Wisdom of the Celtic Saints

This is the best lives of the Celtic saints I've read. The stories are shortered down and edited down slightly yet still in the same style and language translated right from Irish and Latin. I highly recommend it.

Edward Sellner attributes his interest in Celtic spirituality to his Irish ancestry and delved into the topic while in graduate school. Since that time he has contributed a great deal to this area of spirituality, particularly the notion of companions on the spiritual journey known as soul friends. His book THE WISDOM OF THE CELTIC SAINTS is one of his contributions in this area. The book contains some factual information about Celtic Christianity which serves as an introduction to the writings of the saints themselves. Sellner includes excerpts from the writings of the better known Celtic saints such as Patrick, Brendan, Bridget, Columcille, and David of Wales, as well as some lesser known saints. It is set up like the collections of the desert fathers and mothers, and can be used for spiritual reading in a similar manner.Readers of this book will find the writings spiritually enriching, imaginative, and rather practical. It will also help readers see that this ancient form of Christian spirituality has a great deal to say to us today.

The Introduction is worth the price of the book. In the beginning of the book, the writer does a great job of introducing the reader to the Celtic way of sprituality. It is impossible to do justice to this section of the book in just a few words here. Suffice it to say that this one section of this one book is one of the best I've ever read as an overview to the way the Celtic person viewed the world and spirituality. The rest of the book is full of stories about numerous Celtic saints, and after following the great intro, was a bit of a let-down for me. Still,although I read this book three years ago, I have not forgotten how helpful this introduction was to my understanding.

Sellner, an associate professor of pastoral theology, brings historical interest and spiritual insight to his fine book on the celtic saints. The main part of _Wisdom of the Celtic Saints_ consists of excerpts from original documentary material about the lives of various celtic saints. One flaw of the book is that Sellner does not tell you which original manuscript the excerpt is from, but, knowing a little about the material, I can see that he has been wide-ranging and very thorough. Among the saints whose lives he includes are such famous beacons of the Faith as St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St. Bride; but he includes also many who are not widely known: St. Ia, St. Ethna, and more. Nineteen saints in all make up this "gallery of faith." But perhaps the most exciting part of the book is the ;material which brackets the main section. In the introduction, Sellner does one of the best jobs I have seen describing the complex, compelling, and somewhat alien celtic christian mindset. After a historical overview, he sets out for the reader seven characteristics of celtic Christian spirituality, including love of the environment, love of learning, and a peculiar attitude toward time. Each of the seven is discussed consicely yet adequately, and in such a way that the reader is invited to meditate further. This is followed by a brief discussion of stages of spoiritual kinship with Jesus and of various symbols which symbolic objects and numbers which occur frequently in the stories to follow. In the conclusion he beautifully provides one sentence for each of the saints the reader has just encountered, "mythologizing" that saint into the representative of some particular virtue or way of approaching life. For example, "Patrick's openness to letting the spiritual realm, including angels, lead him;" "Ia's placing her life in God's hands and letting go of the results." This feature hints to the reader that the holy people are not to be approached as historical relics, but as living companions and active guides on the road to fellowship with God. I recommend this book with no reservations.