St Gallen
On 1st July 2006 the Irish Rhine Valley Association and friends in the company of his Excellency the Irish Ambassador to the Council of Europe, Mr James Sharkey visited the historical stiftsbibliotek in St Gallen, Switzerland. The bibliotek is the library of the former benedictine abbey of St.Gall founded in 612. St.Gall was a disciple and companion of St. Columbanus.
We had the great privilege to be personally guided through the library hall whose stunning ceiling frescoes depict the first four Oecumenical Councils; Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon. The library contains some of the oldest existing and most important Irish manuscripts dating back to the earlier and later middle Ages. These beautifully illuminated Irish manuscripts I can tell you were of great amazement and national pride to the group. We learned of their importance as well as the role played by the Irish Monk in these great centres of Scholastic learning. From here we were given a private showing of a small number of manuscripts along with an informal lecture from Dr. DÁIBHÍ Ó CRÓINÍN, Department of History, National University of Ireland, Galway; an invited guest of the IRVA. Dr. Ó CRÓINÍN gave us a great insight into the personal side of the Monks lives who often left little personal messages and pictures referred to as glosses in the margins of the manuscripts. An example of one of these glosses refers to an Irish Monk reminiscing about Ireland; if the night had a strong wind and a rough sea, at least it wouldn’t bring a Viking raid but also finding comfort in the fact that he no longer had to worry about these same Viking raids. Unfortunately, before we knew it the bells of the Abbey rang and time ran out for the group. I feel that one or two from the group would have been quite happy if they had found themselves locked into the library for the night, God forbid. The evening continued with a very nice meal in St Gallen where stories were shared as well as a few bottles of wine.
The following day the group met at St George's Church, Oberzell on the island of Reichenau in Germany, roughly an hour's drive from St. Gallen. Reichenau is a magical island jetting into Lake Constance and is home to three churches: St. George, the Minister of St. Mary in Mittlezell and St Peter and Paul in Niederzell.
St George's church is the oldest of all three churches and houses an amazing number of wall frescoes featuring the gospels and dating back to the tenth century. From here we went to visit the Minister of Mary in Mittlezell. The Minister is a mix of romanesque and gothic architecture styles, whose eight century foundations are preserved in the north nave of the Minister.
Here in the Minister, DÁIBHÍ Ó CRÓINÍN gave us a second informal speech. We heard that the Irish Monks were very learned in high end Latin upon their arrival to the Continent and were masters at convincing the local Kings and Queens of their talent and intelligence. They withstood great hardship and travelled as far east as Kiev, Russia. Initially the travelling Irish Monks 'offered knowledge' to the people at the side of the road. However this often led to the creation of dioceses and centres of great scholastic learning throughout the Continent during the middle Ages and thus marked the vital role played by the Irish Monk in these times.
Special thanks to:
Dr.DÁIBHÍ Ó CRÓINÍN of the National University of Ireland, Galway.
His Excellency, the Irish Ambassador to the Council of Europe, Mr James Sharkey & Mrs. Sharkey.
Dr Karl Schmuki and Staff of the Stiftsbibliotek in St Gallen, Switzerland.
