The communities of St Columbanus: Irish monasteries on the continent?

Abstract:The image of the Irish saints on the continent, carrying the light of Christianity into the darkness of a Europe descended into barbarity, has proven one of the most enduring aspects of the ‘Island of Saints and Scholars’ narrative that formed part of every Irish schoolchild's education. Although this motif may persist in the popular imagination, regularly used as a shorthand for Ireland's relationship with Europe, it has been widely critiqued in recent decades as an overly nationalistic reading of the past. While recent reappraisals have focussed primarily on historical evidence, there is an enduring expectation among some that the monasteries founded by these individuals would be distinctively ‘Irish’ in their layout and material culture. This article offers a critique of this assumption by outlining the results of recent work carried out by an Irish-French team at the first of St Columbanus' continental foundations, Annegray, in Eastern France. The preliminary results of work at two of his other foundations, Luxeuil and Bobbio, are also discussed. It is argued that there is nothing inherently Irish about the material culture of these sites, nor should we expect there to be.