Light from the West: The Irish Mission and the Emergence of Modern Europe
William H. MarnellThe most extensive and permanently effective missionary movement in the history of post-Apostolic Christianity came in what is commonly called the Dark Ages. Stemming from the final outpost of the western world, Ireland, the tiny land that neither Roman nor German ever invaded, it brought the Christian message to what today are the British Isles, northern France, the Low Countries, western Germany, Switzerland, Austria and in lesser measure northern Italy, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Russia, with cascading effects on later colonial possessions.
Its primary objective was the Christianizing and hence, in contemporary Christians; view, the civilizing of the Germanic horde. For five hundred years, Irish monks—simple, rude, inspired men of limitless courage and endurance—preached the Word to Angle and Saxon, Frank, Frisian, Suebian, Bavarian, Alaman, Burgundian, and Lombard.
These were the centuries that saw the restlessly roving Germanic tribes gradually settle down, become nations, and develop into Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Dutch, and Swiss. The chief component in the change was Christianity, and Christianity came to them in extraordinary measure from remote Ireland. This is the inspiring achievement recorded in this book. Neither Irish history nor that of Christianity itself has a more fascinating and inspiring era. It is a tale that should be known to all Christians as well as to everyone who thrills with pride atthese centuries of Irish glory, when Irish monks brought li