Guest Post by Shaun Jex
Skellig Michael sits 11.6
kilometres off of Ireland’s Iveragh Peninsula. The island juts out of the
Atlantic Ocean; its craggy peaks and sheer cliffs give the land an ambiance of
austere foreboding. The frequency of violent winds and storms make journeys to
the Skellig a risky enterprise. Little about the place suggests warmth or
welcome, but for the medieval monks of Ireland this inhospitable atmosphere
served as its greatest draw.
Early Christian History
The last Roman Emperor fell in
476 CE, beginning the era known as the Middle or Dark Ages. The fall of the
Rome came roughly 440 years after the death of Jesus of Nazareth, 164 years
from the conversion of Constantine, 151 years from the Council of Nicea, and 95
years after Theodosius I declared Nicene Christianity the official state
religion of Rome. A mere two hundred years had passed since Anthony the Great,
the first Desert Father, took to the Nitrian Desert and set an example for
centuries of hermetic monks who chose to abandon society and devote their life
to prayer and study. As Rome crumbled, a group of Irish monks continued this
tradition by establishing a hermitage on the forbidding peaks of Skellig
Michael.
The Christian faith came to
Ireland in the fourth century. It spread in the fifth century through the work
of a young bishop named Maewyn Succat, more commonly known as St Patrick. That
Christianity came to Ireland just as Rome dissolved proved fortuitous to
Western history. As Thomas Cahill notes, “...as the Roman Empire fell, as all
through Europe matted, unwashed barbarians descended on the Roman cities,
looting artifacts and burning books, the Irish, who were just learning to read
and write, took up the great labor of copying all of western literature -
everything they could lay their hands on.” Of Skellig Michael, historian Kenneth
Clark said, “...for quite a long time – almost a hundred years – western
Christianity survived by clinging to places like Skellig Michael, a pinnacle of
rock eighteen miles from the Irish coast, rising seven hundred feet out of the
sea.”
The Founding of the Hermitage
Dates vary as to when monks first
established a community on Skellig Michael. Estimates range between the sixth
and eighth centuries. The earliest known reference comes from the Martyrology
of Tallaght, a compilation of saints from the Roman calendar, written between
797–808 CE. In an April 28 entry, the book references the death of a Skellig
monk named Suibni. The Diocese of Kerry asserts that this reference from so
distant a location (329 km) suggests that the monastery had already established
a widespread reputation.
To understand why the monks
decided to move to such a forbidding locale, it helps to understand the culture
of Irish Catholicism as expressed through one of its most ancient texts. The
Cambria Homily, composed in the seventh century, is the oldest known Irish
homily. According to Padraig O’ Neill’s ‘Background to the Cambria Homily’, it
“may be the first piece of continuous prose on a religious subject extant from
Old Irish.” The work details three separate types of martyrdom:
“Now there are three kinds of
martyrdom that are counted as a cross to us, namely, white, blue and red
martyrdom. The white martyrdom for someone is when they part for the sake of
God from everything that they love, although they may suffer fasting and hard
work thereby. The blue martyrdom is when through fasting and hard work they
control their desires or struggle in penance and repentance. The red martyrdom
is when they endure a cross or destruction for Christ’s sake, as happened to
the Apostles when they persecuted the wicked and taught the law of God.”
This idea of white martyrdom
likely influenced the monks to establish a hermitage on Skellig Michael. They
cut themselves off from society and lived in austere conditions where they
could devote the majority of their time to prayer and study.
In the sixth and seventh century,
the community bore the name of Sceilig Figil, or Ocean Rock Vigil. The name
Michael would not appear until sometime around the eleventh century as
documented in the Annals of the Four Masters. The text provides a brief reference
in 1044 noting, “The Age of Christ 1044. Aedh of Sgelic-Mhichil”.
Tradition credits Saint Fionan
(470–549 CE) with founding the community. A travelling missionary, Fionan also
established churches in Aghowle, Mugna Sulcain, and Clonard, where he also
built a substantial monastery.
Building of the Hermitage and
Monastery
By the ninth century,
construction on the island began. Monks built a hermitage on the southern peak
of the island. The hermitage consisted of three terraces, an altar, several
cisterns and other minor stone constructions. The cisterns worked in a network
with water flowing from one to another as they filled, creating a system of
water filtration.
The monastery sits on the
northeast portion of the island. Three sets of steps were built to the
monastery, though only the south set remains accessible to the public. Monks
used local stone to build retaining walls and terraces, placing gardens along
the outside of the structure and buildings on the interior. According to World
Heritage Ireland, these retaining walls also created a microclimate that
allowed for better gardening.
Living quarters were clochan or
beehive cells constructed without mortar. The roofs of the cells are corbelled,
a roofing technique that creates the recognizable pointed dome atop the
buildings. The typical cell had accommodations for three monks. Each had a
small cupboard and stone pegs from which they could hang items. The largest,
known as cell A, served as a communal cell and contained two levels. Three
cisterns sit around the grounds, positioned to collect water run-off from the
rock above the monastery.
A structure known as the “Large
Oratory” is the oldest surviving church on Skellig Michael. The building has an
inverted boat shape, common in Irish monasteries along the Atlantic coast. A
graveyard sits to the east of the monastery, though a portion has been lost to
collapse. Another church, called St Michael’s, is the only portion of the
monastery built with limestone mortar. Construction on St Michael’s occurred at
least a century after the original construction of the monastery, with portions
being built as late as the twelfth century.
Viking Raids
The Annals of Inisfallen detail
the history of Ireland from approximately 433 CE to 1450 CE, with the bulk of
the work being compiled in 1092. Scholarship suggests that the text originated
in Emly and other houses of Munster, Ireland before coming into the possession
of the monks of Inisfallen Abbey. The text provides the first history of
Vikings raiding the monastery of Skellig Michael. An entry dated 824 states, "Scelec
(Skellig) was plundered by the heathens and Etgal was carried off into
captivity, and he died of hunger on their hands."
The Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh
(The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, or, the invasions of Ireland by the
Danes and other Norsemen) tells of Ireland’s battles with the Vikings,
including the story of Ireland’s legendary king Brian Boru (941–1014 CE). The
book mentions an 850 CE raid by the Norsemen. It reads, “There came a fleet from Luimnech in the south of
Erinn, they plundered Skellig Michael, and Inisfallen and Disert Donnain and
Cluain Mor…”
Over a century later, Olaf Tryggvason
(king of Norway from 995 to c.1000 CE) may have come to the island. According
to some traditions, a hermit on Skellig Michael baptized Tryggvason in 993, two
years before he assumed throne. Tryggvason led the first efforts to
Christianize Norway. It was a later king, Olav II, who went on to became the country’s patron
saint.
The Last Days of Skellig Michael
Historian and clergyman Giraldis
Cambrensis, also known as Gerald of Wales, mentions the monastery again in his
work about life in the twelfth century. Two of his major works, the Topography
of Ireland (c. 1188 CE) and the Conquest of Ireland (c.1189) share history he
learned while on a military campaign to the country. In the Topography,
Giraldis mentions an incident at Skellig Michael he refers to as “Of the Stone in which a Cavity is Every Day
Miraculously Filled with Wine.” In it he writes, “There is an island with a
church dedicated to St Michael, famed for its orthodox sanctity from very
ancient times. There is a stone outside the porch of this church, on the right
hand, and party fixed in the wall, with a hollow in its surface, which, every
morning, through the merits of the saint to whom the church is dedicated, is
filled with as much wine as will conveniently suffice for the service of the
masses on the day ensuing, according to the number of the priests there who
have to celebrate them.”
By the
thirteenth century, weather and the changing organization of the Catholic Church
ended full-time life on the island. The monks are said to have moved to Ballinskellig,
a small town on the Irish coast. Though Skellig Michael ceased to function as a
year-round community, the monastery remained a prominent location for
pilgrimage all the way into the eighteenth century.
Image Credits
All four images used in this post are © National Monuments Service. Dept. of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
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Thanks to Shaun Jex for a fascinating insight into the monastery at Skellig Michael. Shaun runs his own blog, 'Walking the Jericho Road', over at https://shaunjex.com and you can find him on Twitter @shaunmjex.
