passed into the universal church. How different might Catholicism be today if it had taken over the easy Irish attitudes toward diversity, authority, the role of women and the relative unimportance of sexual mores.”
Cahill’s opinions are informed. While his book is more lighthearted than scholarly, Cahill – a retired professor with degrees in subjects like philosophy and classical literature -- is scholarly. The sources he cites in his bibliography are scholarly.
How the Irish Saved Civilization is far from perfect. The definitive work on the Medieval Irish monks is yet to be written. But Cahill’s book is a fun read and a great starting point for history lovers who want to learn more. It whets my appetite to read more about Augustine and St. Patrick.
Oh, and it also wets my appetite to imbibe in some barley beverages with my friends at our favorite neighborhood dive on St. Patrick’s Day.
Gateway Literature: Cahill has gone on to write books on the contributions Jews, Christians and Greeks have made to civilization. They would be good to check out. With these other explorations of cultures, I think it would be neat if Cahill went ahead and wrote about the Islamic scholars – and maybe others from the East – who influenced Western culture. But I don't think that's his forte.
I mentioned that Cahill cites scholarly sources. All the works cited in his bibliography are worth delving into especially the series of books by retired Princeton University professor Peter Brown. His scholarship in late Roman antiquity, Medieval times and the early church was groundbreaking and Cahill could not have written his book, had Brown not paved the way.
Then there’s the classical works: Plato, Cicero, Virgil, Juvenal, Ovid, Tacticus…I say, read ‘em with relish. I definitely plan to read, compare and contrast Augustine’s Confession and St. Patrick’s Confession.
Hell, I can’t let St. Patrick’s Day go by without speaking up for the top echelon of Irish writers: Frank McCourt (“It was of course a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while.”), Seamus Heaney and going back, James Joyce. (Ulysses, lost in veiled sexuality, anxiety and eternal pedantry will screw pleasingly with your mind.)
My friend, Marilyn Parrish -- a Joycean scholar and retired English professor at Wichita’s Newman University – once got to chat with Seamus Heaney for about three hours at some pub in the hills of Ireland. She died a couple of years ago. Miss you, Marilyn. Classic Book Club at Watermark ain’t the same without you.
Gateway Music: Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, the Pogues: They effing rock – and they wear their Irishness like the Kinks wore their Englishness. Is it okay to mention the English alongside the Irish? Well screw it, call me sacrilegious, but I did it.
I can’t leave out The Clancy Brothers, a traditional Irish folk quartet that gained fame across the Atlantic when Irish-American Catholic John F. Kennedy was in the White House. I knew nothing about this group until a few years ago when NPR reported that Liam Clancy, of the group, died at age 74. These Irish folkies influenced promethean American folk-rocker Bob Dylan and apparently they were featured multiple times on The Ed Sullivan Show – a lot more times than The Beatles.
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