Welcome to Saint Fiacre’s Garden, a small “outpost” of the Celtic Christian Church located in the State of Washington. This site will be used to share information about this tiny new community and about the Celtic Christian Church and how it seeks to acknowledge Celtic Tradition while witnessing the Christian Faith. Like a seedling, Saint Fiacre’s Garden is the beginning of a contemplative community in the independent catholic tradition.

The Celts are generally regarded as the natives of the European continent. There is linguistic and literary evidence that suggests that their most ancient “roots” may be found in the Indian sub-continent. It has been said that if an Irishman begins one of the old folktales, an Indian sage can finish the story. Musicologists have hypothesized that Celtic music and traditional Indian music share a number of features and may have a common origin. (To be honest, I've listened to samples of both and I do not hear it -- but then, I do not "see" what many art experts see in modern art either.) Whether the Celts originated in India or share a common origin with the people of the sub-continent may remain a topic for historic speculation and debate for years to come. Regardles, people identified as Celtic left signs of their culture throughout Europe. They were, however, no match for the Romans.

As the Roman Empire spread throughout Europe the Roman Church spread with it, organizing itself like the empire, around a system of diocese where bishops served as overseers and administrators. The pagan Celts were gradually pushed back into Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and the area of Brittany on the French Atlantic coast. Particularly in Ireland their culture continued to flourish beyond the reach of the Empire, which itself never extended past England. Nevertheless, relatively porous boarders between England and Ireland allowed for Roman missionaries to begin Christianizing the Celts as early as 400AD; a process which is known to have been remarkably peaceful, largely because pagan elements particular to Celtic culture allowed them to readily appreciate, adapt and assimilate the Christian faith. Among the most notable of these cultural characteristics are the following:

The strong sense of connectedness the Celts had to their ancestors lent itself to a deep appreciation for the communion of saints, while their penchant for heroes and heroines was projected par excellence onto Christ and the many saints of Celtic lore; the propensity for pagan Celts to think in “threes” was transfigured into a profound appreciation for the Triune God so central to Celtic Christian theology and liturgy; the passion for music and poetry exemplified by the bards evolved into a rich treasure of prayers and songs with enchanting rhythmic lilts; skillful Celtic craftsmanship likewise gave rise to now-famous artifacts like the Book of Kells – a work which betrays at once their great love of Scripture and their artistic competence. Even the warrior spirit of the pagan Celts was transformed by the Gospel into a passionate life of spiritual asceticism which now battled fiercely against one’s inner darkness through acts of self-surrender, penance, and the fostering of a deep contemplative life. Indeed, the mystical core of Celtic Christianity was and is deeply Incarnational, having emerged from the Celtic reverence for nature and all of Creation in which God was realized to be manifestly Present.

Because of its unique geographical position outside the Empire, the Celtic Christian Church developed its own distinctive character out of which emerged customs, liturgies and traditions largely independent of Rome yet undivided from the universal church. Thus, for example, the Celts developed a monastic structure to the church—around which entire villages were gathered—rather than organizing hierarchically as did the Roman diocese. And contrary to Roman culture, Celtic women enjoyed positions of authority, leadership and equal rights, as is attested to, for example, by the Conhospitae (“deaconesses”) who served in a liturgical role in the Celtic Christian Eucharist. Dual monasteries housing men and women together were prevalent and both abbots and abbesses thus emerged not as administrators but rather in the Celtic tradition of the anam cara (“soul friend”), and thus served as models of spiritual friendship, confidants and guides.

This independence enjoyed by the Celtic Christian Church continued largely until its greater institutional assimilation with the Roman church at the synods of Cashel in 1101AD and that of Rath Bresail in 1110AD. Although this assimilation has been characterized by some as a hostile take-over of the Celtic Church by the Roman, the best of historical evidence would indicate that this is not so. Certainly, the transition was contested by some and led to a number of doctrinal and liturgical disputes. Still, over the course of roughly a half-century—and after much negotiating—the Celtic Christian Church had peacefully adopted a number of Roman structural attributes, though other aspects of the Celtic church remained distinct for much longer. Future developments between rivaling Catholics and Reformers would not be so peaceable, and would do much to bring the spirit of ancient Celtic Christianity to near extinction. This history of the development from the “Celtic Christian Church” to the “Irish Catholic Church” is a long and dark one indeed, throughout which the Celts were gradually severed from their historical memory, culture and language. Many of the distinctive Celtic Christian traits that were in tension with Rome were sublimated or suppressed, yet ironically, as this ancient tradition is reemerging, we are uncovering the fact that many rites and practices in the Roman Church today are indebted to the Celtic Church wherein they originated.

The contemporary Celtic Christian Church (of which Garraí Fhiachra Naofa is a member) is an independent catholic church like that of its ancient predecessors. As a local church in communion with all other local churches, together we comprise the One Universal Church, or that which Scripture calls the “Body of Christ” (1 Cor 12:27) and which the Nicene Creed defines as, “one, holy, catholic and apostolic.” While the Petrine primacy is reverenced and deeply respected, we acknowledge also the expression of catholic faith as it is known in the Orthodox, Anglican, Old Catholic and Independent Catholic communions because of their shared creedal, sacramental, historical, and scriptural traditions. Nevertheless, the unique characteristics that typified the ancient Celtic Church are embodied in a contemporary way in the Celtic Christian Church. The mission of Garraí Fhiachra Naofa is to foster the budding of a catholic contemplative community in the Pacific Northwest.

All baptized Christians are welcome to join us, as well as anyone who is simply seeking to know more about catholic Christian faith. While for some, Garraí Fhiachra Naofa may become their primary faith community, for others it will serve more as an extension of their regular worshipping community. Our mission is simple: to foster a catholic Christian community whereby we may walk with Christ as anam caras, (soul friends) in lives given to worship of the living God in our work, in our play and in our prayer. “Always be joyful; pray constantly; and for all things give thanks; this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thes 5:16-18).

I am indebted to my mentor, Father Vincent Pizzuto and to "Celtic Christianity" by Timothy Joyce for much of the material in this entry.

Please visit Father Vincent''s web site, http://www.newskellig.org