Celtic monasticism, which flourished in Ireland in the fifth, sixth, and seventh century, resembled Egyptian monasticism in its rigour and mysticism: Even the Celtic cross with a circle at the centre ...

In the sixth century, an intrepid Irish monk by the name of Brendan sailed across the North Atlantic in a leather boat; landing in Newfoundland, he became the first European to find America. Or so the ...

The monastic alternative, at least in the West, has become so deeply unfashionable that most people no longer consider the possibility, but there is, at least to me, something deeply appealing about ...