Skelleg Michael

 
     I 'discovered' the rocky island Skellig Michael in Chet Raymo's heartrending book In the Falcon's Claw: A Novel of the Year 1000. The 'hero' of the story is an Irish monk, Aileran, who, after years of conflict within himself and after years of conflict between himself and the church, as well, over matters that pitted the supernatural against the natural, was accused of heresy. Aileran was, fictionally, possibly the first exponent for an Enlightenment in Europe; but, in the years 998, 999, and 1000, Europe and the then all-powerful Church of Rome had no intention at all of an "enlightenment." (An Earthquake or even a common bolt of lightening had to be occurrences created supernaturally by God and could not be attributed to Nature itself.) And so, Aileran found himself 'banished' to the monastery on Skellig Michael—7 miles off the stormy western coast of Ireland. And there, for three years, he endured the cold and the loneliness of his stone cell and sought God in the special way, the natural way, those in monasteries seek God.