Was the Celtic Church Charismatic? -
Water into Wine
Stephan Jenkins
The title refers to a miracle
performed by St.Columba while a deacon in Ireland, where water was turned into
Wine for a Eucharist, which, being a deacon at the time, he may not himself have
consecrated. The story is taken
from Adomnan’s Life of Columba, written possibly to commemorate the
centenary of the saint’s death in A.D.697.
Adomnan’s book is full of accounts of miracles: the healing of a monk
with a bleeding nose, of healed hips, of visions of descending fire, the raising
of a dead child and judgement upon a magician who had caused her death.
Adomnan
(Light
to the Isles by Douglas Dales, p.60-67, Lutterworth 1997)
sees three strands in the life of Columba which other authors parallel in the
life of the other Celtic saints: The voice of the Father in prophecy, the hand
of Christ in miracles and the fire of the Spirit in visions and dreams.
Some have said that the
spirituality of the Celtic Church appealed to the Celtic race because of the
pagan Celts’ inclination towards the supernatural and the Celtic belief in a
three-part God. There are parallels
between the folk religion of Hindus and Celts before Christ, and the Celtic
saints not only challenged the druid magicians, just as Paul challenged Elymas,
but there were also shows of strength; not unlike Elijah challenging the priests
of Baal, particularly in the life of St. Patrick.
If the Celtic race was converted to Christ it was not because of a
‘spirituality’ but because of the Holy Spirit applying the Word to hearts.(Acts 4:31; 16:6, Ephesians 6:17). Mission to the
Celts was no easier than to Hindus today.
Under Illtyd
(AD 425) men studied the
scriptures in several versions, and he travelled from his university at Llantwit
Major throughout Wales and the West of England.
Boisil, who helped to train the young Cuthbert at Melrose, read through
the whole of John’s Gospel with him in Boisil’s dying weeks.
Leslie Hardinge, (quoted
in Restoring the Woven Cord by Michael Mitton, p.25, D.L.T.
1995), writes of the Celt’s love of the
Bible that it influenced their theology, worship, education, poetry,
interpretation of history and language ‘as well as becoming the dynamic for
the production of the most beautiful, hand written books ever made.’
The
Celtic Church not only operated a variety of gifts (1
Corinthians 12:4), in the same Spirit, but
those gifts were understood as living biblical faith (Mark 16:20).
Michael Mitton (p8)
reflects on the ‘cords’ of the Church: the Evangelical awakening, the Oxford
movement, liberal discoveries about social justice and the Pentecostal
charismatic discoveries of the twentieth century.
He writes: ‘All these have been necessary discoveries but usually each
group has discovered only one or two strands of the whole cord, and not only
that but forged their identity by denouncing the other strands thus rendering
the cord weak again’.
Cuthbert,
a later Celtic saint (A.D 670), was not only
an evangelist and teacher but had the gift of prophecy which foretold disaster
and ‘forthtold’ to the pagan and Christian kings. Visions, including the ‘Macedonian vision of Patrick’ and
the vision confirming Caedmon’s poetic skill, were to have a profound
influence on the mission of the Celtic Church.
Hilda’s successor, Aefflaed was not only healed by touching a belt from
Cuthbert but also received prophecy about her future and the future of the
realm. Yet many miracles which
included Aidans’s stilling of the storm, Columbanus’ calming of animals,
Patrick’s drawing water from a rock and Samson’s raising from the dead and
exorcisms were not displays of power for power’s sake or to impress. Illtyd once said to Samson,
“It is not meet to practise worldly magic along with heavenly wisdom” (Dales
p45). There
is the well-known story told in Bede of a challenge between the followers of
Augustine and the Celtic Bishops on the borders of the two churches. Augustine
performed a trial, healing miracle on a sick Englishman.
Whether or not it was trickery, the Bishops were instructed by the Abbot
Dinoot of Bangor-is-y-coed to judge Augustine of Canterbury by whether, in
humility, he stands when they enter. Alongside
these seemingly more dramatic gifts of the Spirit there were miraculous
demonstrations of help, such as feeding and supplying water that turned into
milk (St. Bridget b.A.D. 460).
The feeding of whole communities in the film, Viva Christo Rey (1980’s Roman Catholic Community book and film,
Assemblies of God Publishing House, U.S.A.) and
the testimonies in the recent Transformations videos have more to say to us than
the spectacular or the weird and wacky demonstrations of personal prowess.
Finally,
the Gifts of the Holy Spirit were for the whole Church (1
Corinthians 12:7, 12; Luke 4:18; 10:9; Isaiah 61:1,2)
What can be seen is the variety of gifts which operated in the lives of
the earliest Celts such as Patrick and Bridget in the fifth century through to
Hilda and Cuthbert in the seventh century.
The Celtic stream had come out of the whole Church.
Cuthbert and Columbanus had been influenced by the life of the fourth
century St.Martin of Tours whose kiss cured a leprous man.
Patrick had been sent from Rome and Samson and Columbanus went on to
Europe, working with some of the Bishops there.
Columbanus had a profound effect on the Benedictine communities as far
away as Bobbio in Northern Italy which in turn was to affect St. Francis’ life
in the miraculous, years later. Some
Celtic saints reputedly made pilgrimages to Jerusalem and there were frequent
references to the work of the Early Fathers in the monastic schools and a
reliance on Eastern and Western traditions.
It is this unity, despite different views about the mode of baptism, the
date of Easter, married or celibate priests and monastic communities, that
continued well into medieval times, well past the Synod of Whitby.
The miracle of Columba and the water into wine took place in the context of the Eucharist. Several hundred years later, in his final sermon, Columbanus preached of Christ, “He who loves drinks of him - he drinks who burns with the love of wisdom.” Perhaps God had his people in every age who moved in the Spirit and taught the Word. Are we the people, am I the person who will be in that succession?