Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Celtic Advent St. Fionnchu

November 28th St. Fionnchu of Bangor

     I struggled with how to approach this saint.  He was really the only Celtic Saint with this day, and I found I didn't really like him very much.  So how could I derive something helpful from narrating about his life?  Let's see where this goes.
     Fionnchu lived in the middle part of the 6th Century in Ireland. The probable facts about him are that he succeeded Comgall as abbot of the Bangor monastery, which had a reputation of having a fairly strict ascetic rule for its monks.  His later medieval biography created a romantic view of a warrior-monk, mixed with stories of a severe ascetic, and his story became very popular during that time period. Here are some elements from those stories.  Fionnchu decided to build another monastery after leaving Bangor and hired seven smiths to not only set up the building but to create a room with seven iron sickles, on which Fionnchu would hang himself, to increase his holiness through asceticisim.   He developed a reputation as a valiant, but violent, warrior and would be hired by kings and other monasteries to help them with local battles.  Some of these would be against invaders, others would be against other Irishmen who had somehow angered the people who hired Fionnchu.  He would go into battle brandishing his crozier (bishop's staff) as a weapon and breathing fire from his mouth, inevitably defeating whomever was placed before him.  He was described as being fierce as a "hound" which would go along with his name, as "chu" in Gaelic meant "hound." This vision and description of Fionnchu would have greatly appealed to the lay Celtic public of the time, as it connected directly with the myths of pre-Christian period, particularly of the hero CuChulainn (another "hound" name) famous for his exploits in the Cattle Raid of Cooley from the Ulster cycle of tales.
Some of this violent aspect of Fionnchu is almost certainly based on fact.  Those of us who love reading about early Celtic Christianity sometimes gloss over the dark side of the period.  It has been said that the Gaelic personality seems constantly prone to argument and warfare.  The Irish monastics of the period would periodically go to war with each other, one monastery carrying battle to another monastery over some issue that inflamed them--like stealing the relics from another monastery for your own--the ultimate church fight. The Celts, it would seem, were always looking for an excuse for a good battle.
This got me to wondering about our human tendency to enjoy seeing someone who initially appears to be peaceful become more "war-like."  I can think of several aspects in modern media.  A classic, also set in Ireland, would be the John Wayne film, "The Quiet Man."  Wayne's character has given up the sport of boxing after he has killed an opponent--he now seeks a quiet peaceful life in rural Ireland.  He is eventually put in a position to have to fight again--and as the audience we know this is coming and eat it up. (It is still actually one of my favorite movies).  Another example would be an older Gary Cooper movie about a Quaker family during the Civil War: "Friendly Persuasion"--despite Cooper's Quaker beliefs, the audience it again set up to "root" for him to take up a gun and fight.  It is almost as if we as humans cannot accept someone living a truly peaceful lifestyle. We want the valiant warrior who will save us from external forces, not the man of peace.  From a biblical standpoint, we get back again to the popular expectations of what kind of "savior" Jesus would be.  I suspect that many of the Jews were hoping He would come down from the cross at the last minute and start kicking Roman butt.  Wouldn't that after all, play better in the updated Hollywood version?  The romantic version of Fionnchu's history takes advantage what seems to be a human egotistical need to have a war-like leader who will protect us.  Combine this with that basic Celtic  tendency for intra-tribal bickering, and the Fionnchu mythology really takes off.
    So...where does this leave me in my blogging about Celtic Saints during Advent. It means I have to watch out for some Saints, rather than embracing some aspect of their lifestyle I have to realize that popular culture may have mutated the Saint's life into that's culture's expectations, or that maybe they weren't so saint-like to begin with.  I also have to remember that, as someone with a Celtic background, that not everything about the Celts was daily spiritual oneness and love, but would descend into an all too human tendency to competition and strife. If I truly want to emulate Christ's life, then I have guard my heart against those latter tendencies.

Lord, help me to learn from saints like Fionnchu, about what in popular cultural expectations that I need to avoid if I truly want to be saint-like.  Help me to see what is good in the Celtic Christian tradition, but to be realistic about their human tendencies; teach me to be aware how I too often can become competitive in an unhealthy way as they were,  and forgive me.  In Thy name, Amen

No comments:

Post a Comment