Since the first Christian mission of Saint Patrick to the Gaels, Christianity in Ireland was highly idiosyncratic. Old practices are hard to shake, and the early Church in Ireland did not so much diminish the Celtic Paganism in Ireland, as it painted a veneer of Christian cosmology over the old practices and structures.

It is not a coincidence the three-leafed clover is the national flower of Ireland. Legend has it that Saint Patrick used the young sprig to demonstrate the ternary-but-one nature of the Trinity to the Pagan Gaels. Such a theological construction might have made Monotheism easier to adopt for a Polytheistic people. It is worth noting that the Trinity was a very common subject of invocation and veneration in early Irish prayers. Another unique characteristic of early Irish Christian practice was the tendency to draw on the various elements of nature for spiritual and physical strength and protection, coupled with a fondness for incorporating into prayers litanies of all angels and saints.

It should be kept in mind that during the very first centuries of the Christian mission in Ireland, much of Christendom in mainland Europe was troubled by fears of polytheism creeping into the Church. Long, long before the Great Catholic-Orthodox Schism of 1054, the bishops of Rome had been occupied with the treating of heresies, erasing fault lines of belief between different congregations in an increasingly large and diverse fellowship, centralising power in Rome and establishing a uniform liturgy.

The European context

One particularly vexing issue for the Church in early Christian Europe was the doctrine Arianism. Arianism, put very simply, is the belief that the Christ was begotten by the Father, and is not coeternal. This puts the Son in an inherently subordinate and discrete category, separate from the Father. This was controversial, as it implies that the Trinity was more akin to a three-person pantheon, rather than three radiant manifestations or aspects of the one Godhead, composed of the same basic and single essence, or ousia.

To the modern person living in a secular society, this might seem like splitting hairs, but the dispute over the nature of the relationship between the Trinity had lead to protracted, violent conflict. Christian heterodoxy, since at least the Council of Chalcedon in 451, maintained that Arianism was akin to polytheism and was grave heresy. The dispute was also drawn along ethnic lines. Anti-Arian sentiment was strongest in Constantinople (the heart of the Roman Empire in the early Middle Ages). Its most vocal adherents were all upper-class, literate Romans. Arianism, on the other hand, was strongest among the Germanic tribes of the Goths, Vandals and Lombards, who maintained empires stretching from Northern Europe down to North Africa, along the Western edges of Christendom. Arian Christianity also lacked the anti-Semitic conviction that was more virulent in Chalcedonian Christendom.

Christianity comes to Ireland

The reason I bring this up is for context to the Irish mission. Saint Patrick was not an Arian, but he did arrive to Ireland before the Council of Chalcedon, which was the first serious attempt to homogenise Christianity. Ireland was far away from Constantinople and Rome, and it was never a part of the Roman Empire. Ireland and Gaelic Scotland also formed perhaps the most enduring and coherent cultural spheres in Western Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman empire, with its own unique language, writing system (Ogham), form of governance (Tánaisteacht), oral tradition (Seanchas and Dinnsheanchas) and legal system (Féineachas). If Christianity was going to be adopted in Ireland it would have to adapt to Ireland.

The most significant adaptation to Gaelic society was the emphasis on monastic orders as the spiritural and intellectual heart of the Christian religion. While much of mainland Europe was organised along the jurisdiction of bishops and the lineage of apostolic succession, much reliigious and political influence in Gaelic Ireland was afforded to monasteries and abbots. Saint Patrick and the major early Irish saints lived monastic lifestyles. Episcopates and diocese were established in Ireland, and it is debated how much influence was actually divvied between abbots and bishops, but Gaelic Christianity did at least place an unusually strong emphasis on the monastic tradition and monasteries as the focal point of Christian life.

Gaelic nobility sent their sons to monasteries for education, and Irish monasteries were quickly established in Scotland and mainland Europe to continue the mission and act as repositories of knowledge and education. Irish monks were in the employ of courts throughout Europe as scholars, astrologers and physicians. In Ireland and Scotland, monks wrote down heavily Christianised versions of the oral and legal repositories of druids and bards, creating the first substantial body of literature in Old Irish. Textbooks of all kinds across Europe, written in Latin or the vernacular, were peppered with passages of old Irish. Illuminations in early Irish manuscripts blended with Roman classical designs to influence the art of manuscript-making across Europe up to the invention of the printed press.

I should point out that prior to the Highland Clearances and Great Hunger, the Gaelic language(s) formed one relatively smooth continuum from the Southern counties of Ireland, through Rathlin Island and into the Highlands of Scotland. Likewise, the language held in common was referred to as simply 'Gaelic.' The naming convention with the rise of Irish Nationalism and the Celtic Revival over the turn of the last century, when Irish nationalists politicised the language ("English for the English, Irish for the Irish"). Eventually, divergent spelling reforms and the degradation of lingustic bridges between rural pockets of Gaelic have given rise to Irish and Scots Gaelic and their modern dialects, although there is still a high level of mutuability among them.

Loricae

It is from the early monasteries in Ireland and Scotland that we see the most striking examples of early Irish literature. As well as extensively documenting the lore of the Gaelic kingdoms, monasteries produced their own original compositions, no doubt heavily influenced by the Pagan worldview of previous generations.

One particular literary innovation here was the lorica. Latin for cuirass, the loricae were invocations of Divinity, granting protection of the faithful against enemies, spiritual and temporal alike. Miraculous powers of salvation were ascribed to the loricae. One famous example is The Breastplate [Lorica] of Saint Patrick, or Lorica Sancti Patricii in Latin. In Irish it is known as Faeth Fiada, either "The Deer's Cry" or a corruption of "Spell of Concealment." It is believed that when Saint Patrick uttered this prayer, while being hunted by a heathen prince, he and his monks were either disgusied as wild deer, or hidden by a heavy mist. Some short snippets:

Atomruig indíu

niurt trén, togairm Trínóite.

Cretim treodataid fóisitin óendatad

inDúlemain dail.

I bind to myself today,

through the power of the invocation of the Trinity.

In the faith of the threeness in the Unity:

The Creator of creation.

Powers of nature:

Attomriug indiu

neurt nime.

soillsi gréine.

etrochta ésci.

áne thened.

déne lóchet.

luathi gaithi.

fudomna mara.

tairismigi talman.

cobsaidi alech.

I bind to myself today,

The power of Heaven,

The light of the Sun,

The purity of the moonlight,

The splendour of fire,

The speed of lightning,

The swiftness of wind,

The depth of the seas,

The stability of the earth,

The firmness of rock.

Protection of evil:

fri taircetlaib saebfáthe.

fri dubrechtu gentliuchta

fri saebrechtaib heretecda.

fri himcellacht nidlachta.

fri brichta ban ocus goband ocus druád.

Against the incantations of false prophets,

Against the black laws of heathenism,

Against the false laws of heresy,

Against the deceits of idolatry,

Against the spells of smiths and druids...

Other loricae are attributed to other famous saints.

A similar kind of prayer is believed to have persisted in pockets of Gaelic Scotland. Called the caim, the etymology is unclear, although in the past has been claimed to come from the Scots Gaelic for circle or sanctuary. A caim prayer typically invokes the Trinity or Christ to bless the vicinity around the precant, keeping evil and misfortune at bay.

One modern example is attributed to Saint Columba, the Irish monk credited with bringing Christianity to Scotland:

Bless to me the sky that is above me,

Bless to me the ground that is beneath me,

Bless to me the friends who are around me,

Bless to me the love of the Three

Deep within me and encircling me. Amen.

Legacy

I should mention that much of the scholarship around the caim prayer originates from the Carmina Gaelica. The Carmina claims to present an accurate description of the customs and beliefs of the rural poor in late 19th Century Gaelic Scotland. The quality of the scholarship in this particular book has been put into question, and the author has been accused of embelleshing details of prayers. The book should be considered as a romanticised presentation. This kind of scholarship was not uncommon during the Victorian era under the height of the Romantic/Nationalist movement.

It is worth considering the context of the book. At the time it was written, the Gaelic language and culture was often met with complete disdain and sometimes hatred in Victorian Britain. Gaelic had endured over a century of active, systematic destruction by the British government. The Carmina was an attempt to convince the educated urban reader that the Gaelic language was a language with its own literary, historical and spiritual domain. Truth was bent to meet the tastes of a society that by default took a stance of open hostility to Gaelic language, history and culture. The author, the Scottish folklorist Alexander Carmichael, knew that the language was worth preserving and that the British policy of eradication would have caused an immeasurable loss to Humanity. There is still something that the book can teach us.