Biography
Born in Northumbria, the son of an Anglo-Saxon king, he was one of the English monks at Lindisfarne who accompanied Bishop Colmán of Lindisfarne to Iona and then to Ireland. [2] This occurred after the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD. The Northumbrian King Oswy ruled in favour of the Easter date then current in the rest of the Catholic Church, i.e. against the Irish method of calculating the date for Easter. Though Colmán was an ardent supporter of the Irish traditions, he decided after the synod to go along with the Alexandrian computus, which by that time had become essentially universal in 9th century western christianity.
Gerald was among thirty Northumbrian monks who left Lindisfarne with Colmán and eventually settled in 668 on Inishbofin [island of the white cow] in what is now Galway, 8 km off the coast of Connemara in Connacht. Angles of Northumbria would have originally been influenced by teachers of Irish descent. The newcomers would have therefore experienced at first hand Irish teachings and a monastic life to which they had been formed in Lindisfarne. [3]
Upset at Inishbofin
Dissensions arose, almost immediately, between the Irish and the Northumbrian monks. The Northumbrian contingent were disgruntled by the others leaving Inishbofin for the summer to preach around the mainland, while they were left to tend to the island. This falling-out, it has been suggested, might simply have arisen from a difference between Northumbrian and Irish agricultural traditions, the latter incorporating Transhumance. Vera Orschel [4] indicates that the community might have had a mainland base for cattle, from which transhumance could have enticed drovers among the Irish monks to have absconded in the summer months. However, transhumance would not have been a practice foreign to the Northumbrians. Furthermore, it seems the break between the two groups might have occurred as early as the first year after they all arrived at Inishbofin. Perhaps a clue to the split might be that the Irish of the middle ages did indeed have a reputation for simply ‘wandering’. It was not uncommon for monks to stray from their houses in search of scholarship or missionary fields. Indeed, a 7th century Irish canon begs clergy to teach, as a priority, people of one’s own country. Apparently Irish monks often returned to their home village to preach. Arrived at Inishbofin, the Irish brethren were now closer to home and physically able to return for worthwhile intervals. In contrast, the Northumbrians would have had to content themselves with abiding by the rule of St Basil of Caesarea that agriculture was the best kind of work for monks, in that it kept them from wandering.
Mayo of the Saxons
After such early upset, Colmán decided to found a separate monastery for the thirty Northumbrian brethren. Thus arose, in 670, the "Mayo of the Saxons" [5] (Magh Eo, the yew plain), 74 km away from Inishbofin, with Gerald as the first abbot. [6]
The monastery flourished. [7] To judge merely from the size of its enclosure (traces still discernable at Mayo Abbey of diameter 400 metres), the monastery at some time in its early history must have been comparable in influence and relevance with sites like Armagh, Kildare, Glendalough, and Clonmacnoise. Mayo seems to have been considered amongst the larger monasteries in the Irish annals of the time. Under its youthful abbott, the School of Mayo gained greatly in fame for sanctity and learning, [8] sufficiently on the map for Alcuin in York and Aachen to have corresponded with its abbott and monks. [9] Emanating from Mayo as far as England and France was a ‘great light of knowledge’, according to Alcuin. [10] This suggests Mayo had developed a reputation as a monastic or cathedral school. The economic base appears to have been present to have permitted development of a good scriptorium and library. Although quite young, Gerald proved a wise pastor, and remained abbott at Mayo until 697, when, it is said, he resigned in favour of Adamnan. He, some authors hold, celebrated Easter at Mayo in 703, but afterwards left for Skreen, in Hy Fiachrach, 78 km away. Without their abbott, the monks prevailed on Gerald to resume the abbacy. [6]
Gerald is reputed to have founded the abbeys of Tempul-Gerald (or Ely-Theria) in Connaught and Teagh-na-Saxon, and a convent. Though there has been mention of Gerald's having had a sister. [11] [12] , and a brother (supposedly Balin, also a disciple of Colmán, and residing in Connaught), [13] the historic reliability of these accounts has been questioned.
Gerald continued to govern the Abbey and Diocese of Mayo until his death at an advanced age. [1] Colgan thinks Gerald did not live after 697; but the Annals of the Four Masters give the date of his death as 13 March 726, while the "Annals of Ulster" date his death to as late as 731. [14]
Responsible for the founding of the monastery at Mayo had been Colmán. He died soon after settling the Northumbrian monks with their own abbot. Mayo's rapid fame and enduring tradition as a beacon of sanctity and learning to much of Ireland owes a lot to that first abbott, Gerald.
