Early Celtic and Anglo Saxon christianity

Before the modern catholic church removed many of the traditions and pracitices of the Early Saxon Churches (especially Northumbria) and the celtic ones, early christianity functioned way different to the catholic church we know to do, it was almost entirely monastic. On the other hand, from what we know of the Early Celtic Churches, there is no hint of uniformity about their services. Often each local abbot would compose the prayers used for worship. Often the whole liturgy for Communion would be changed and a new one adopted as the result of some itinerant pilgrims contribution. Unfortunately, many of these prayers and liturgies are lost to us, and only their echoes are found in the liturgies of Celtic places in the Late Middle Ages. When the Celtic Church first appeared, the value of this method became immediately apparent. In a land without seminaries, and no cathedral schools yet built, only practical apprenticeships were available for the training of each new generation’s leaders. This resulted in a repetition of our Lord’s own methods with His Disciples. learning in these schools in Pre‑Christian times was completely oral. Long before the Gospel ever made it’s way to Britain, Celtic people lived here and observed some traditions which made the spreading of the Gospel among them uniquely possible. Celtic Monasticism, or the Celtic Church, I am speaking of the same thing. In the Celtic Christian world, every church was monastic. The leadership was provided by abbots who were bishops, and hardly any distinction existed between the cloister and the church. We’ll explore that more later, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t confusing anyone with my interchangeable use of the words church and monastery.