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Irish Monk Beehive-Shaped Stone Huts |
(On Skellig Michael) |
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Ancient Irish Celtic Monastery This is what an Irish Monastery of the 4th - 12th Century looked like. They would also have had an Oratory. An "Oratory" was a small stone Church for reading the Gospels aloud (all 150 Psalms were memorized for use in their daily prayer: praying the hours). Many of the Oratories were only large enough to hold twelve people---the number of monks considered optimal in early Irish monasteries. Some later Monastic communities had hundreds of monks---and their families! Some of the Celtic Monasteries allowed married monks---the position of Abbot sometimes even passing from father to son.
______________________________________________________ Related Pages: _____________________________________________________ Copyright © 2004 S.G.P. All rights reserved. Photo of Skellig Michael Copyright © Irish Tourist Board.
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During
the period 1,400-900 years ago, Irish Celtic Monks assembled these
beehive-shaped stone huts on the rock island of Skellig Michael
off the western cosast of Ireland. They were built by a technique
called "drystone" architecture (no
mortar was used---yet even today these stone huts are still perfectly
water-tight!). "Skellig" means "Rock".
During the Middle Ages high places were often named for the Archangel
Michael (another example would be "Mont St.
Michel" on the French Coast). 
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