Tag Archives: The synod of Whitby

Posted in Irish church history

An English Saint who brought Irish dancing to the Netherlands??? – 7th November

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St Willibrord (AD 658-739) was bishop, missionary and is patron of the Benelux countries. Willibrord, from Northumbria in present day UK, was trained and ordained a priest abroad in Ireland. In Ireland he made many Irish contacts for future missions on mainland Europe. Willibrord was one of the first missionaries to the Benelux countries, (the Netherlands and Luxemburg to be more precise).

Willibrord was an anglo saxon, from Yorkshire and recieved his Catholic education after being weened from his Mother. St Wilfrid at Ripon was his teacher and guide. Wilfrid, was a leading light at the Synod of Whitby, A.D. 664, promoting the roman rite over the Celtic traditions, and over the Celtic Easter. Willibrord was professed at fifteen and in 678 he was sent to Rath Melsigi in Ireland for further studies and formation. Rath Melsigi was an important monastic settlement in Ireland for the Anglo-Saxons. After twelve years in Ireland, Willibrord was ordained priest in 690, and he then immediately returned to England.

Missionary priest

After some time, Willibrord set out for Iona in Scotland, to promote the use of the roman rite among the people of what was then the Dal Riada kingdom. From there, with a band of monks they all went to Frisia which is in present day Netherlands. In Frisia they were well received by Pepin of Herstal, duke and prince of the Franks.

Mission mandate of Pope Sergius I

Before he began his mission in Frisia, Willibrord went to Rome to obtain approval from Pope Sergius I, for his mission and to take with him some relics for the future new churches to be. Willibrord’s mission was a success and in 695, with Pepin’s recommendation, he was consecrated in Rome as the archbishop of the Frisians.

A new monastic centre at Echternach

In 701 Willibrord established a new missionary monastery at Echternach in Luxemburg. He did this with the help of some monks from Ireland. This centre became an important library and scriptorium in the Frankish empire. Duke Pepin died in 714, to be succeeded by a pagan Frisian prince Radbod, who drove Willibrord out of Frisia for a time, until Radbod died in 719.

Method in his missionary madness

Willibrord’s missionary methods worked like this… In Denmark he bought thirty slave-boys to bring up as Christians. In Heligoland he discarded a pagan custom, of drawing water with the strictest silence, for Willibrord baptised three persons at the well, in full voice.

The Saint’s influence after his death

Willibrord died in his early eighties at his monastery at Echternach. He became venerated as a saint and pilgrims came to his grave. An annual dancing procession takes place in Echternach on Whit Tuesday to honour St. Willibrord. Professor Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, of the NUIG university in Galway in the west of Ireland, believes there is a connection through Willibrord, between Irish and Echternach manuscripts and also a connection between the dancing procession in Ethernach and an influence of Irish dancing.

The church universal celebrates St. Willibrord on the 7th of November

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Posted in Irish church history

St. Eunan (Adomnán) an Abbot for Synods and change – Memory to St. Eunan – 23rd September

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Family origins

Born at Drumhome near Ballintra in south-west Donegal into the Uí Chonaill family around 624. Eunan’s Uí Néill lineage aligns with Loingsech, king of Tara. Eunan was educated by Columban Monks. He later joined the Iona community as a a novice at Iona in 650. He was become the ninth abbot of Iona in 679. He was also president-general of all the Columban houses in Ireland. During his rule he paid three lengthy visits to Ireland.

Notable writings of St. Eunan.

He wrote “Vita Columbae” on life of Columba. Eunan highlight the St. Columba’s virtues. It is full of memorable details of monks and lay people who came into contact with St. Columba. “Vita Columbae” is considered a most complete biography in all of Europe from early Christianity through to the late Middle Ages.

He also wrote a book “De Locis Sanctis” (on the holy places) – Jerusalem, Damascus, Constantinople and Alexandria based on descriptions received by a French bishop Arculfus, who had been shipwrecked in western Britain and took refuge in Iona.

Intervention between Celtic and Roman observance in the Irish Church

St. Eunan made a number of visits to Northumbria. On his first was in 686, he became aware of unresolved conflicts after the Synod of Whitby (664) between Celtic observances and the Roman observances. Celtic monasteries had a different method for calculating the date of Easter for example. Also a Celtic abbot enjoyed administrative superiority to a bishop. In visiting the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, St. Eunan had lenghty discourses with the Abbot Ceolfrith of Wearmouth. Eunan understood that the Celtic observance was was similar to St John which was the custom in the Eastern Church. St. Eunan felt it would be better for the universality of the Church for the Celtic monastries to make use of the Roman observance. For eighteen years St. Eunan made it his business to convince Ionian monks as well as and the Irish Columban monasteries to switch to the roman observance.

The law of innocents – a type of old Irish ‘Geneva Convention’

On his third visit to Ireland (697) he assisted at the Synod of Birr. There he convinced the participants that, women, children and clerics should be exempt from war and not be taken prisoners or slaughtered. This came to be known as The Law of the Innocents or Adomnan’s law (Cain Adomhnáin). It’s genesis traces back to a request made by Eunan’s mother Rónnat.

St Eunan died at the Abbey in Iona in 704. He is the Patron of Raphoe Diocese. He is celebrated on the 23rd of September.

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