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{{Short description|Medieval Irish and Scottish Christian mission}}

[[File:Columba at Bridei's fort.jpg|thumb|200px|Saint Columba during a mission to the Picts]]
The '''Hiberno-Scottish mission''' was a series of expeditions in the 6th and 7th centuries by [[Gaels|Gaelic]] [[Missionary|missionaries]] originating from [[Ireland]] that spread [[Celtic Christianity]] in [[Scotland]], [[Wales]], [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|England]] and [[Merovingian dynasty|Merovingian lands]]. Catholic Christianity spread first within Ireland. Since the 8th and 9th centuries, these early missions were called 'Celtic Christianity'.

There is dispute over the relationship of the Hiberno-Scottish mission to [[Catholic Church|Catholic Christianity]]. Catholic sources claim it functioned under the authority of the [[Holy See]],<ref name="ott">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Ott |first=Michael |title=Schottenklöster |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |volume=13 |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York |year=1912 |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13589b.htm |access-date=19 February 2013}}</ref> while Protestant historians highlight conflicts between Celtic and Roman clergy.<ref name=":1" /> There is agreement that the [[Mission (Christianity)|mission]] was not strictly coordinated.<ref name="flech">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U5wmDAAAQBAJ |title=The Irish in Early Medieval Europe: Identity, Culture and Religion |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2016 |isbn=9781137430595 |editor-last=Flechner |editor-first=Roy |location=London |pages=231–41 |editor2-last=Meeder |editor2-first=Sven }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> As a whole, Celtic-speaking areas were part of Latin Christendom at a time when there was significant [[Catholic Liturgical Rites|regional variation of liturgy and structure]], but a general collective veneration of the [[Papacy]] was no less intense in Celtic-speaking areas.<ref>{{harvnb|Sharpe|1984|pp=230–270}}; {{harvnb|Wormald|2006|pp=207–208, 220 n. 3}}</ref>

==Etymology==
''[[Hibernia]]'' is the Latin name for the island of Ireland.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nicholson |first=Oliver |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A09WDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA782 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity |date=2018-04-19 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-256246-3 |pages=782 |language=en}}</ref>

The Latin term '<nowiki/>''[[Scoti|Scotti]]''' refers to the Gaelic-speaking people of Ireland and western Scotland. From this term, developed an alternate Latin name for the territory in which the Scotti lived: '[[Scotia]]'.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Duffy |first=Sean |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WkQrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA421 |title=Routledge Revivals: Medieval Ireland (2005): An Encyclopedia |date=2017-07-05 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-351-66617-6 |pages=421 |language=en}}</ref>

''Schottenklöster'' (German for 'Scottish monasteries') is the name applied to the Bible schools established by Gaelic missionaries in Continental Europe, particularly to those in Germany that became [[Benedictine]] monasteries. Ireland's [[sobriquet]] "Island of Saints and Scholars" derives from this period.<ref name="ott" />

== Columba in Scotland ==
[[Columba]] was an Irish prince born in 521 and educated at the Bible school at [[Clonard Abbey|Clonard]]. At the age of 25, Columba’s first mission involved the establishment of a school at [[Derry]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Bede |title=Ecclesiastical History of England |year=731 |volume=3 |pages= |chapter=Chapter 4}}</ref> Following this, Columba spent seven years allegedly establishing over 300 churches and church schools.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Wilkinson |first=Benjamin George |title=Truth Triumphant |publisher=Pacific Press Publishing Association |year=1944 |location=Oakland, CA |pages=103}}</ref> [[Adomnán|Adamnan]] says of Columba:<blockquote>He could not pass the space even of a single hour without applying himself either to prayer, or reading, or writing, or else to some manual labor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adamnan |title=Life of St Columba |publisher=E. P. Dutton and Sons |year=1922 |location=New York |pages=li |translator-last=Huyshe |translator-first=Wentworth}}</ref></blockquote>In 563, Columba sailed to Scotland with about 200 other missionaries hoping to spread Celtic Christianity among the largely pagan [[Picts]].<ref name=":0" /> The lord of the island of [[Isle of Mull|Mull]], a [[Gaels|Gael]] of [[Dal Riada|Dál Riada]], was a relative of Columba and granted the missionaries ownership of [[Iona]], where they established a [[Iona Abbey|Bible school]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Neander |first=Augustus |title=General History of the Christian Religion and Church |publisher=Geo. Bell and Sons |year=1871 |volume=3 |location=London |pages=17}}</ref> Bede writes that Columba converted the Picts to the word of God,<ref name=":3" /> suggesting that Bible teaching was the central means of conversion. Students routinely studied for 18 years before [[ordination]], an indicator of the depth of [[Theology|theological]] learning required by the Celtic Church.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moore |first=T. V. |title=The Culdee Church |publisher=Presbyterian Committee of Publications |year=1868 |location=Richmond, VA |pages=48}}</ref> This school remained Celtic until they were driven out by the [[Benedictines]] in 1204.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Menzies |first=Lucy |title=Saint Columba of Iona |publisher=J. M. Dent and Sons |year=1920 |location=London |pages=215}}</ref>

===See Also===
* [[Saint Blane]]
* [[Cathan]]
* [[Maccai]]

==Dunod in Wales==
Dunod was a disciple of Columba who established a Bible school at [[Bangor-on-Dee]] in 560. The school had such a large student body that seven deans presided over at least 300 students each.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Bede |title=Ecclesiastical History of England |year=731 |volume=2 |language= |chapter=Chapter 2}}</ref> The mission's conflict with [[Augustine of Canterbury|Augustine]] is noteworthy. [[Pope Gregory I]] "invested Augustine with jurisdiction over all the bishops of the British Church" when he arrived in Britain in 597.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ebrard |first=A |title=Bonifatius, der Zerstörer des Columbanischen Kirchentums auf dem Festlande |publisher=C. Bertelsmann |year=1886 |location=Gütersloh |pages=16 |language=German}}</ref> Neander writes:<blockquote>The abbot of the most distinguished British monastery, at Bangor, Deynoch by name, whose opinion in ecclesiastical affairs had the most weight with his countrymen, when urged by Augustin to submit in all things to the ordinances of the Roman Church, gave him the following remarkable answer: “We are all ready to listen to the church of God, to the pope at Rome, and to every pious Christian, that so we may show to each, according to his station, perfect love, and uphold him by word and deed. We know not, that any other obedience can be required of us towards him whom you call the pope or the father of fathers.”<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>Representatives from Bangor attended two conferences with Augustine, at which they declared “that they could not depart from their ancient customs without the consent and leave of their people” and that they could not accept the supremacy of the pope “nor receive [Augustine] as their archbishop”.<ref name=":2" /> Dunod asserted his independence from Augustine on the grounds that they adhered to what their holy fathers held before them, who were the friends of God and the followers of the apostles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ussher |first=James |title=Discourse on the Religion Anciently Professed by the Irish and British |publisher=John Jones |year=1815 |location=Dublin |pages=106}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lane |title=Illustrated Notes on English Church History |publisher=E. and J. B. Young Company |year=1898 |volume=1 |location=New York |pages=54–55}}</ref>

In Wales, Celtic Christianity long maintained its position with its peculiar ideas and exceptional beliefs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bund |first=J. W. Willis |title=The Celtic Church of Wales |publisher=D. Nutt |year=1897 |location=London |pages=5}}</ref> The Bible school at Bangor was destroyed in 613 by [[Æthelfrith|King Æthelfrith]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Baring-Gould |first1=Sabine |title=The Lives of the British Saints |last2=Fisher |first2=John |publisher=The Honourable Society of the Cymmrodorion |year=1911 |volume=4 |location=London |pages=298}}</ref>

==Aidan in England==
[[Aidan of Lindisfarne|Aidan]] was educated at Iona.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stillingfleet |first=Edward |title=The Antiquities of the British Churches |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1842 |volume=2 |location=Oxford |pages=157–158}}</ref> In 634, [[Oswald of Northumbria|King Oswald]] invited Aidan to the Northumbrian court to teach the doctrines of Celtic Christianity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lingard |first=John |title=The Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church |publisher=Keating, Brown and Keating |year=1806 |volume=1 |location=London |pages=27–28}}</ref> Oswald granted Aidan the island of [[Lindisfarne]] for a Bible school.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lingard |first=John |title=The Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church |publisher=Keating, Brown and Keating |year=1806 |volume=1 |location=London |pages=155}}</ref> Upon his death in 651, Aidan was succeeded by [[Finan of Lindisfarne|Finan]] and then by [[Colmán of Lindisfarne|Colman]], both of whom had been educated at Iona.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bede |title=Ecclesiastical History of England |year=731 |volume=3 |chapter=Chapter 26}}</ref>

From Northumbria, Aidan's mission [[Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England|spread throughout the Anglo-Saxon]] kingdoms and similar Bible schools were established in [[Bernicia]], [[Deira]], [[Mercia]] and [[Kingdom of East Anglia|East Anglia]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilkinson |first=Benjamin George |title=Truth Triumphant |publisher=Pacific Press Publishing Association |year=1944 |location=Oakland, CA |pages=172}}</ref> It is estimated that two thirds of the Anglo-Saxon population were converted to Celtic Christianity at this time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Soames |first=Henry |title=The Anglo-Saxon Church |publisher=John W. Parker |year=1835 |location=London |pages=57–58}}</ref>

==Columbanus in Francia==
[[Columbanus]] was born in 543 and studied at Bangor Abbey until c. 590,<ref name=":23">{{Cite web |title=Saint Columban {{!}} Christian missionary {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Columban |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> when he travelled to the continent with twelve companions,<ref name=":06">{{Cite web |last=Munro |first=Dana C. |title=The Life of St. Columban, by the Monk Jonas, (7th Century) |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/columban.asp |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=Internet History Sourcebooks}}</ref> including [[Saint Attala|Attala]], Columbanus the Younger, [[Saint Gall|Gallus]],<ref name=":23"/> and [[Deicolus|Domgal]].<ref name=":13">{{Cite web |title=Saint Columbanus |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Saint_Columbanus/ |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref>

The mission was welcomed by [[Guntram|King Guntram of Burgundy]]<ref name=":13"/> and schools were established at [[La Voivre, Haute-Saône|Anegray]], [[Luxeuil Abbey|Luxeuil]] and [[Fontaine-lès-Luxeuil|Fontaines]].<ref name=":06"/> When [[Theuderic II]] expelled Columbanus from Burgundy in 610, Columbanus established [[Wettingen-Mehrerau Abbey|Mehrerau Abbey]] at [[Bregenz]] with the support of [[Theudebert II]].<ref name=":06"/> When Theuderic II conquered [[Austrasia]] in 612, Columbanus fled to [[Kingdom of the Lombards|Lombardy]], where he was welcomed by [[Agilulf|King Agilulf]]. In 614, he established a school at [[Bobbio Abbey|Bobbio]].<ref name=":06"/><ref name=":13"/>

During the 7th century, the disciples of Columbanus and other Gaelic missionaries founded several monasteries in what are now France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland. The best known are: [[Abbey of St. Gall|St. Gall]] in Switzerland, [[Disibodenberg]] in the [[Rhine]] [[Electoral Palatinate|Palatinate]], [[Donatus of Besançon|Palatium]] at [[Besançon]],<ref name=":06"/> [[Lure, Haute-Saône|Lure]] and Cusance in the [[Diocese of Besançon]], [[Bèze Abbey|Bèze]] in the [[Diocese of Langres]], [[Remiremont Abbey]] and [[Moyenmoutier Abbey]] in the [[Diocese of Toul]], [[Fosses-la-Ville]] in the [[Diocese of Liège]], [[Mont Saint-Quentin]] at [[Péronne, Somme|Péronne]], Ebersmunster in Lower Alsace, St. Martin's at Cologne, the [[Scots Monastery, Regensburg]], [[Vienna]], [[Erfurt]] and [[St. James's Abbey, Würzburg|Würzburg]].

In Italy, Fiesole produced [[Saint Donatus of Fiesole]] and [[Andrew the Scot]] of [[Fiesole]]. Another early Schottenkloster was [[Säckingen Abbey|Säckingen]] in [[Baden]], founded by the Irish missionary [[Fridolin of Säckingen]] who is said to have founded another at [[Konstanz]]. Other Hiberno-Scottish missionaries active at the time, predominantly in [[Swabia]], were [[Wendelin of Trier]], [[Saint Kilian]], [[Saint Arbogast|Arbogast]], [[Landelin]], [[Trudpert]], [[Pirmin]] (founded [[Reichenau abbey]]), [[Saint Gall]] (Abbey of St. Gall), [[Corbinian]], [[Emmeram]] and [[Rupert of Salzburg]].

==After Columbanus (8th to 13th centuries)==
[[File:Schottenportal RB.jpg|left|200px|thumb|Schottenportal at the Scottish Monastery, [[Regensburg]]]]
Hiberno-Scottish activity in Europe continued after the death of Columbanus. There were monastic foundations in [[Anglo-Saxon]] England, the first in about 630 at "Cnobheresburgh", an unknown place in [[East Anglia]] but possibly [[Burgh Castle]] mentioned by [[Bede]]. Others such as [[Malmesbury Abbey]], perhaps [[Bosham]], and [[Glastonbury Abbey]] had strong Irish links. The profile of Iona declined, and from 698 until the reign of [[Charlemagne]] in the 770s, the Hiberno-Scottish efforts in the Frankish Empire were continued by the [[Anglo-Saxon mission]] – see [[Germanic Christianity]].

Irish monks known as [[Papar]] are said to have been present in Iceland before its settlement from AD 874 onwards by the [[Norsemen|Norse]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coroban |first=Costel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vp9fDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA112 |title=Ideology and Power in Norway and Iceland, 1150-1250 |date=2018-06-11 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-5275-1206-1 |pages=112 |language=en}}</ref> The oldest source mentioning the Papar is the ''[[Íslendingabók]]'' ("Book of the Icelanders"), between 1122 and 1133.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ureland |first1=P. Sture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O46ZKTUg2ogC&pg=PA115 |title=Language Contact across the North Atlantic: Proceedings of the Working Groups held at the University College, Galway (Ireland), 1992 and the University of Göteborg (Sweden), 1993 |last2=Clarkson |first2=Iain |date=2011-09-08 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-092965-2 |pages=115 |language=en}}</ref> The book states that the Norse found Irish priests, with bells and crosiers, at Iceland at the time of their arrival.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johannesson |first=Jon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tuY11WRAYPoC&pg=PA5 |title=A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Islendinga Saga |date=2007-01-15 |publisher=Univ. of Manitoba Press |isbn=978-0-88755-331-8 |pages=5–6 |language=en}}</ref> Such figures are also mentioned in the Icelandic ''[[Landnámabók]]'' ("Book of Settlements", possibly going back to the early 12th century).<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Geeraert |first1=Dustin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gj52EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 |title=Cultural Legacies of Old Norse Literature: New Perspectives |last2=Crocker |first2=Christopher |date=2022-08-23 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-84384-638-3 |pages=37 |language=en}}</ref>

Among the Irish monks who were active in Central Europe were two particularly important theologians, [[Marianus Scotus]] and [[Johannes Scotus Eriugena]]. Legends of Irish foundations are recorded in a [[Middle High German]] text known as ''Charlemagne and the Scottish [Irish] Saints'' (Shaw, 1981).

The rule of St. Columbanus, which was originally followed in most of these monasteries, was soon superseded by that of [[Rule of Saint Benedict|St. Benedict]]. Later [[Gaels|Gaelic]] missionaries founded [[Abbey of Honau|Honau]] in Baden (about 721), [[Murbach]] in Upper Alsace (about 727), [[Altomünster]] in Upper [[Bavaria]] (about 749), while other Gaelic monks restored St. Michel in Thiérache (940), Walsort near [[Namur (city)|Namur]] (945), and, at Cologne, the Monasteries of St. Clement (about 953), St. Martin (about 980), St. Symphorian (about 990), and St. Pantaléon (1042).

Towards the end of the 11th and in the 12th century, a number of ''Schottenklöster'', intended for Irish monks exclusively, sprang up in Germany. About 1072, three monks, Marianus, Iohannus, and Candidus, took up their abode at the little Church of Weih-St-Peter at [[Regensburg]] (called Ratisbon in older literature). Their number soon increased and a larger monastery was built for them (about 1090) by Burgrave Otto of Regensburg and his brother Henry. This became the famous [[Scots Monastery, Regensburg|Scots Monastery of St. James]] in Regensburg, the mother-house of a series of other ''Schottenklöster''. It founded the Abbeys of St. James at [[Würzburg]] (about 1134), St. Aegidius at [[Nuremberg]] (1140), St. James at [[Konstanz|Constance]] (1142), [[Schottenstift, Vienna|Our Blessed Lady]] at [[Vienna]] (1158), St. Nicolas at [[Memmingen]] (1168), Holy Cross at [[Eichstätt]] (1194), and the Priory of [[Kelheim]] (1231). These, together with the Abbey of St. James at [[Erfurt]] (1036), and the Priory of Weih-St-Peter at Ratisbon formed the famous congregation of the German ''Schottenklöster'' which was erected by [[Pope Innocent III|Innocent III]] in 1215, with the Abbot of St. James at Ratisbon as abbot-general.

==14th century onwards==
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2020}}
In the 14th and 15th centuries, most of these monasteries were on the decline, partly for want of Irish monks, and partly on account of great laxity of discipline and financial difficulties.

In consequence, the abbeys of [[Nuremberg]] and [[Vienna]] were withdrawn from the Irish congregation and repeopled by German monks in 1418. [[St. James's Abbey, Würzburg]], was left without any monks after the death of Abbot Philip in 1497. It was then re-peopled by German monks and in 1506 joined the [[congregation of Bursfeld]].

In 1595, however, it was granted to the Scottish congregation and occupied by Scottish monks until its suppression in 1803. The abbey of Constance began to decline in the first half of the 15th century and was suppressed in 1530. That of Memmingen also disappeared during the early period of the Protestant Reformation in the following century.

The Abbey of Holy Cross at Eichstatt seems to have ceased early in the 14th century. In consequence of the [[Protestant Reformation]] in Scotland many Scottish Benedictines left their country and took refuge in the Schottenklöster of Germany during the 16th century.

The Scottish monasteries in Ratisbon, [[Erfurt]], and Würzburg again began to flourish temporarily, but all endeavours to regain the monasteries of Nuremberg, Vienna, and Constance for monks of Scottish nationality failed.

In 1692, Abbot Placidus Flemming of Ratisbon reorganized the Scottish congregation which now comprised the monasteries of Ratisbon [[Regensburg]], Erfurt, and Würzburg, the only remaining Schottenklöster in Germany. He also erected a seminary in connection with the monastery at Ratisbon.

But the forced secularization of monasteries in 1803 put an end to the Scottish abbeys of Erfurt and Würzburg, leaving St. James's at Ratisbon as the only surviving Schottenkloster in Germany. Since 1827 this monastery was again permitted to accept novices but the number of its monks dwindled down to two capitulars in 1862.

There being no hope of any increase, [[Pope Pius IX]] suppressed this last Schottenkloster in his brief of 2 September 1862. Its revenues were distributed between the diocesan seminary of Ratisbon and the Scots College at Rome.

==See also==
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|         
* [[Gaelic Ireland]]
* [[Anglo-Saxon mission]]
* [[Culdee]]
* [[Schottenstift, Vienna]]
* [[Pirmin]]
* [[Quartodecimanism]]
* [[Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England]]
* [[Gregorian mission]]

}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Catholic|wstitle=Schottenklöster}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Bowen |first=E. G. |date=1977 |title=Saints, Seaways and Settlements in the Celtic Lands |location= Cardiff |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=0-900768-30-4}}
* {{Citation |last=Bruce |first=James |year=2007 |title=Prophecy, Miracles, Angels & Heavenly Light? The Eschatology, Pneumatology and Missiology of Adomnan's Life of Columbia - Studies in Christian History and Thought |publisher=Paternoster |isbn=9781597527316}}
* Crawford, Barbara (ed.), [https://archive.org/details/ScotlandInDarkAgeBritain ''Scotland In Dark Age Britain''] (St Andrews, 1996)
* {{cite journal |last=Sharpe |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Sharpe (historian) |title=Some problems concerning the organisation of the Church in early medieval Ireland |journal=[[Peritia]] |volume=3 |pages=230–70 |date=1984 |doi=10.1484/j.peri.3.68}}
*{{cite book |author-link=Patrick Wormald |last=Wormald |first=Patrick |chapter=Bede and the 'Church of the English' |title=The Times of Bede: Studies in Early English Christian Society and its Historian |editor-first=Stephen |editor-last=Baxter |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |date=2006 }}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Shaw |editor1-first=Frank |date=1981 |title=Karl der Große und die Schottischen Heiligen. Nach der Handschrift Harley 3971 der Britischen Bibliothek London |language=de |trans-title=Karl the Great and the Scottish Saints. After the manuscript Harley 3971 in the British Library (London) |series=Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters <nowiki>[</nowiki>German Texts of the Middle Ages<nowiki>]</nowiki> |volume= LXXI |publisher=Akademie-Verlag |location=Berlin (DDR)}}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Woolf |first=Alex |date=March–April 2002 |title=The 'When, Why & Wherefore' of Scotland |url=https://www.academia.edu/36649005 |magazine=History Scotland |pages=12–16}}

{{Gaels}}
{{Hiberno-Latin authors}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hiberno-Scottish Mission}}
[[Category:Catholic missions]]
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[[Category:Christianity in medieval Ireland]]
[[Category:Christianity in medieval Scotland]]
[[Category:History of Christianity in Belgium]]
[[Category:History of Christianity in England]]
[[Category:History of Christianity in France]]
[[Category:History of Christianity in Germany]]
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