As the Celtic priests and communities were being slowly hoodwinked into Christian belief systems, the monks and their artisans were slowly developing stone crosses that they usually sited on open ground.They were probably placed there for open site worship of the gospels and religious tracts and would have become a gathering or assembly point with the converted masses. Crosses ranged from unpierced wheel rings of one solid sculptured piece with bosses at the intersections of the bracings to highly carved pierced ring crosses with intricate designs of key patterns, braids and even serpents.
There was a metamorphosis from abstract cross shape symbolism to pictorial panels showing gospel scenes on all cross faces.The old sun symbol was eventually replaced with a truimphant risen Christ figure or a crucified one at the intersection of the cross members. It seemed that as this progression moved on , bigger and more detailed carvings came about as well as the size of the cross taking on increased dimensions. Along with the crosses came stone slabs which represented commemorations to prominant monks, bishops etc. Monks again used the dual symbolism of the wheel pointing out that God the SON(SUN) brought the LOGOS (word of God) down to earth and with the Sun (God) centred in the earthly cross. This would merge God's omnipotent forces holding the cosmos, man and earth together leading to inescapable death and regeneration. No wonder the Celts lapped this up, to them it was a natural progression of Druidism!!. In fact the cross was really the old sacred tree of life in stone.
Ok, remember I said about further evidence of Druidic influence in Celtic Christianity, well for one thing, the Celtic Christian monks practised a slightly different religion than Rome did. They celebrated Easter on a different day calculating it as the 14th day after the full moon on the vernal equinox. This usually meant celebrating it a week later or earlier than everyone else. They also dressed in a white habit and had different hair styles or tonsures. While the monks established monasteries they laid to work on writing down gospels,in Latin, on calfskin(vellum). However with the famous Book of Kells not only were there gospel stories but also Irish folklore in Gaelic and detailed artwork that was just a little strange for a sacred text.
These so called illuminated manuscripts were turned out of scriptoria across monasteries. I happened to bump into Bernard Meehan who is the Keeper of the Book of Kells which can now be seen ,one page at a time, in the library at Trinity College, Dublin. Bernard, a Scotsman, knows just about everything there is to know about that book. The fact that it possibly took 30 - 40 years to write out its 640 odd pages and meant the death of 1300 of a herd of cattle to do it. Druids were known for their wealth of knowledge connected with all types of the Oak tree, including the Rotur and Kermes oaks. They knew all its medicinal and healing properties. It then becomes a little strange that some of the coloured pigments used in the Book of Kells and other manuscripts came from these same oak tree types. For instance the ink the monks used was from iron sulphate and crushed oak apples in wine or vinegar.The colour red was from either red lead or Kermes (from the eggs of a Mediterranean insect found on the Kermes oak tree!) or from vermillon from Spain. Green from verdigras was an acetic acid heated on copper and placed inside holowed out oak trunks!!Blue was from the Oriental plant indigo or Woad, a blue dye used as war paint by the Celts. Bernard maintains that only about 4 - 5 scribes worked on the Book of Kells but where did they acquire their knowledge of pigmentations?
Once Christainity gained a hold in Ireland, it became known as the ' Island of saints and scholars' because of its vigorous missionaries who spread the word all over Europe. But it was not without adversaries throughout its 2000 year reign. Many invasions beset Ireland until its independence in the 20th. century. As the last verse in this poem shows the monks were always on the alert.
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