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Chapter three 77
Initially, these early monastery schools were set up almost like a town. For example, in the centre stood a small primitive stone church which was used by the monks for private prayer and meditation-the public services were at irst held out of doors. Grouped around the church normally stood a few large buildings probably constructed from wood; these would have included writing-rooms, reading-rooms, guest-rooms, refectories, and so on.
Round these buildings were colonies consisting of hundreds of small huts or ‘bothies,’ usually built of the boughs of trees, but also of stone, or even clay, in each of which lived one or two monks. Round these again an even greater number of similar constructions existed in which the students lived, while outside the students’ accommodation stretched the extensive farm lands of the monastery, worked by the monks themselves, and furnishing food for the entire community.
Lest we forget, one very important part of the work done in these early monastery schools in Ireland was the copying of books, both religious and non-religious. It was dur- ing this period that the famous illuminated books were made, which are now among our greatest national treasures. The three best known are The Book of Kells, the extraordinary masterpiece which may have begun on Iona, The Book of Durrow and The Book of Armagh. The two former are copies of the four gospels, written on parchment in the Latin language. The illumination takes the form of interlacing patterns, formed by lines in bright vivid colours, which curve and twist and interweave among one another with the most marvel- lous intricacy and unbelievable accuracy-all without a crooked line or an irregular curve. Sometimes a single capital letter ills an entire page, and so elaborate and complicated is the ornamentation that a magnifying glass is required to view it properly. The so called “Celtic designs” that we often see in leather and embroidery work, as well as countless other instal- lations, publications and productions, are mostly copied from The Book of Kells.
Almost as beautiful as the other two books, The Book of Armagh contains an entire copy of the New Testament, in Latin, some lives of saints, and most valuable of all, as al- ready referenced-St Patrick’s Confession.
Between the death of St Patrick and the coming to these shores of the Lochlannaigh-The infamous ‘Vikings,’ the names of no less than 500 saints appear in our annals. But the most illustrious, those who form the trinity of Irish saints known as the “Three Patron Saints of Ireland”, and whose renown far exceeds that of all the many saints of Ireland who suc- ceeded them, are Patrick, whose life we have already touched upon, Brighid and Columcille.