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Celtic Christianity

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This article is about the ancient form of Christianity in Britain and Ireland, which was addressed at the Synod of Whitby in 664 in an attempt to reconcile it with the Roman rite. The existence of a Celtic Church, or a Celtic Catholic Church (also known as "Culdee Church"), is generally agreed upon by Roman sources but highly debated among scholars.

What is Celtic Christianity?

Celtic Christianity, or The Celtic Church, is thought to be a form of Christianity as it was first received and practised by communities within Britain and Ireland which spoke the Celtic languages. The debate about the existence of the Celtic Church centres primarily around three issues arising from the early Christian experience in Britain and Ireland:

  1. What was the antiquity of the Church?
  2. Was there ecclesiastical structure enough to justify giving the church recognition as an organized Christian body?
  3. What role did Celtic Christianity have in influencing the Roman Catholic Church?

There is little debate that early Celtic Christians observed practices divergent from those in the rest of Europe. The debate about the existence of Celtic Christianity is an important debate because the existence of a separate Christian Celtic Catholic Church if verified, counters the Roman Catholic Church's claim to supremacy and seniority in Europe, making it the third body of practising Christians in Europe, along with the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Church.

The issue of church supremacy and antiquity was first raised in the Synod of Whitby in 664 by the Roman Catholic Church who protested the Celtic Christian practices that differed from the Roman practices. Additionally, a series of follow up synods ending with Synod of Cashel in 1172 were organized to deal with the differences between the churches, and resulted in the theology and practices of the Celtic church being brought into line with Roman theology and practices.

The debate about the existence of the Celtic Church likewise extends to debate about the how pagan Britain underwent conversion. Those that dispute the existence of Celtic Christianity hold that the process of converting Britain to Christianity was a series of missions by Rome, but only a singular process that likely began with the Roman conquest of Britain. However, those that accept the existence of Celtic Christianity hold that there were two very different missions, one by pre-Roman Christians, and the other by Roman Christians which resulted in Britain being divided along ethnic lines with the Celts accepting Christianity earlier than pagan Anglo Saxons. The two missions began at different times with the pre-Roman Christians likely starting mission work earlier, and the Roman Christians later. Two missions resulted in the existence of competing forms of the Christian faith with Celtic Christianity generally dominating the western portion of Great Britain (Cornwall and Wales), Ireland, Scotland and even Brittany on the Continent. The Roman conversion of pagans was largely responsible for converting the Anglo Saxons and extended roughly around the areas the Anglo Saxons settled. The separate practices held by the two communities was the issue that required arbitration at the Synod of Whitby in 664.

The Debate about the Church's Existence

It is important to recognise the theological issues raised by the antiquity of the Celtic Church and the influence its existence may have had on Roman Catholicism. Once these issues are joined in the context of renewed nationalism in modern church movements, Celtic revivalism and neo-paganism, the debate becomes complicated.

At the heart of the debate between the Roman Church and the Celtic or Culdee Church, as it was called, and the issues that made this a theological one, was the Roman Church's claim that Peter founded the church. The Celtic claim was that Christ himself founded the Culdee church when he sent the Apostles to Britain. Theologically Christ would trump Peter. The following sections will attempt to distinguish legend from fact.

Antiquity of the Celtic Church: Tradition & Legend

Though proponents of Celtic Christianity argue against the traditional view that Christianity came to Britain with the Roman invasions, there is no consensus as to when it did actually arrive, just that it arrived first. The earliest claim for the arrival of Christianity in the British Isles contends that Christianity was brought to Glastonbury by the Apostles themselves or Joseph of Arimathea, the tin trader, who removed Jesus' body from the Cross. This claim is anecdotal and largely based upon traditional or verbal history, and is known as The Traditions of Glastonbury.

A number of manuscripts are referenced in documenting the details about this tradition. The earliest support for the idea that Christianity arrived in Britain early is Quintus Septimus Florens Terullianus also known simply as Tertullian (AD 155-222) who wrote in "Adversus Judaeos" that Britain had already received and accepted the Gospel in his life time writing;

..all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons--inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ ..

or in Latin;

... Hispaniarum omnes termini et Galliarum diversae nationes et Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo ..

Tertullian doesn't say how the Gospel came to Britain before AD 222, however Rabanus Maurus [766-856 C.E.], Archbishop of Mayence states in Pœnitentium Liber (Liber Pœnitentitæ) that it was Joseph of Arimathea and details who is thought to have travelled with Joseph of Arimathea at least as far as France, claiming that he was accompanied by;

the two Bethany sisters, Mary and Martha, Lazarus, St. Eutropius, St. Salome, St. Cleon, St. Saturnius, St. Mary Magdalen, Marcella (the maid of the Bethany sisters), St. Maxium or Maximin, St. Martial, and St. Trophimus or Restitutus.

Similarly the manuscripts MSS Laud 108 of the Bodleian also agrees on the essential details of who Traveled with Joseph, however Hippolytus (AD 170-236), considered to have been one of the most learned early Christian historians, identifies the seventy whom Jesus sent in Luke 10, and includes Aristobulus listed in Romans 16:10 as having ended up becoming a Pastor in Britain. Another source for these traditions is Cardinal Caesar Baronius (C.E. 1538-1609), a historian to the Vatican, who claims in chapter 37 of Annales Ecclesiatici that in addition to those listed by Rabanus Maurus, Mary the sister of Jesus, accompanied the company and goes on to describe their voyage as;

Leaving the shores of Asia and favoured by an east wind, they went round about, down the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Europe and Africa, leaving the city of Rome and all the land to the right. Then happily turning their course to the right, they came near to the city of Marseilles, in the Viennoise province of the Gauls, where the river Rhone is received by the sea. There, having called upon God, the great King of all the world, they parted; each company going to the province where the Holy Spirit directed them; presently preaching everywhere ...

Essentially the claim is that Joseph, Mary and others followed the well-known Phoenician trade route to Britain as described by Diodorus Siculus. A copy of Annales Ecclesiatici can be found in Magdalen College Library at Oxford, England.

Upon arrival, according to Hardynge's Chronicle the company was met by Arviragus who was later converted to Christianity. There is evidence that Caractacus was indeed a Christian for Caratacus is described by Dio Cassius (Epitome of Book LXI, 33:3c [1]) as a "barbarian Christian" . Moreover, according to Domesday Survey Arviragus, or Caratacus, is recorded to have granted Joseph and his followers (as Judean refugees - "Quidam advanae-Culdich" which means roughly "certain Culdee strangers") twelve hides of land tax free, in Ynis-witrin or the Isle of Avalon. The Domesday Book also indicates that;

The Domus Dei, in the great monastery of Glastonbury, called the Secret of the Lord, this Glasonbury Church possesses, in its own villa XII hides of land which have never paid tax

A survey of these XII hides of land can still be found in The History and Antiquities of Somersetshire, by W. Phelps, originally published in 1836.

Additionally, William Malmsebury a scholar known of his accuracy, wrote in 1126 C.E. according to the writings of ancient texts that he found in Glastonbury Abbey that;

In the year of our Lord, 63, twelve holy missionaries, with Joseph of Arimathea (who had buried the Lord) at their head, came over to Britain, preaching the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. The king of the country and his subjects refused initially to become proselytes to his teaching, but in consideration that they had come a long journey, and being pleased with their soberness of life and unexceptional behaviour, the king, at their petition, gave them for their habitation a certain island bordering on his region, covered with trees and bramble bushes and surrounded by marshes, called Ynis-wytrin.

Malmsebury continues by saying that;

These holy men built a chapel of the form that had been shown them. The walls were of osiers wattled together ...

He goes on to describe it as rude and misshapen. This church is known traditionally as Wattle Church and is referred to in King Inga's Charter issued in C.E. 725 as 'Ecclesia Vetusta Beatissimae Virginis' or the 'old Church of the most Blessed Virgin'. We do not have access to the ancient sources Malmsebury used because they were destroyed when the Abbey was in 1184 C.E

At least one manuscript (of questionable origin) denoted the Sonnini Manuscript after being translated from the Greek by C.S. Sonnini in the 18th century, from an original manuscript found in the archives of Constantinople, claims that the Apostle Paul after visiting Rome, continued on to Spain, France and Britain (Mount Lud) and visited his countrymen, before returning to Rome. The manuscript itself was translated into English and published late in 1799 and was available around 1800 and is claimed to follow chronologically, the events recorded in the Biblical book of Acts. Modern scholars are not familiar with the Sonnini Manuscript, and certainly have not examined it, as the current whereabouts of the source document is unknown though its translation is readily available.

The ancient British Traids list Joseph and his company as Culdees along with Paul, Peter, Lazarus, Simon Zelotes, and Aristobulus and before the Synod of Whitby the Celtic Catholic church was known as Culdee Christian Church and there is evidence that this name lived on past the Synod of Whitby until at least the reign of Henry II where the Canons of York where known the "Culdee Canons".

It is claimed that Jacob Sabellus (AD 250), an early Christian presbyter and theologican, wrote;

Christianity was privately confessed elsewhere, but the first nation that proclaimed it as their religion and called it Christian after Christ was Britain.

However this claim is currently un-verified as tracking down evidence of Sabellus' work has not been fruitful.

Antiquity of the Celtic Church: Known and Generally Accepted

There seem to be tantalizing references from Roman sources that support Christianity's early arrival to Britain; however acceptance of this tradition by scholars is not commonplace. Dio Cassius's reference of Caratacus as a "barbarian Christian" certainly makes sense if this tradition holds. Furthermore, Gildas Badonicus or Saint Gildas (A.D. 516 – 570) is attributed the quote in De excidio Britannae liber querulus on the victory of Aurelius Ambrosius, that the [Christian] Gospel arrived in Britain in the time of the Emperor Tiberius ('rigenti insulae...tempore Tiberii...radios suos indulget Christus' ch 8). It is also known that early Roman Christians may have been British (see Talk:Caratacus form more on this subject)

Many proponents of Celtic Christianity distance themselves from these traditions, and most modern scholars reject them outright, though little serious scholarship has actually examined the tradition critically, however the early Roman Catholic Church accepted the Glastonbury traditions and the existance of the Culdee church. Eusebius, (C.E. 260-340) Bishop of Caesarea and father of Ecclesiastical History wrote in Demonstratio Evangelica Bk. 3;

The Apostles passed beyond the ocean to the isles called the Britannic Isles.

Eusebius is thought to have gotten his information from British Bishops in attendance at the Council of Nicaea. St. Hilary of Pottiers (C.E. 300-376) also wrote (Tract XIV, Ps 8) that the Apostles had built churches and that the Gospel had passed into Britain. Similarly St. John Chrysostom (C.E. 347-407), the Patriarch of Constantinople wrote in Chrysostomo Orat. O Theos Xristos;

The British Isles which are beyond the sea, and which lie in the ocean, have received virtue of the Word. Churches are there found and altars erected ... Though thou shouldst go to the ocean, to the British Isles, there though shouldst hear all men everywhere discoursing matters out of the scriptures, with another voice indeed, but not another faith, with a different tongue, but the same judgement.

As well, Polydore Vergil (AD 1470-1555), the Italian historian wrote;

Britain, partly Joseph of Arimathea, was of all kingdoms, first, that received the Gospel

These references all show that these traditions were known and accepted by early Church historians and accepted until later centuries. It has only been since the protestant reformation that the acceptance of these traditions has been given up. What is generally agreed upon by "modern scholars" is that the first conversions of the Celts was led by Columba, who went from Ireland to Iona, Scotland. Priests from Iona led the Christianisation of Northumbria and later Mercia. There is clear evidence that this is likely. The other Roman effort to convert the British were led by Saint Augustine, from Rome who landed in Kent in AD 597 and said to have been given a pre-existing Celtic church named “Saint Martins”. In Epistolae ad Gregorium Papam Augustine writes to Pope Gregory I;

In the western confines of Britain, there is a certain royal island of large extent, surrounded by water, abounding in all the beauties of nature and necessities of life. In it, the first neophites of Catholic law, God beforehand acquainting them, found a church constructed by no human art, but by the hands of Christ Himself, for the salvation of His people.

as a reference to the Glastonbury tradition. The reference to constructed by no human art, but by the hands of Christ Himself, is a reference to Christ's instructions to his disciples found in Matthew 10:6 to go into the world to the lost sheep and 'spread the faith'.

The Roman Catholic Church has been challenged a number of times in history as to the seniority of 'national' Catholic churches (by France, Italy, and Spain) and upheld each time that the senior Roman Catholic Church is not the Church of France, Spain or Italy, but the Ecclesia Anglicana or the English Church. This issues was raised and decided upon in the Council of Pisa (1409), Constance (1417), Sienna (1424), and Basle (1434) where it was declared that;

The churches of France and Spain, must yield in point of antiquity and precedence to that of Britain, as the latter Church was founded by Joseph of Arimathea immediately after the Passion of Christ.

The last challenge to the antiquity of national Catholic Churches took place in 1927, and was again upheld by Pope Pius XI, though the Catholic Church increasingly refuses to acknowledge 'national churches' within its fold, instead placing emphasis on the continuance of the Universal Church.

Ecclesiastical Structure: How separate was the Celtic church?

The Celtic Christians saw themselves as independent of the Roman church as evidenced from the British Bishop Diaothus' reply to St. Augustine on the authority of Rome in Britain;

Be it known and declared that we all, individually and collectively, are in all humility prepared to defer to the Church of God, and to the Bishop in Rome, and to every sincere and Godly Christian, so far as to love everyone according to his degree, in perfect charity, and to assist them all by word and in deed in becoming the children of God. But as for any other obedience, we know of none that he, whom you term the Pope, or Bishop of Bishops, can demand. The deference we have mentioned we are ready to pay to him as to every other Christian, but in all other respects our obedience is due to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Cærleon, who is alone under God our ruler to keep us right in the way of salvation. (Spelman, Henry. Concilia, Decreta, Leges, Constitutiones in re Ecclesiarum Orbis Britannici: Volume 1, Republished Haddan & Stubbs (Wilkins), Cambridge England, 1636 pg 108-109).

In otherwords, Diaothus was saying that the Celtic Christian Church's relationship to the Bishop of Rome was the same as its relationship to any other Christian Bishopric, and nothing more.

Though the Celtic Church did seem to have ecclesiastical structure, it seems to have been one consisting of a relationship of peers, Dioceses-wise. Therefore it is easy to exaggerate the cohesiveness of the Celtic Christian communities. After the Synod of Whitby the Celtic Church was forced to acquiesce to the Bishop of Rome's specific commands. These communities did see themselves as separate from their competitors, the Anglo-Saxons. An early Welsh ecclesiastical rule levied penalties for interacting with the English, and for sharing communion with them. When St Augustine attempted to meet with a delegation of seven British bishops on the borders of the domains of Ethelbert of Kent, these bishops refused to talk or even dine with his party; and when Aethelfrith of Northumbria went to battle with Solomon, son of Cynan, king of Powys, hundreds of British Christian monks are said to have assembled to pray for the Welsh king. It is noteworthy that the British failed to attempt to convert the Anglo-Saxons, and that the successful Celtic missions had come from further away, from the Dalriadan Scots.

Differences from the rest of Catholicism

Due to the difficulties in communications at this time, it was inevitable that variations between the local churches would arise. Although the practice by Bishops, upon their ordination, of circulating a statement of their beliefs did minimize these differences somewhat, this help was lost to the congregations in the British isles and Armorica with the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West. When missionaries from the Mediterranean met with those local congregations that did survive, they found differences in practice, doctrine and government. These differences were addressed in synods, from the Synod of Whitby in 664 to the Synod of Cashel in 1172. Exactly in which practices the Celtic church varied from the rest of Catholicism differ from source to source. A list of those proposed include the following:

The Celtic cross, in which a symmetrical cross is superimposed on a circle, is a characteristic and distinctive Celtic Christian symbol. Use of this continued well past any separate organisation of Celtic Christianity, and has indeed never ceased to be common in the Celtic countries and among their emigré communities.

The Easter problem

The Easter problem — that is, the proper method to be used to calculate the date Easter will fall on in a given year — is a long and tedious story that extends beyond the topic of Celtic Christianity. As it applies to this topic, the Celtic peoples had lost contact with Rome when Victorius of Aquitania created the tables that were adopted as approved practice in 457. But as they learned of the current practice, the various communities of the Celtic church gradually returned into harmony with the predominant practice[citation needed]: southern Ireland agreed to this at a Synod[citation needed] in 632; northern Ireland at the Council of Birr around 697; the Northumbrian Church at the Council of Whitby in 664; the island of Iona celebrated Easter on the Roman date in 716; and Wales in 768. Various other churches founded or influenced by clerics trained in Ireland or Wales came to celebrate Easter on the Roman date at later times.

Although historians often relegate the importance of the Easter problem, it actually had a major effect on the Catholic world at that time. Because Celtic Christianity considered itself separate and distinct in relation to Rome,[citation needed] Rome diligently made efforts to bring the Celtic church under its authority for many years. The submission of the Celtic church to Rome on this issue effectively expanded Rome's spiritual and political strength throughout Europe for centuries.

Celtic Saints

Some scholars, such as J.N.L. Myres and John Morris, have argued that Pelagius had have a direct effect on the early development of the Celtic church in Britain. Others, including Charles Thomas,Template:Fn have countered that this belief is incorrect and based on projecting a modern point of view upon an earlier age.

Christianity was present in Britain from earliest times and was certainly practiced at the abbeys of Glastonbury and Whithorn at the turn of the 5th century. Its expansion to become the accepted religion of the Britons was due primarily to a succession of princes who became monastic priests during the fifth and sixth centuries, founding many abbeys and churches, and becoming honoured as "saints" after their death. Christianity was also present in Ireland and there was significant social intercourse between the churches of the two islands. The most famous Irish saints to preach extensively in Britain were Saint Brigit (variously spelt Bride, Brigid, Bryd) (439–524) and Saint Columba (Colum Cille) (520–593). In the inverse direction, Saint Patrick (d. 492/3) was a Briton who established himself in Armagh and became 'apostle of Ireland'.

The earliest clearly British Christian leader recorded after the departure of the Roman legions from the island was Saint Dyfrig (Latin, Dubricius). He is said to have been a son of Eurddyl and her husband King Pabai or Pepiau of Ercych (now Herefordshire). He founded monasteries at Henllan ("Old Church"), now Hentland-on-Wye, 7 kilometers northwest of Ross-on-Wye; at Mochros, now Moccas, in the Wye Valley 16 kilometers west of Hereford; at Ynys Pyr (English, "Caldey Island"), off Tenby in the Dyfed county of Pembrokeshire; and possibly churches in Porlock and near Luscombe on the Exmoor coast of Somerset. He was a bishop, but it appears that he was so for the purpose of ordaining priests, not as administrative head of the church over a geographical area. There is a legend that he solemnised the marriage of King Arthur and Guinevere.

Dyfrig taught Saint Illtud (c. 425 to c. 505), the founder of the great school/seminary/abbey of Llan Illtyd Fawr (English, "Llantwit Major") in the west of South Glamorgan. Illtud was considered the most learned person in Britain, expert alike in Maths, Grammar, Philosophy, Rhetoric and Scripture. He was “by descent a Druid and a fore knower of future events”, the writer implying that there was a Druid caste. One of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein, or Welsh Triads, refers to him as one of the "three knights of the Court of Arthur who kept the Holy Grail". In an age when any schooling was available only to a very few privileged people, perhaps Illtud's seminary was the closest approximation in existence to an institution of higher education. Among Illtud's pupils were Saints Pol Aurelian (in Latin, Paulinus Aurelianus), Samson, Gildas and Dewi (English, David).

Pol, son of a British chieftain and one of the seven founder saints of Brittany, founded churches near Llandovery in the Dyfed county of Carmarthenshire, and before 518 had founded an abbey at Yr Henllwyn ("Old Bush") called Ty Gwyn ("White Church"). He later founded monasteries in Brittany and was first bishop of the city of Saint-Pol-de-Leon. His sister was St. Sidwell of Exeter.

Samson was born in Dyfed. He was a first cousin of Illtud and a great-grandson of King Tewdrig (Tudor) of Morganwg (Glamorgan). He studied as a boy at Llan Illtyd Vawr and was then sent to Ynys Pyr, presently becoming its abbot. Some time after 545 he temporarily took over the abbacy of Llan Illtud Fawr from Illtud. When Illtud resumed charge of his abbey, Samson travelled first to Cornwall and then to Brittany, founding churches in both places and an abbey at Dol, where he died c.565. He is also celebrated as the evangeliser of Guernsey.

Gildas, c.491 to c.570 was educated by Saint Illtyd and like his mentor acquired renown as a scholar. He was called "Gildas Sapiens" (English "the Wise"). He became a bell-maker by trade. He made a pilgrimage to Rome in 520, spent seven years at the Abbey of Rhuys in Brittany, then a year in charge of the Abbey of Llancarfan while the Abbot, Saint Cadoc was away. After 528 he moved to Street (near Glastonbury) and built himself a lan (hermitage comprising a church and enclosure). He later (c.544) returned to Rhuys, where he remained until he died, apart from a visit to Ireland dated by the Annales Cambriae to 565.

Saint David, c.512 to 587, was a son of a king of Ceredigion -- presumably King Gwyddno. He was educated at Ty Gwyn. He became its abbot before 528 while still a youth. Later he moved this abbey to Glyn Rhosyn, where it became the city and cathedral of St. David’s in Pembrokeshire. He devised and operated an austere Monastic Rule. He is credited with founding churches over a large area of south and mid Wales, in Kernyw, and in Brittany. He also attended the Synod of Llanddewi Brefi.

A prominent Christian leader, contemporary with and in some respects rival to David, was Saint Cadoc, a son of Gwladys and her husband King Gwynllyw of Gwynllywg (E. Glywysing), a grandson both of King Brychan of Powys and of King Glywys of Glwysing (Gloucestershire), and a nephew of Saint Keyne the hermit who lived first at Keynsham (Somerset) and later at St. Michael's Mount (Cornwall). Cadoc was apparently educated by Pol. He built himself a hermitage at Llancarfan (now in the south of Glamorgan) that soon grew into a monastery, and later one at Llanspyddid (3km W of Brecon). He is also credited with founding churches in Dyfed, Cornwall and Brittany. About 528, after his father's death, he built a stone monastery in Scotland below “Mount Bannauc” (generally taken to be the hill SW of Stirling down which the Bannockburn flows). It has been suggested that the monastery was where the town of St. Ninians now stands, 2 kilometers south of Stirling. Cadoc went on pilgrimages to both Jerusalem and Rome and was distressed that the Synod of Llanddewi Brefi was held during one of these absences. He came into conflicts with kings Arthur, Maelgwn of Gwynedd, and Rhain of Brycheiniog. He was killed in 580 at 'Beneventum'. Beneventum is not firmly identified. One scholar has suggested it is the Roman burgh of Bannaventa (5 kilometers east of Daventry in Northamptonshire), proposing the hypothesis that it was overrun by Saxons at this time as an explanation both for both the killing of Cadoc and for the prohibition on Britons entering the town to recover his body. Cadoc, with Illtud, is one of the three knights said to have become keepers of the Holy Grail.

A brother of this King Gwynllyw was Saint Petroc. Petroc was educated in Ireland where he perhaps learned esoteric Druid wisdom as well as Christianity. He spent most of his adult life based at Padstow in Cornwall, and founded churches in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset (all then part of Dumnonia / Kernyw) including North and South Petherton (places named after him in west and south Somerset respectively). He converted King Constantine of Dumnonia (in 586) and died in 590. With Saint Piran he is among the best-known of the Cornish saints.

The principal contemporary leader of the church in the north of Romanised Britain was Saint Kentigern / Mungo, a son of King Urien Rheged (ruled c. 560 to c. 590), the founder of Glasgow Cathedral and its first bishop.

Although its impact continued, Celtic Christianity officially ended in 1172 when the Synod of Cashel ended the Celtic Christian system and brought them under Rome.

Celtic Christianity today

The phrase Celtic Christianity has come into current used to describe a modern revival of what is believed to be a more spiritually free form of Christianity abandoned after the Synod of Whitby enforced Roman Catholicism as the standard form of Christianity in the British Isles (see Culdee.) Many believe that this older worship more closely resembled Eastern Orthodoxy. It is also considered very close to Anglicanism in many respects.

Celtic Christianity is at present undergoing something of a revival: in the North of England at the Community of St. Aidan and St. Hilda on Lindisfarne, and in Scotland at the Iona Community. It currently embraces both Charismatic and neo-Evangelical Christians, as well as some pagan elements. Celtic Christianity has become increasingly popular in the United States, for example in the Celtic Catholic Church, and an annual conference on the subject is held every year.

Its main features are claimed to be:

  • Love of nature
  • Lack of dogmatism
  • Friendship to and tolerance for other religions.

However, it is difficult to document that these particular features were unique to "Celtic Christianity" lands or that they even predominated there in earlier centuries.

See also

References

  • Template:Fnb Charles Thomas. 1981. Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500. University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0520043928
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