St Finnian: a link to the Desert Fathers/Mothers

St Finnian of Clonard December 12th 28th day of Celtic Advent St Finnian, unlike some of the saints I have been blogging about, was not obscure, but a very well known and venerated saint from Ireland from the mid-400's to the early 500's. His early life reads like a listing of many of prime elements seen in Celtic Christian theology. He decides at an early age to give up the comforts of home and devote himself to Christ. He goes on a "green martyrdom"/pilgrimage to France, Wales and eventually back to Ireland where he sets up both a small hermitage and a church in Clonard. At that site he becomes a sought after teacher and spiritual mentor, and is credited as the educator of the twelve "apostles" of Ireland (see my entry on Brendan of Birr, November 29th, as one of these). He set up other clusters of hermitage-like monasteries including the famous one on the island of Skellig Michael. He has a strong ascetic lifestyle and writes about techniques for resisting sin in the "Finnian Penitentials." He died of the plague in 549 AD. I find it fascinating to read about the other Christian saints that Finnian encountered on his journeys. He seems in his early life to be on a spiritual education mission, picking the brains of many of the great spiritual leaders of the times before he goes on to become an educator himself. In Ireland, he spends time with St. Brigid, in Wales he is taught by St. Cadoc, and, most interesting for me, while in France, he seeks out St. Martin of Tours for advice and instruction. St. Martin, a soldier turned monastic (another recent theme!), studied under St. Hilary of Poitiers, one of the early church fathers and was highly influenced by the teachings of one of my favorite groups of monastics besides the Celts: the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the 4th through 6th century in Palestine, Egypt and Syria. Many of the Celtic monastics seemed to flock to St. Martin's for instruction. It is speculated that this accounts for not only some of the Eastern Orthodox tendencies of the Celts, like their dating of Easter, but the marked similarity between their monastic, ascetic, non-hierarchical lifestyle and that of the Desert Fathers/Mothers. Another interesting factoid is that the Feast of St Martin, November 11th, was used by the Celts as the final day before a 40 day period of fasting...hence Celtic Advent. Finnian's lifestyle, settling down in a hermit-like ascetism and then being sought out as a teacher, reads like the life of one of the main Desert Fathers, St. Anthony. "The Finnian Penitentials" are remarkably like the Institutes of John Cassian, who went to live with Desert Fathers, writing down about their teachings related to the 8 (not 7) major sins. Cassian's works have recently come more to light through the work of Sister Mary Margaret Funk and her "Matters" series. For myself personally, in my own quest in Christian Spirituality, I have often been drawn to keep going back to early Christian lifestyles and teachings. When Christianity became "in" after Constantine legalized it, it was the Desert Fathers and Mothers who seemed to me to have a life-style that was truer to the apostolic teachers as a opposed to the increasing aristocratic like structure of the main church. When the Desert monastics all but disappeared with the spread of Islam across Egypt and Syria, I always felt like the "torch" of the more original Christian lifestyle passed on to the Celts, like Finnian, who had learned from Martin. I really wonder if the resurgence of interest in both groups, the Desert monastics and the Celts, that is going on currently, isn't a cry out to again return to a style of Christianity that seems to have been overshadowed in the 20th century by mega-churches and tele-evangelism. I hope the trend continues. Lord, thank you for Saints like Finnian, who search for meaning by seeking out other spiritual teachers, and then become teachers themselves. Help our modern churches to follow that same quest, to worry less about structure and finances and more about being true to Your original teachings. In Thy name, Amen.