EWTN Monastic Series

I have been watching the new EWTN series, “The Major Religious Orders of Men.” I just finished watching the second episode — still on Eastern monasticism and its effect on Europe.

I admire the series and actually it is the only thing I am watching, I just let it play and replay. About the fourth time through something caught my attention. In the description of Ireland (you know — it’s that island far north and really west that was never formally colonized by Rome), Father Connor said that at the same time as the earliest Christians in Ireland, there also developed a monastic tradition. That early Irish monastic tradition came from — drum roll — the East, like Egypt, or what is modern day Turkey, or perhaps Syria. That's a long way away in my view and it seems odd that Ireland's earliest Christian traditions were influenced so strongly by the Eastern monastic traditions.

The next times for the show on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) are:

US Eastern Time:

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009 at 4:00 am
Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 at 4:00 am