Iro Scottish Mission
The Irish Scottish Mission was the Christianization of parts of Central Europe by wandering monks of the Irish Scottish Church . It took place in two waves: the first from the 6th to 8th centuries, the second in the 11th century.
motivation
Since the late 6th century, the Irish Scottish monks took over the banishment provided for in the old Irish law for serious offenses as a voluntary penance for Christ, as "peregrinatio pro Christo". They went abroad for Christ's sake, founded monasteries or hermitages , often on an island, but also on the continent.
The first phase
The Christian missionary activity of Iro-Scottish monks between the 6th and 8th centuries, independent of Rome , is known as the Iro-Scottish mission. After beginning in the Gallo-Franconian area, it mainly took place in today's south-west Germany (Black Forest-Lake Constance area) and in northern Switzerland.
Patrick
The forerunner was Patrick of Ireland (385-461), the son of Calpurnis. He began missionary work in Ireland (432) and became the founder of the Iro-Scottish Church. The Irish celebrate Patrick as their national saint on St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) . Also Finnian of Clonard († 549) is one of the early Irish missionaries; along with him are the Twelve Apostles of Ireland .
Columban of Iona
Columban of Iona († 597), also Columban the Elder, proselytized among the Picts .
Political background
Already the way from Ireland or Scotland led to the Franconian heartlands - the Irish Scottish monks "(turned) first to the Gallic-Franconian area and from there mostly at the suggestion of the Franconian kings to the eastern parts of the Franconian Empire, mainly to Alamannia . For the kings it was a matter of consolidating their political influence in the territory they had just gained, and for them the most effective means of achieving this was the unity of religious beliefs. "
After their victory, the Franks had established bases and settlements, especially in the Upper Rhine region and in the central and northern Black Forest, and on these crown estates and farms - mostly on former Roman squares that also dominated transport connections - there were also their own churches , "the advanced points of Christian culture , so to speak in pagan territory [...] However, such oldest bases of Christianity will initially have less of a further influence on the religious attitude of the Alemannic people, as the clergy of these crown and lordly churches hardly developed any propaganda beyond the pastorisation of the Christian Franks. "
“The character of the monks from Ireland and Scotland differed from the Gallic monks, who, like the oriental ascetics, led a completely actionless existence, saw their real purpose in prayer and penance and abstained from any influence on their surroundings. In contrast to this, the islanders [...] bring with them all the requirements of a missionary apostolic , above all fearlessness in the face of all dangers and privations and a restlessly unsteady urge to wander, but also a practical and simple approach to life and an understanding of Christian teaching. "
A sustainable Christianization of Alamannia can only be proven and historically motivated by the Irish-Scottish missionary work at the beginning of the 7th century and the founding of Klaus and monasteries.
Columban of Luxeuil
In the year 590 an Irish monk left the British Isles for the first time to do missionary work on the mainland and to live in the sense of ascetic homelessness ( peregrinatio propter Christum “pilgrimage for Christ's sake”). Columban of Luxeuil , also called Columban the Younger († 615), was the first to appear in the Merovingian region. Gallus, Domoal, Comininus, Eunocus and Equonanus are named as companions of his.
Columban founded a monastery called Annegray in the Frankish Empire . The aim of monastic life was to achieve moral perfection through asceticism . In addition to the Franconian Empire, Columban also evangelized in what is now Switzerland and Italy . Two years after the monastery was founded (610), Columban was supposed to return to Ireland because of a conflict with the Merovingian King Theuderic II . According to contemporary reports, Columban was on his way to Ireland when a storm forced him to return to the continent.
Columban ended up on Lake Constance , where he found Christians in Bregenz who had resumed pagan customs. With the help of Gallus († 645) he brought the church discipline in order, and the veneration of St. Aurelia of Strasbourg , a companion of St. Ursula , revived. Because he and his companions caused disputes among the locals in their missionary zeal, the Duke of Überlingen asked the missionary to leave the area for the sake of peace. But Gallus stayed in the area, ostensibly because he was unable to move on due to an illness. Because Columban did not believe him, he forbade him to read mass until the day of his own death. Gallus and some companions lived in a hermitage on the Steinach . There the priest Otmar founded the Abbey of St. Gallen in 719 .
In 612 Columban moved to Milan and got involved in the dispute over Nestorianism . A letter to Pope Boniface IV that was awarded to him is a great testimony to the Irish missionary's solidarity with the Pope . The Lombard king Agilulf bequeathed him an area called Bobbio in the province of Piacenza on the Trebbia River , where he founded the Bobbio Monastery and spent the time until the end of his life - despite an invitation from the Franks to return to Luxeuil . He died on November 23, 615 in Bobbio in northern Italy. Legend has it that Gallus read Holy Mass for the first time on this day in memory of his master - the certain news of his death did not reach him until weeks later.
More Irish Scottish missionaries
Emigration in the 6th century
Fridolin von Säckingen († 538) is an Irish missionary of the Baden Oberland ; Many churches are named after him. However, the Germanic name Fridolin speaks against his postulated Irish origin.
Another important missionary was Eustasius († 629), a student of Columban. He was mainly active in Bavaria and in 615 became abbot in the Luxeuil monastery . In this generation of missionaries, Wendelin († 614 or 617) also worked near Trier and Arbogast († 618) in Alsace .
Emigration around 640
Landelin von Ettenheimmünster († around 640) was an Irish missionary in the Ortenau , of whom only his martyrdom is known. Fursa († 649) and his brother Foillan († 655 or 656) worked in France and Belgium, respectively.
Ingbert († around 650), in Saarland, Trudpert († 653), in Breisgau , and Disibod († 700), on the Middle Nahe, also belong to the ranks of the Irish Scottish missionaries, whose Irish origin is mostly passed down in founding legends .
Emigration in the 2nd half of the 7th century
The Irishman Kilian , venerated as the diocese patron, appeared in Würzburg in 686 with his companions Kolonat and Totnan and died a martyr's death there a year later (689) .
8th century
The Iroschot Pirmin founded several monasteries in southwest Germany and Alsace in the first half of the 8th century , which became important spiritual centers.
The missionary work of Carinthia started out from Virgil . He became bishop in Salzburg in 750 and is, together with his colleague Modestus von Kärnten , the last influential representative of the Irish-Scottish mission.
Little historically reliable data is available about Magnus von Füssen (probably † 772), but it cannot be ruled out that he, as an Allgäu missionary, must also be placed in the ranks of the Irish Scottish missionaries.
The second phase
The second phase of the Irish-Scottish proselytizing was closely connected with the Irish work in the Benedictine Scottish monasteries . Its origin goes back to the Irishman Marianus Scottus , who appeared with companions in Regensburg in 1070 and founded an ascetic monastic community from which several monasteries were founded. This movement in the 11th century worked in the Bavarian-Austrian region as far as northern Italy .
The Irishman Johannes Scottus Eriugena closes the movement, but belongs more to the scholars of his time and less to the missionaries. He lived at the court of Charles the Bald , a king who was open to education. He is a good example that as an Irishman he came from an "island of the educated".
literature
- Johann Heinrich August Ebrard : The Irish Scottish mission church of the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries and their distribution and importance on the mainland . Gütersloh 1873 (ND Hildesheim 1971).
- Joseph Sauer: The Beginnings of Christianity and the Church in Baden . In: New Year's Sheets of the Baden Historical Commission, New Series 14, Carl Winters University Bookstore, Stuttgart 1911.
- Lutz E. von Padberg : Christianization in the Middle Ages . Stuttgart 2006.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joseph Sauer: The beginnings of Christianity and the church in Baden . In: New Year's Sheets of the Baden Historical Commission, New Series 14, Carl Winters University Bookstore, Stuttgart 1911, pp. 28 ff.