Upheld in the Old Narratives

Glendalough, Ireland. God is in this place. I guess He’s always been here. Still, when you learn what happened in a locale, many years ago, it brings the scene to life.

This peaceful spot was a refuge, where monks strode in prayer, worked gardens, built small conical huts to live in and mentored those who came to learn. The monastery was a center of learning much like modern universities. Students sat at their feet.

Ireland’s monasteries were safe places at a time when the known world was being pillaged and burned.

Saving Knowledge

As St. Patrick and other ecclesiastics were founding monasteries in Ireland, the monks were busy saving and copying the Scriptures and all the classical works they could still find.

They had fun with this! As the monks learned Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Gaelic—their own language, they experimented and even made up sounds and dialects. I think you must grab learning where you can because language might mutate and then you won’t understand it.

The sad reality was that Latin, Greek and classical knowledge may not have survived at all had not the Irish taken it up. It made me realize how precious is knowledge. It can be so quickly destroyed – how elusive is it to be grasped? What happens to humankind if knowledge of history disappears?

The Man Could Think!

My co-worker, Bob, loaned me his book: “How The Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill. Mr. Cahill brought the past to life. I could stand and gaze upon stone ruins and “see” the monks, the students, and even the Vikings who finally destroyed the later centers of learning in Ireland. Mr. Cahill also has a satirical sense of humor that I love, especially when, in the pages of his book, he described a man of education back in the 3^rd or 4^th century (the emerging Middle Ages and dark period of lost knowledge) and said of him that he was the first man in 300 years who could think!

And since Rome, Greece and Egypt, with their libraries and universities, had just been burned and completely destroyed by the barbarians from northern Europe, that was saying something!

Here Come The Vikings!

Looking at this tower reminded me of the Tower of Babel. In the context of saving knowledge, I wondered how many languages might there have been since the curtain opened on time and the monks began to play with linguistics?

But this tower was not one of language, but rather one of defense.

Then, alas. The Vikings targeted Ireland and the ransacking commenced. As the Vikings overran the country, burning dwellings and killing people, the monks were busy pulling books, food, supplies and themselves into towers of protection. The stone towers had no openings or entrances on the ground level. Once all was safely stored inside, they pulled up the ladders and endured the attack of their beloved monasteries. 

 

 

 

Yet, after all the living is said and done, even the violence of war and pillaging, earthly life comes to an end.

And now, generations later, we wander the graveyards, read the epitaphs and imagine the lives once lived here.

 

Quiet Contemplation Once Again

Standing in the ruins of the Glendalough Cathedral, gazing at the
immense window that could have been the focal point above the altar, we are at full circle, now. Inside the Cathedral, the hush of inspiration and awe for God still lingers. It is a reminder that He is always sovereign.  

The most amazing thing is that as the Vikings plundered Ireland, the monks took the books they’d copied and spread out all over Europe and even back to the Mediterrean area—from where much of the treasures originated. 

God’s plans still prevail no matter what man devises. What God had given—the soul and mind of man, made in His own Image—could not be destroyed! 

Along with the knowledge of the world, the Scriptures were preserved, as works of art, by those who understood the great gift God had given them. To impart God’s Truth is life and breath and eternity to every soul who walks in His path.  

The Cathedral still remains, monument to the worship of the OneTrue God. We stand in reverence.

 

 

 

 

 

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” Proverbs 16:9.