Dear Friends,
St Patrick and some other Celtic Saints were trained at the Monastery of St Honoratus at Lerins in the south of France.
I visited that Monastery that is today in the hands of the Cistercians.
It was heavily influenced by St John Cassian, a Scythian, who spent time in Coptic Egypt and wrote down the teachings of the Holy Fathers while he was there.
He brought these with him and these teachings impacted monasticism in the West especially.
The island Monastery of St Honoratus still has the original seven smaller sketes that encircle the island, some of them still operational. The island can be walked around in 25 minutes.
I visited the monastery where St Patrick stayed and these are now in ruins.
It was here that St Patrick learned about the Coptic rule of saying the Psalms 12 Psalms at a time, the frequent use of the prayer, "O God come to my assistance, O Lord make haste to help me."
It was here that St Patrick learned asceticism Scetis-style, saying the Psalter once through every 12 hours, pilgrimages, making prostrations etc.
We know that Coptic monks were frequent visitors to Lerins and it is no wonder they should have also visited Ireland.
Seven Coptic saints are buried in Ireland where they were invoked in the Litany of All Irish Saints.
There are many other ways in which the Celtic Church resembles the Coptic tradition.
As for the Roman Christians, one reason they didn't like the Celtic Church was that it was the only Church in Christendom where bishops had no authoritative power, but the Abbots did.
There were no cities in the Celtic lands and since the Bishop was in charge of a city ("episcopus" is Latin for "mayor"), Celtic Abbots ruled!
Forgive me a sinner,
Alex
