Celtic ornament vector free mysterious

Part of history…

At the start of the period Ireland had emerged from a mysterious decline that archaeological evidence suggests had hit population levels and standards of living from c. 100 BC to c. 300 AD, called the Irish Dark Age by Thomas Charles-Edwards. The population was entirely rural and dispersed, with small ring forts the largest centers of human occupation. Some 40,000 of these are known, while there may have been as many as 50,000, and “archaeologists are agreed that the vast bulk of them are the farm enclosures of the well-to-do of early medieval Ireland”. Souterrains, underground passages and chambers for hiding in or escaping through, are common. It is likely that raiding Britain for slaves and other loot gave an important boost to an otherwise almost entirely agricultural economy. The lakeside enclosures called crannogs continued to be used and seem especially associated with crafts.

  Celtic ornament vector free mysterious

 

Celtic ornament vector free Palladius

Part of history…

The first reliable historical event in Irish history, recorded in the Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine, is the ordination by Pope Celestine I of Palladius as the first bishop to Irish Christians in 431 – which demonstrates that there were already Christians living in Ireland. Prosper says in his Contra Collatorem that by this act Celestine “made the barbarian island Christian”, although it is clear the Christianisation of the island was a longer and more gradual process. The mission of Saint Patrick is traditionally dated around the same time – the earliest date for his arrival in Ireland in the Irish annals is 432 – although Patrick’s own writings contain nothing securely dateable. It is likely that Palladius’ activities were in the south of Ireland, perhaps associated with Cashel, while Patrick’s were later, in the north, and associated with Armagh.

 

Celtic ornament vector free Palladius

Celtic ornament vector free nemed

Part of history…

The top social layer was the nobility (nemed), which included kings (ríg), princes (flatha), lords (tiarnaí), and chieftains (toísigh). See also Gaelic nobility of Ireland for their surviving modern descendants.
Below that were the professionals (dóernemed), which included skilled poets (fili), judges (brithem), craftsmen, physicians, and so on. Masters in a particular profession were known as ollam (modern spelling: ollamh). The various professions—including law, poetry, medicine, history and genealogy—were associated with particular hereditary families. Although most had only one profession, some had more than one. Before the Christianization of Ireland, this group also included the druí (or ‘druids’) and fáithe (or ‘vates’). The druí could have the role of priest, judge, scholar, poet, physician, and religious teacher,while the fáithe acted as soothsayers and clairvoyants.

 

Celtic ornament vector free nemed

Celtic ornament vector free Gallican Divine

Part of history…

There is curiously little information on this point, and it is not possible to reconstruct the Gallican Divine Office from the scanty allusions that exist. It seems probable that there was considerable diversity in various times and places, through councils, both in Gaul and Hispania, tried to bring about some uniformity. The principal authorities are the Councils of Agde (506) and Tours (567), and allusions in the writings of St. Gregory of Tours and St. Caesarius of Arles. These and other details have been gathered together by Mabillon in his “De Liturgiâ Gallicanâ”, and his essay on the Gallican Cursus is not yet superseded. The general arrangement and nomenclature were very similar to those of the Celtic Rite (q.v.). There were two principal services, Matins (Ad Matutinam, Matutinum) and Vespers (ad Duodecimam, ad Vesperas Lucernarium); and four Lesser Hours, Prime, or Ad Secundum, Terce, Sext, and None; and probably two night services, Complin, or ad initium noctis, and Nocturns.

But the application of these names is sometimes obscure. It is not quite clear whether Nocturns and Lauds were not joined together as Matins; Caesarius speaks of Prima, while the Gallicanum speaks of Ad secundum; Caesarius distinguishes between Lucernarium and Ad Duodeciman, while Aurelian distinguishes between Ad Duodeciman and Complin; the Gothicum speaks of Vespera Paschae and Initium Noctis Paschae, and the Gallicanum has Ad Duodeciman Paschae.

Celtic ornament vector free Gallican Divine

Celtic ornament vector free Caesarius

Part of history…

Caesarius mentions a blessing given by the bishop at the end of Lucernarium, “cumque expleto Lucernario benedictionem populo dedisset”; and the following is an order of the Council of Agde (canon 30):”Et quia convenit ordinem ecclesiae ab omnibus aequaliter custodiri studendum est ut ubique fit et post antiphonas collectiones per ordinem ab episcopis vel presbyteris dicantur et hymni matutini vel vesperenti diebus omnibus decantentur et in conclusione matutinarum vel vespertinarum missarum post hymnos, capitella de psalmis dicantur et plebs collecta oratione ad vesperam ab Episcopo cum benedictione dimittatur”. The rules of Caesarius and Aurelian both speak of two nocturns with lessons, which include on the feasts of martyrs lessons from their passions. They order also Magnificat to be sung at Lauds, and during the Paschal days; and on Sundays and greater festivals Gloria in Excelsis.

Celtic ornament vector free Caesarius

Celtic ornament vector free the Roman Rite

Part of history...

St. Agobard in the ninth century mentions that at Lyon there were no canticles except from the Psalms, no hymns written by poets, and no lessons except from Scripture. Mabillon says that though in his day Lyon agreed with Rome in many things, especially in the distribution of the Psalter, and admitted lessons from the Acts of the Saints, there were still no hymns except at Complin, and he mentions a similar rule as to hymns at Vienne. But canon 23 of the Council of Tours (767) allowed the use of the Ambrosian hymns. Though the Psalter of the second recension of St. Jerome, now used in all the churches of the Roman Rite except the Vatican Basilica, is known as the “Gallican”, while the older, a revision of the “Vetus Itala” used now in St. Peter’s at Rome only, is known as the “Roman”, it does not seem that the Gallican Psalter was used even in Gaul until a comparatively later date, though it spread thence over nearly all the West. At present the Mozarabic and Ambrosian Psalters are variants of the “Roman”, with peculiarities of their own.

Celtic ornament vector free the Roman Rite

Celtic ornament vector free the Mass

Part of history…

The chief authorities for the Gallican Mass are the letters of St. Germanus of Paris (555-576); and by a comparison of these with the extant Sacramentaries, not only of Gaul but of the Celtic Rite, with the Irish tracts on the Mass, with the books of the still existing Mozarabic Rite, and with the descriptions of the Hispanic Mass given by St. Isidore, one may arrive at a fairly clear general idea of the service, though there exists no Gallican Ordinary of the Mass and no Antiphoner. Louis Duchesne, in his “Origines du Cult chrétien”, has given a very full account constructed on this basis, though some will differ from him in his supplying certain details from Ambrosian books, and in his claiming the Bobbio Sacramentary as Ambrosian rather than Celtic.

 

Celtic ornament vector free the Mass

Celtic ornament vector free the Baptismal

Part of history…

The authorities for the Gallican Baptismal Service are the Gothicum and Gallicanum, both of which are incomplete, and a few details in the second Letter of St. Germanus of Paris. The forms given in the Stowe and the Bobbio are to much Romanized to illustrate the Gallican Rite very much. The form given in the Gothicum is the least complete. It consists of:–

“Ad Christianum faciendum.” A Bidding Prayer and collect, with the form of signing on eyes, ears, and nostrils. The Blessing of the font. A Bidding Prayer, a collect, a Contestio (Preface), the infusion of chrism in the form of a cross with a triple insufflation, and an exorcism, which here is in an unusual place. The Baptismal formula “Baptizo te in nomine … in remissionem peccatorum, ut habeas vitam aeternam”. The Chrismation. The formula “Perungo te chrisma sanctitatis” seems to have been mixed up with a form for the bestowal of the white garment, for it goes on “tunicam immortalitatis, quam D.N.J.C. traditam a Patre primus accepit ut eam integram et inlibatam preferas ante tribunal Christi et vivas insaecula saeculorum “. Probably the omission is “… in Nomine”, etc., in the one formula; and “Accipe vestem candidam”, or possibly “Accipe” alone, in the other. Mgr. Duchesne’s suggestion of “a special symbolism, according to which the chrism would be considered as a garment” does not commend itself, for want of a verb to govern “tunicam”. Still there is another formula for the white garment farther on.

 

Celtic ornament vector free the Baptismal

Celtic ornament vector free bunch

Part of Celtic history…

Visual art of the Celtic Revival (on the whole more notable for literature) from the 18th century to the modern era, which began as a conscious effort by Modern Celts, mostly in the British Isles, to express self-identification and nationalism, and became popular well beyond the Celtic nations, and whose style is still current in various popular forms, from Celtic cross funerary monuments to interlace tattoos. Coinciding with the beginnings of a coherent archaeological understanding of the earlier periods, the style self-consciously used motifs closely copied from works of the earlier periods, more often the Insular than the Iron Age. Another influence was that of late La Tène “vegetal” art on the Art Nouveau movement.

 

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