Above : Moulding, Tuaim Gr«iua.

We owe our knowledge of the labours and influence of the Irish monks in England and the Continent almost entirely to foreign sources, and, with a very few exceptions, our native annals are almost silent concerning the missionaries who went forth from Ireland in such great numbers. So frequently were they to be met with on the Continent that Walafried Strabo, a writer of the ninth century, remarks that the custom of travel­ling appeared to have become a part of the Irishman’s nature.* St. Gildas notes that to voyage over seas, and to journey over broad tracts of land was to the Irish monks not so much a weariness as a delight. “Most of them,” he writes, ” appear to have been born under a wandering planet.” ” The Celt,” says Mr. Lane-Poole, ” did not yield to the Norsemen in his passion for travel.” Various reasons may be assigned to account for the large number of Irish monks that went abroad, and they certainly did not leave their native land because of any idle curiosity to see foreign countries or through a desire to wander about on the Continent. There was a multitude of monks in Ireland, and an urgent and great need for missionary effort in France and Germany. The Irish Saints had a real vocation for the apostolate, and many of them were impelled by the call to a higher degree of the ascetic life. They fully realised that charity began at home and they did not go away until the faith was secure in Ireland. An early canon attributed to the epoch of St. Patrick states:—One’s first work must be to instruct the people of one’s own country, following the example of Christ. It is only in the case when no results can flow from such instruction that one is permitted to abandon it following the example of the Apostle.*

The Venerable Bede, a contemporary writer, has described for us how devoted and zealous the Irish missionaries were, and how they were always the servants of Cod and despised the things of the world. They possessed neither gold nor silver, and all that they received from the rich passed through their hands, into the hands of the poor. Kings and nobles visited them from time to time, only to pray in their churches, or to listen to their sermons, and as long as they remained in their cloisters they were content with the humble food of the brethren. Wherever one of these ecclesiastics or monies came, he was received by all with joy; and whenever he was seen journey in»- across the country the people streamed around hi in to implore his benediction and hearken to his words. The priests entered the village only to preach or administer the sacraments; and so free were they from avarice, that it was only when compelled by the rich and noble that they accepted lands for the erection of monasteries. A modern French writer* also notes the powerful influence which they were able to exercise in every country to which they went, and how men of all ranks were attracted to them. ” They were wonderful,” he writes, ” as the revivers of the intellectual life and as drawers of souls. That strange mixture of fervour and austerity, of independence and respect for traditions, of simplicity and strong sensibility, of imagination held under sway and yet impetuous; all these traits, which constituted in their concert the religion of the ancient Celts, exercised an irresistible charm over a wide area. Noble strangers charmed by their ardent piety and their superior knowledge ran after these island masters, and would not afterwards leave them.”
They excelled all nations in the ardour of their faith. ” The Scots,” says Jonas, ” differ from all other nations in their laws, yet by their firm adherence to the dogmas of Christianity they excel all the neighbouring countries in their faith.