I just finished reading (listening – audio book) “How the Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill.  After completing the book, 1/16 of me was proud to be Irish.  The book recounts the fall of civilized Rome with insights on to the Roman thought at that time.  During this fall of Rome you can see that as civilization became less and less educated, or less civilized, the more barbaric they became.  This seems to be true for most of the continent of Europe.  While this was happening on continental Europe, a strange and barbaric band of Celts, on the most remote and western part of the known world, where becoming more and more educated and civilized. 

Key things I learned or found interesting.

Before Christianity

• Celts spanned from Galatia to Gal and all the way to Ireland.
• Celts ran around naked a lot.
• Sex was casual
• Marriage was not lifelong but had to be renewal annually on Feb 1.
• Irish women were very strong willed back then, as they seem to be today.

After Christianity (Patrick Introduced)

• St Patrick was a Roman citizen
• Sex was still casual (compared to Roman Catholic)
• They still ran around naked a lot?  (It is not very warm up in those parts)
• There have been differences in the past between Irish Catholic and Roman Catholic.
• Women where in positions of authority in the church until the Pope put a stop to it.
• I learned about the red, green and white martyrdom (you can read the book if you want to learn about it, or cheat and use Google)
• The Irish where some of the first to send out missions to the unsaved
• Their monastic way of life was unique in the world at that time
• They liked to copy books (OOOHHH! copyright infringement)

You get this picture of a bunch of naked drunks who are making copies without consent.  Does that sound familiar?  Seriously, the Irish are heroes and I am proud to be 1/16th.

There are so many other precious gems in the book.  I would suggest you read it.  St. Patrick’s Breastplate is a very good prayer.  You should check it out.  Here is a link (What do I have to do, don’t you know how to use Google?) http://prayerfoundation.org/st_patricks_breastplate_prayer.htm