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Celtic Footsteps across Germany- the Undarkening Ages


A Scottish Abbey in Austria? Irish and the undarkening of the Dark Ages?


Everything ties together, one way or another. Let’s walk from Ireland to Austria, with Celtic footsteps across Germany.

While the Romans never conquered Ireland by sword, St. Patrick, son of Roman Britain, did with his golden tongue. He brought Christianity, literacy and connection to Mediterranean civilization with the Emerald Isle. And the Irish missionaries of the Dark Ages repaid the favor to Europe, relighting the lights lost with Rome’s fall.


Let’s work our way from those Dark Ages to Renaissance Germany.


The Roman Empire lost western Europe in the 400’s and 500’s AD, shrinking into the east Mediterranean Byzantine Empire and ushering in centuries of the Dark ages. Mighty Rome shriveled from a population of over a million, a world city, to a meager 10,000 inhabitants huddled amid ruins.