I have been re-reading Donald Meek’s excellent The Quest for Celtic Christianity, a review of which can be found on the blog here. He points out that modern ‘Celtic Christians’, in their desire to recast the early medieval Irish (and Scottish and Welsh) church in their own image, leads some of its exponents to:

…make light of, or completely avoid, those aspects of early medieval Catholic doctrine and practice which are characteristic of real Celtic Christianity. Protestant writers who wish to claim ‘Celtic Christianity’ as their model make little or no mention of the mass, the practice of penance or the widespread belief in the efficacy of relics.

Donald Meek, The Quest for Celtic Christianity, (Edinburgh, 2000), p.95.

I had this in mind while reading the poem below on the Day of Judgement, which the editor thought may date to the tenth century. The impossibly upbeat modern “Celtic church” has little time for sin, judgement and hell, yet here we have a Middle Irish reflection on these very themes. I am sure that modern ‘Celtic Christians’ would applaud the notion that the poor and humble will be exalted whilst arrogant clerics and other authority figures get their comeuppance. Sadly, our ancestors were not on message about gender equality, for ‘lewd unwomanly women’ face the wrath of heaven’s King too. Yet for all that this poem presents the realities of medieval notions of hell – complete with black demons, fire and suffering – it is balanced by a litany of petitions for deliverance. The final stanza is particularly comforting, expressing the hope that we may be wheat in the divine granary and triumph ‘in the rout of Doom’:

A Poem on the Day of Judgement

1. Doom! Not slight will be its uproar when the world will burn; it were meet, O Christ with grades [of angels], that Adam’s seed should dread it.
2. Obdurate is the human race, harder than stones are their hearts when they heed not the many vast pains.
3. When the earth will vomit forth the hosts of Adam’s vast seed, when one blaze will fill both heaven and earth.
4. When the host of hell, the tribes of earth, the multitude of saints, the nine grades of angels will meet in one gathering when each question will be solved.
5. When the Judge will pronounce righteous true judgements, awarding heaven to the chosen, increase of punishment to the evil folk.
6. The humble, lowly, devout folk with purity of heart, the despised wretches will be in the ranks of heaven’s King.
7. The red-mouthed brehons, the lewd, the sinful, the satirists, the contentious, arrogant clerics will find neither honour nor welcome.
8. The envious, the parricides, the wicked impious chiefs, the lewd unwomanly women will find death and extinction.
9. Bitter and harsh will be their repentance, they will shed tears over cheeks, the lying, the impious, the folk of every enduring sin.
10. It will be a shame, it will be a reproach to the host of the wicked, as you shall see, when all will behold the sin of each one of them.
11. After being for a long space of time in the scorching fire of Doom, they will be cast by the King of the Sun into a place of torture at last.
12. Sorry will be the outcry they will make, dreadful will be their wailings, as they part from holy angels, as they go with black demons.
13. Woe to the soul which heeds not the din of the mighty Day of Doom; worse seventy-seven times to dwell in hard avenging hell.
14. Its bitter cold, its great burning, its hunger, its dreadful thirst, its crushing, its heavy revenge, its horror, its stifling smoke, its slaying.
15. Its many fearful monsters, its groaning, its wild woeful lament, its fiery rotten sea, its vile devilish faces.
16. Woe to him who hath come into this world, woe to our body, woe to our souls to each one who is destined to dwell for ever in ruthless hell.
17. Of Thy fondness, O fond Father, of Thy gentleness, O King of Heaven, cast me not into the bitter prison in which there are many groans.
18. For the sake of each noble intercession in heaven and on earth, when Thou wilt . . . with me, deal gently with my soul!
19. For the sake of Thy cross, of Thy passion, of Thy Kingship, O Prince, come valiantly to my aid in all the sufferings of my soul.
20. For the sake of each noble intercession in heaven and on earth, I pray Thee, O Christ of my heart, that the Kingdom of Heaven may be for my soul.
21. For the sake of Thy cross, of Thy passion, protect me against all iniquity, lest, O Heavenly King, the temptations of demons or men destroy me.
22. For the sake of Thy cross, of Thy passion, come forthwith to my aid; before I go from the yellow world take from me every unrighteousness.
23. Of Thy vast mercy protect me at all times, put into my soul Thy great love, that it may be overflowing with love for Thee.
24. That I may be wheat in Thy granary on the day when the chaff is burned, that I may carry off victory and triumph yonder in the rout of Doom.

J.G. O’Keefe, ‘A Poem on the Day of Judgement’, Ériu Vol 3 (1907), 29-33.

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