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For many of us, the word Orthodoxy is associated with the Byzantine or Slavic expression of Christianity. But before the schism that separated Latin western Europe from the rest of Christendom, Christian faith and practice were common from Africa to Gaul, and from Syria and central Asia to Ireland and Spain.

In the writings left to us by the early Christians of Ireland, Britain, and Gaul, we see a Christianity that is very familiar to Eastern Orthodox Christians. The ancient Celtic Christians expressed in their own cultural context a faith and practice that was fully in harmony with their contemporaries in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, and the Balkans.

History Introduction: The Dysert Tradition The Church in Britain and Ireland until the Eleventh Century A Brief History of the Irish Orthodox Church Spirituality The Spirituality of the Celtic Church Red, White, and Green Martyrdom Rule of Saint Columba Carmina Gadelica An Early Irish Statement on the Eucharist In Step with Saints Patrick and Gregory of Tours

Monasticism Celtic Monasticism Map of Ireland with Monasteries circa 650AD The Ascetic Revival of the Ninth Century Skellig Michael Saints Aidan of Lindisfarne Brendan the Navigator Brigid of Kildare Ciaran of Clonmacnoise Columba of Iona David of Wales Kevin of Glendalough Ninian Patrick Lives of Celtic saints: Daily Lives of the first millennium Saints of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, England, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man.

Further reading

• Celtic Christian Library University of Wales, Lampeter
• How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
• The Egyptian Desert in the Irish Bogs: The Byzantine Character of Early Celtic Monasticism by Fr. Gregory Telepneff