It was at time from 500 to 100 BC that the Celtic languages arrived in Britain, probably introduced by small groups of migrants who became culturally dominant in their new homelands, and whose culture formed part of a great unified Celtic "empire" encompassing many different peoples all over Northern Europe. The Greeks called these people, with their organized culture and developed social structure Keltoi, the Romans called them Celtai. The most powerful people in Europe with lands stretching from Anatolia in the East to Ireland in the West, the Celts were unable to prevent intertribal warfare. Even the Celtic languages on Continental Europe eventually gave way to those stemming from Latin. In Britain for a few hundred years after the Roman victories on mainland Europe, the Celts held on to much of their customs and especially to their distinctive language which has survived today as Welsh. Along with the new languages, new religions entered Britain, particularly that of the Druids. The fierce resistance of the tribes in Wales meant that two out of the three Roman legions in Britain were stationed on the Welsh borders. Roman fortifications remain to be seen: Isca Silurium (Caerleon) with its fine ampitheatre, in Monmouthshire and Segontium, (Caernarfon), in Gwynedd. Mountainous Wales and Scotland were not as easily settled; they remained "the frontier."
When the city of Rome fell to the invading Goths under Alaric, Roman Britain, which had experienced centuries of comparative peace and prosperity, was left to its own defenses. One of the local Romano-British leaders may have been a tribal chieftain named Arthur, who put up some kind of organized resistance to the oncoming Saxon hordes from 400 to 600. Britain, abandoned by the Romans, passed into the power of the Saxons (Chronica Gallica). In the fifth century, the Celts from Cornwall invaded Armorica (Brittany). The Celts of Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall became separated from the Celts of Wales after the Battle of Deorham in about 577.
St. Illtud was a disciple of Germanus and pupil of Nennius and founded the monastery of Llantwit (Llanilltud) Major on the coast of Glamorganishire on the Bristol Channel. Illtud's successor as abbot was Dubricius, a descendant of a line of Caernarvon princes and consecrated as bishop by Germanus who had founded a prosperous community at Hentland, Hertfordshire, east of England, overseeing no fewer than nine institutions. He is represented as ordaining Saint Samson to the priesthood in 504 and espiscopate in 521. His successors were monastic administrators who led and took flight from visitation of plague in Wales, during St. David's pilgrimage to Jerusalem early in the twelfth century. It was St. Teilo's name that was made to do duty for the Norman policy in Wales. A Norman bishop of Llandaff wrote to readers of the saint, persuaded that the saint had been bishop of Llandaff and in obedience to Canterbury. But Saint Samons of Dol revived the take over of the Welsh church by linking it with those of Ireland, Cornwall, and Brittany and was a monk under st. Illtud while abbot of Ynys Byr (Caldey Island). On the invitation from some Irish monks who pay him a visit on their way back from Rome, then leaves his task for a stay in Ireland. By the middle of the century, the territory was reduced by the Anglo-Saxon conquests but still called Britannia.
Strathclyde in the sixth century saw the work of at least one eminent religious founder in the person of Kentigern (518-603). A century before Saint Columba and King Brude Macmalchon, Nechtan Morbet reigned over the Picts from his capital at Dunnichen (Dun Nechtan) near Forfar. A Pictish chronicle makes him the first of his line to adopt Christianity with no chronological orthodox possible. Cornwall and Devon forming one peninusla stretched between Wales and Brittany. Nechtan's conversion is associated with his exile as a young prince to Ireland where he is befriended by St. Brigid who was less than ten years of age at the beginning of his reign. He is said to have bestowed on St. Brigid the city of Abernethy in the presence of St. Darlugdach, Brigid's successor at Kildare who is represented as a missionary to the Picts of Scotland by an early traidtion that missionaries had come to their country from Irish monasteries.
Prince Kentigern / St. Kentigern Garthwys (abt. 528-614), was the fruit of King Owein and Princess Thaney the daughter of a king of Lothian. Thaney set adrift in a coracle which takes her to Culros on the north shore of the Forth and there St. Kentigern is norn in a wood. Under his nickname of Mungo (Dear Fellow) in Scotland, he was brought up by St. Serf in Culross (Fife); a missionary north of the Forth. Later he travelled to Strathclyde where he was ordained by an Irish missionary Bishop before continuing the work of Saint Ninian in converting the locals around Glasgow. Here he founded an Episcopal See where he lived an austere life sleeping on a bed of stone, fasting and praying while standing naked in the Clyde. He was, however, persecuted by King Morken Mwynfawr (the Wealthy), and was obliged to flee. Settling in Wales, Kentigern first stayed with St. Dewi (David) but later moved north. Despite being hounded by King Maelgwn Gwynedd, he founded a monastery on the River Elwy. At what became known as Llanelwy (St. Asaphs), he instructed St. Asaph in the ways of the Christian Church. St. Kentigern goes to preach in the region of the Cathures, Glasgow. Any Christian activity before Kentigern may have been within the sphere of the Whithorn epsicopacy with Columba. It was about two centuries after Ninian's mission and in the yeare of Columba's date in 597 that Augustine, the monk of marseilles had become prior of the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrews in Rome, sailed into the Thames estuary with forty monks and landed on the isle of Thanet under appointment of Pope Gregory the Great. Apparently Kentigern was induced by the local king, clergy, and an Irish bishop was brought in to consecrate him according to the custom of the Britons and Scots. He turned toward Wales but on his way is said to have preached through the Cumberland mountains, converting many. Another Welsh legend of late date makes him the founder of Llanelwy and its first bishop although the bishopric of St. Asaph was founded at the former place at a later date. Strathclyde was long in civil strife before the battle of Ardderyth in 573 after which King Redderch the Bountiful received the kingship at the same time, became a Christian in Ireland, toward the policy in Strathclyde.
Kentigern's success as bishop if clouded by the fact that the bishopric of Glasgow has no recorded history for some centuries after him and he his not mentioned in the lives of Columba, David, and Asaph. According to Bede, Augustine's conference with bishops and teachers of the British church dates to 602 at Agutine's Oak. Seven British bishops and numerous scholar-monks from the monastery of Bangor-is-Coed met Augustine and his associated clergy.
According to Bede, Augustine's conference with bishops and teachers of the British church dates to 602 at Agutine's Oak. Seven British bishops and numerous scholar-monks from the monastery of Bangor-is-Coed met Augustine and his associated clergy. Dinoot, the abbot of Bangor sought in advance the advoice of a recluse. Augustine invited the Britons to join with him in efforts to convert the Anglo-Saxons on the conditions that they were to adopt the Roman date of Easter and the Rome rite of baptism. Bede tells how Augustine threatened the Britons that if they refused peace with their friends, they would suffer the consequences in war with their enemies and sees in the subsequent massacre of 12,000 monks at Bangor-is-Coed. The history of an era turned on the fruitless ecclesiastical confrontation and centuries elapsed before the triumph of Augustine and Pope Gregory's plan for the church organization of Britain.
Kentigern made seven pilgrimages to Rome, before eventually being called back to Strathclyde. King Morken had been succeeded by his brother, Riderch Hael (the Generous), the great ally of Kentigern's ageing grandfather. Riderch had already been converted to Christianity and made Kentigern the first Bishop of Strathclyde. He built churches and erected crosses far and wide, including Hoddam and Borthwick, and became firm friends with Saint Columba. Kentigern died of shock after getting into a hot bath on Sunday 13th January 614. He was buried in his foundation, Glasgow Cathedral. Some say he lived to the age of 185. The heraldic arms of Glasgow display a ring and a fish, commemorating an early miracle of this British saint.