Ever wonder why there are so many monastic sites throughout Ireland? I could paraphrase Thomas Cahill from a fascinating little book he wrote called How the Irish Saved Civilization, but I won’t. He says it so much better himself. 

Ireland was unique in religious history for being the only land into which Christianity was introduced without bloodshed. And this lack of martyrdom troubled them, to whom a glorious death by violence presented such an exciting finale. They developed their own martyrdom, Green Martyrdom. The Green Martyrs sacrificed their lives to God by leaving behind the comforts and pleasures of human society and retreating into solitude—to a green no-man’s-land outside tribal jurisdictions—to study the scriptures and commune with God.

The Green Martyrdom extremes were quickly abandoned in favor of monasticism, a movement which involved a more social contract, something the Irish found it difficult to live without. Since Ireland had no cities, these monastic establishments grew rapidly into the first population centers, hubs of unprecedented prosperity, art, and learning.

Irish monks began copying religious manuscripts soon after St. Patrick converted the island to Christianity, which was just in the nick of time. Many of the original manuscripts were lost when the Roman Empire crumbled only a century later. So Irish monasteries, with their illustrious libraries, became centers for learning in the Christian world. People traveled here from around the world to study and engage in religious discussion and debate. The two most prolific monastic sites in Ireland were St. Kevin’s at Glendalough (which we visited in the Wicklow Mountains) and St. Cierán’s (Kieran’s) at Clonmacnoise in the Midlands (County Offaly).

Today we visited Clonmacnoise, only an hour’s drive from Galway. I was expecting to find just another collection of ruined stone huts, but I was blown away by the beauty of the site and its surroundings. We hadn’t ventured this far inland on the island. The inland terrain is so delightfully different from that of the coast.

Most striking is how lush the River Shannon is inland. It’s not at all the dark river we saw tumbling over cold, black rock in Limerick. Here at Clonmacnoise the river swells wide, deep, and blue. The banks are lined with reeds, and every now and then a boat passes peacefully upriver as if it has all the time in the world. How could you not love these impressive stone buildings, round towers, and high crosses set against a background of brilliant blue sky, Irish-green grass, and that gorgeous river?

The hut where St. Cierán, founder of Clonmacnoise, lived and died became his burial place, as was the custom at Clonmacnoise. The hut began to lean because pilgrims would remove soil from its base to take home with them. Spreading a bit of St. Cierán’s earth in the four corners of their fields was thought to yield a more bountiful harvest.

We loved the ruins of this sweet little nun’s chapel just a half-kilometer down the lane. The detail on the stone is like lacework, and those wildflowers springing from stone…. Mm, mm, mm!