Saint Columba's Mission to Scotland

St. Columba’s Mission to Scotland:

The Issue of Syncretism in the Installment of Christianity

Every culture has to be kept alive, because every time something disappears in the world, in the cultural way the world is getting poorer. And if we are fighting so much for Celtic culture, it is for ourselves, of course, but it is also for the other people. And we think of the people everywhere who are fighting for the way of light so that the world will not become a great concentration camp, with only one language, on master and one ruler. I think we are the only hope for liberty in the world today (Celts).

Imagine a damp, foggy morning in a mist-laden glen, with giant oaks lounging about the perimeter, guarding a precious treasure. White mottled birches shiver and whisper as they stand erect among their cousin oaks, watching a procession of white-robed men streaming through a circle of stones, moist from the morning mist. Carrying a rowan staff in one hand, and a sprig of hazel in the other, the foremost among these men enters the center of the circle, which is itself encompassed by a circular mound, a reminder of the Protectorate Serpent that is eternal–no beginning and no end, forever guarding this most holy place among the trees. Other priests follow, but the majority remains outside the circle of stones. People without robes approach to observe, worship, learn from these most-wise derwyddi, and bring arbitrary matters to court. What is now a typical pagan ritual for spiritual and societal purposes will be the model through which Christ will be worshiped and glorified, as the old gods are forsaken for the sake of the Savior.

Now imagine this same glen on another mystical foggy morning. A figure whose ornamented robe an entourage of assistants must carry, and whose domed headpiece causes him to be seen as the foremost of his colleagues, enters the stone circle with other robed figures. Their tonsures are strange–like a bald spot of an old man. He glances this way and that, announcing to all who can hear that such a place is unfit for the worship and honor of Christ. The other robed figures then begin to pull down the stones one by one with horses and robes, making up-down-left-right motions with their right hands.

These are pictures of events that have taken place in Ancient Britain, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Glimpses of God’s truth were being revealed to the men, women and children of the British Isles. The above-mentioned grove could have fulfilled the original idea of a sort of church (Wise 6). But later on, as Christianity had firmly rooted itself in the good soil of the Celtic soul, the Roman Church began to exercise its rule, resulting in the systematic removal of these sacred groves (37). The idea behind this was to destroy anything that would appear to the Christian eye as “pagan” or anti-Christian. There was zero tolerance for syncretism, and therefore if a culture’s mores conflicted with Roman Catholic mores, then the culture would simply have to change. Simple as that. This is a critical issue in the field of missionary work nowadays. Can new Arab converts call God “Allah,” when that is the only name in their vocabulary for God? Don Richardson, in Eternity in Their Hearts describes a tale of a Burmese tribe, the Karen people, whose Creation story follows remarkable Biblical parallels, and who worship “the true God” called “Y’wa.” They have several hymns that they hold dear to them, one of which says:

Y’wa is eternal, his life is long

One aeon–he dies not!

Two aeons–he dies not!

He is perfect in meritorious attributes

Aeons follow aeons–he dies not! (Richardson 77).

They believed a “white brother” would come bearing a white book that would lead them back to Y’wa. Can they still worship Christ with the hymns they have been singing to Him for ages? One should think so! But these syncretism issues exist, and there are solutions to these issues. St. Columba’s ministry was laced with the use of syncretism; taking things from with in the culture of a people to communicate the Gospel. Columba’s purpose was to allow the culture to be redeemed by Christ, not to overhaul the culture. However, where the cultural mores clearly rebelled against the Christian message, the culture needed to conform to a more Biblical standard.

To begin to see the employment of syncretism in the communication of the Gospel, on must first observe some similarities and differences between the monks and the druids. Druids,. according to T.A. Wise, were people who settled public and private disputes, foretold the future, interpreted duties of religion, decide on controversies, rewards and punishments allotted over disputes, education of chiefs, matters of State and religious rites (Wise 7). They studied geometry, geography, astrology, medicine and physics, and they taught doctrines of the spirituality of God and the immortality of the soul (xxv). They were the binding that held secure the knot of the Celtic lifestyle.

St. Columba took on this role in the establishment of Iona. There was learning given to nobles, and several times were there prophetic judgments over people’s lives, like his prophecy over Broichan, the priest of King Bridei. After telling Broichan to release an Irish slave-girl, St. Columba announced: “Know this Broichan. Know that if you will not free this captive exile before I leave Pictland, you will have very little time to live” (Adomnan 181). When Broichan was in his death throes, he took heed to St. Columba’s warning and released the slave-girl. And by a miracle, Broichan was healed.

Doctrinally, the Druidic religion was not far off from Christianity, as (?) points out in Celtic Lore:

Christ’s forty days and temptations in the wilderness, so like the shamanic crisis, which would have made him recognizable to the druids as one like themselves. [The] rebirth principle [was] explicit to the Gospel and, specifically, its association with water as enunciated in St. John’s Gospel: “Except a man be born of water and o f the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” We know the importance of water to Druidism and baptism recalls the bat drownings of victims dedicated to Toutatis. Even if one accepts . . . a Cauldron of Resurrections . . . we surely have something analogous to baptism (140-141).

As Druids were heavily involved with matters of State, so was St. Columba. He gave several prophecies of ascending kings and victors of battles. He regarded Diarmait mac Derbaill as the king "ordained by god's will" (Adomnan 61). He also seemed to take on the role of a Samuel type prophet, who was involved with the ordination of kings by divine right. On one occasion, King Oswald was going to war against Cadwallon, king of the Britons. While sleeping, Oswald had a dream of S. Columba, he said:

Be strong and act manfully. Behold I will be with thee . . . This coming night go out from your camp into battle for the Lord has granted me that at this time your foes shall be put to flight and Cadwallon your enemy shall be delivered into your hands and you shall return victorious after battle and reign happily (Adomnan 111).

Also, St. Columba visited King Bridei in Pictland at the hillfort Craig Phadrig to obtain permission to work on Iona, secure future missions to Pictland, the safety of Irish monks held hostage in Orkney, prevent King Bridei's hustling of King Conall, and to win the Pictish king's goodwill (Sutherland 50). According to Lucy Menzies, King Bridei and St. Columba became "soul friends," and the king no longer relied on Broichan (Menzies 72). Columba's political role as a "Christian Druid is clearly evident. He employs this method in order to gain the people's understanding of his purposes as a holy man. He plays the role of king maker, who ordains and blesses the Lord's anointed he even curses those who would rebel against such authorities, holding to Paul's instruction to pray for the king. He also is a heavenly king maker, proclaiming the sovereign rule of Christ.

The Druids and Celtic monks had been know to wear similar dress and tonsure, the latter being a bone of contention between the Roman and Celtic churches. The Celtic monks even employed the Druidic fashion of prayer, where the worshiper stands with upraised arms, "a gesture which Tacitus describes as that adopted by the Druids of Mon" (Celtic Lore 139). Worship at sacred groves and cairns was widely used by the druids, and St. Columba felt that it was necessary to worship at "places already associated with the supernatural (Menzies 73). Menzies also notes that to ask "Have you been to Church?" in Gaelic is "Have you been to the stones?" What Gregory the Great says of Christian worship at former pagan shrines is remarkable:

If those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God: that the nation, seeing their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts and knowing and adoring the true God may the more freely resort to places to which they have been accustomed . . . He who endeavors to ascend to the highest place rises by degrees or steps, not by leaps (Menzies 73).

It seems that the use of the Druid model for Christian evangelism by monks like St. Columba was the most effective means of communication to the Celtic and Pictish people. What did it mean to the Celtic or Pictish mind? How did they view St. Columba? It is highly probable that they were truly seen as druids who had the whole truth, and who served a greater power. This was the purpose behind St. Columba's "Power encounters" with opposing Druids or wizards. The greater god would receive worship from the people, and the servant of that god would receive due attention. It was necessary to pose as a type of druid to convey this message to its fullest effect. Who could resist listening to St. Columba, who after being refused admittance to the hillfort by King Bridei himself, makes a sign of the cross, knocks on the gate and places his hand on it, only for it to fly off its hinges by some supernatural force? It was necessary to confront Bridei's wizards with the power of the Holy Spirit, for otherwise, he would not have the king's attention. Even a shocker of a prophetic word got the belligerent Broichan's attention when he was on his deathbed, as was described earlier. Probably the most unique part about this "Christian Druid" was the fact that his heart was for the people. Think about the time when he was in Pictland, and the Holy Spirit spoke to him. Columba urged the brothers with him to run to such and such a place, "to meet the holy angels who have come from the heights of heaven to bear away the soul of a heathen man, who has spent his whole life in natural goodness and is now very old. But they must wait till we reach the place, so that we may bring timely baptism to him before he dies." The old man heard the Gospel, believed, was baptized and died on the spot. His family was then converted and baptized as well (Adomnan 216). Columba was an instructor to not only those who were nobly born, but those of no account; he had an intense desire to lead people to Christ to be a king maker of Christ.

In Pictland there was an established well cult. Adomnan describes on such case in this way: a particular well was found to inflict some sort of infirmity on people who happened to drink of this well, or wash their feet in it. Thinking that this well was a god that needed to be appeased, they began to treat it as such. St. Columba heard about it and went with some brothers to drive the demons from the well. "The saint first raised his hands and called on the name of Christ before washing his hands and feet . Then he and his companions drank form the water that he had blessed." From that point on, because St. Columba blessed the well, no one was inflicted by the demons any longer, but rather, any who drank from or washed in this well were healed of every disease (Adomnan 162 163).

This is an extreme version of syncretism employed by St. Columba. Was he compromising his own faith by allowing the veneration of the well to continue? Indeed, he hears of a place where demons are holding people captive to the delusion that this well is a god that must be appeased. To solve the issue, he wants to set the people free from the infirmities they receive from these demons. A worthy cause, but what has it become? Has this become an object of veneration again, this time of benevolent powers? Is Adomnan telling the story to justify well veneration?

Today, well veneration is practiced in Scotland. People will tie articles of clothing to holy bushes at these well shrines dedicated to Christian saints, as a sort of offering to the deity of the well. Also, other pagan practices still continue in Celtic Christian circles. It is doubtful that Scotland was entirely converted, in addition to the rest of the British Isles. In the BBC production of "The Celts", a gentleman tells of a Shani cult that continued it's practices as late as 1790 on the Island of Lewis:

They used to brew ale at home, select one person who went to wade out into the sea to his armpits, pour the ale very ostentatiously into the sea and shout in a loud voice, "Shani, help us with our crops for the next year!" Then they [went to] a church. So there was a mixture of paganism and Christianity. And then they went out into the fields for a mad orgy for the rest of the night. (Celts).

This form of syncretism clearly goes against Scripture; one cannot claim to worship Christ and serve another god, go to church and later on be seen having sex with his or her neighbors and relatives one after another in a fertility rite!

Another form of cultural syncretism is found in the Christian's use of Pictish animal symbols in the high crosses, stones, and the Books of Kells, Durrow, and the Lindisfarne Gospels. Sutherland says that the use of pagan symbols on the crosses was not offensive or unusual. "Christians often borrowed began symbols to make a Christian point. The Classical centaur prefigures Christ the healer on several class II stones" (Sutherland 76). The possible idea behind this was that the Cross had the power to drive the demon out of any totem. "Early Christian saints preferred to bless the paganism out of old sited and objects by conversion rather than by destruction" (Sutherland 76). Some animal symbols include the kelpie, or water horse, which is the personification of water. It is possible that "Nessie" is just this beast (87,88). What makes this unique is the possibility that St. Columba may have confronted such a creature at Loch Ness. In this confrontation, the power of Christ is greater than the water deity, which explains why the people watching this dramatic event "magnified the God of the Christians" (Adomnan 176).

The eagle is a symbol of chieftainship and is used to signify John's Gospel in several manuscripts (Sutherland 91). The bull is a symbol of power and also signifies Luke's Gospel (93). The Lion in Durrow's Gospel of Mark bears similarities to a Pictish Wolf. The goose is a symbol for alertness, and is usually depicted as looking toward its back as if toward unseen danger. It is a symbol of war and protection as well, and Celtic gods are usually seen with geese (98). This explains much of the Celtic idea of the goose as a symbols of the Holy Spirit. It is almost surprising that the Church would use such pagan symbols.

Syncretism also lied within the Church, were men compromised their faith for a moments sin. There was an instance where noblemen made offerings to the monastic community on Iona. On offering was quite generous, and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Columba blessed the man who gave the offering. But when he came to another offering, he denounced the unknown giver and accused him of avarice. The man made himself known and repented of this sin. There was another case where a priest was performing a mass, and St. Columba lifted his voice and announced that the priest held great sin in his heart. This priest likewise repented of his sin. In these cases there were gross compromises made with faith, yet St. Columba cried against it. In the same way, Christians should do the same when sin is running rampant in the Church. This mixture of faith and sin cannot continue, and it is a type of syncretism unbecoming to the Bride of Christ.

But why would St. Columba allow the continuation of well veneration, if not the sin within the Church? He is certainly a man who upholds the Word of God, and pagan worship cannot be placed alongside the worship of Christ. But it is clear that these Christians knew better not to compromise, yet they caved in to their own selfish desires. Celtic Lore gives an unseemly account of monks:

There are also instances which prove the monasteries were not past adopting some of the excesses of the pagan society they had come to change, with the monks raiding one another's monasteries, sometimes for cattle or goods, sometimes for religious relics (Celtic Lore 141).

A startling account of syncretism possibly lies in Adomnan and St. Columba's view of the kingship. There was a priest called Findchán who founded the monastery "Artchain" on the island of Tiree. This priest brought an Ulster nobleman named Aed Dub with him to Tiree, where he was to remain as a pilgrim for some hears. This man had murdered many people, including Diarmait mac Cerbaill, "ordained by God's will as king of all Ireland" (Adomnan 38). He was ordained as

a priest by Findchán, and apparently these two were having homosexual relations with each other. When St. Columba learned of this event, he said:

That right hand which Findchán, against the law of God and of the Church, laid on the head of a son of perdition will soon grow rotten. It will give him great pain, and be dead and buried before him though he will live many years after his hand is buried. Aed, however, who was ordained unfittingly, will return as a dog to his vomit; he will again be a bloody murderer and in the end, killed by a spear, he will fall from wood into water and die drowning. He deserved such and end to life long ago for having killed the king of all Ireland (Adomnan 139).

Both prophecies came to bass, but the shock lies not in the sin of these two "priests." Rather, one must see the unique thing that both Adomnan and St. Columba point out: Diarmait was "ordained by God's will as king of all Ireland." Why is this so interesting? Where does compromise lie in this statement? Richard Sharpe states in the endnotes of his translation of Adomnan’s "Life":

Perhaps the most notable point that the annals make about King

Diarmait is that in 560 he celebrated the Feast of Tara, Feis Temre,

the pagan ritual marriage of the king and the goddess of

sovereignty. (The word feds, "feast" is in fact the verbal noun of

foaid "sleeps (with)", indicating the sexual symbolism of the

ritual.) The Annals of Tigernach specifically say that Diarmait was

the last king to do this (Adomnan 296).

How can St. Columba and Adomnan elevate an Uí Néill king and claim that man as ordained by God’s will to be Ireland's king? Is God's will twisted? The only possible explanations are that St. Columba upheld the words of Paul in his first letter to Timothy: "I urge, then, first of all, that request, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–for kings and all those in authority . . ." (1 Ti 2:1 2). Also, it seems that he takes on David's attitude to refuse to touch the Lord's anointed sovereign.

What does all this syncretism stuff have to do with today's world? First, it touches on what a missions strategy would be like. When a person proclaims Christ, he or she mush first become part of the culture, and convert the church to the culture, not the culture to the Church. That does not mean that Christ is converted to the culture, or that the message of the Cross in stripped of it's meaning. The Church is merely the package, not Christ Himself; the Church is a body and it has ma parts: Ethiopian hands, American intestines, Chinese feet, argentine fingers, etc. So the preacher converts the church form to fit the culture–the message is essentially the same, and the hearer converts to Christ. An exchange is made: Christ becomes relevant to the culture within the culture, and the sinful ways of a culture are forsaken.

Also, the spiritual parts of life cannot be remove from the other parts; God cannot be removed from societal and political roles. both must complement each other. St. Columba provided the complement as he understood the Druidic diplomatic role with the Dal Riata, Uí Néill and Pictish kings. The kings provided the permission and protection for St. Columba's monastic community, and St. Columba provided the spiritual blessings to the rulers as they went about their business and battles. In America, there is the mentality that God can be separated from these roles, and that these roles, without God, can be very moral. But one cannot have morality without God, who is the ultimate source of all truth and righteousness. On top of this the Church can no longer separate itself from society and become its own sub society. Its duty is to its people, for it has the light of life the light that gives life to all men and women. It must take action in its communities, in politics, in youth mentorship programs, etc. It is time for the Church to rise up as "Christian Druids" who will mediate between the needs of hurting people, and the God who can bring healing and salvation. To bring the Power of God with the m as St. Columba did, so that all men may see that there is a God who wants to meet the needs of His people.

Without this power, we render our own Christianity as impotent and insufficient. This world wants something real and the Church needs to get units face before God and cry out for this power so that men will believe.

In conclusion, there is much to be said about the uniqueness of cultures. God created them, ant it's not His desire to squelch them or turn all of the human race into a giant concentration camp with one language, one master and one ruler. but He does call all men to repentance, and if there are parts of culture than clash with Jesus' teachings, then the culture must conform to a more Biblical way. St. Columba continually held this in mind, functioning as the Christian "holy man", touched a hurting people off in the Highlands of a country once known as Alba.