After Columbanus (8th To 13th C.)
Hiberno-Scottish activity in Europe gradually declined after the death of Columbanus. There were monastic foundations in Anglo-Saxon Britain, the first in about 630 at "Cnobheresburg", an unknown place in East Anglia, possibly Burgh Castle, mentioned by Bede. Others were Malmesbury Abbey, perhaps Bosham, and Glastonbury Abbey had strong Irish links, if already in existence before they arrived. The profile of Iona declined, and from 698 until the reign of Charlemagne in the 770s, the Hiberno-Scottish efforts in the Frankish Empire were continued by the Anglo-Saxon mission. See: Germanic Christianity.
Irish monks known as Papar are said to have been present in Iceland before its settlement from 874 AD onwards by the Norse. The oldest source mentioning the existence of the Papar was written in the Íslendingabók (Book of the Icelanders), between 1122 and 1133. Such figures are also mentioned in the Icelandic Landnámabók (the Book of Settlements) which states that the Norse found Irish priests, with bells and crosiers, at Iceland at the time of their arrival. The surviving versions of Landnámabók date from the second half of the 13th century or a little later, though it has been suggested that it was composed in an early form by Ari Þorgilsson (1067–1148).
Among the Irish monks who were active in Central Europe were two particularly important theologians, Marianus Scotus and Johannes Scotus Eriugena. Legends surrounding Hiberno-Scottish foundations are recorded in a Middle High German text known as Charlemagne and the Scottish Saints (BL Harley 3971).
The rule of St. Columbanus, which was originally followed in most of these monasteries, was soon superseded by that of St. Benedict. Later Gaelic missionaries, founded Honau in Baden (about 721), Murbach in Upper Alsace (about 727), Altomünster in Upper Bavaria (about 749), while other Gaelic monks restored St. Michel in Thiérache (940), Walsort near Namur (945), and, at Cologne, the Monasteries of St. Clement (about 953), St. Martin (about 980), St. Symphorian (about 990), and St. Pantaléon (1042).
Towards the end of the 11th and in the 12th century, a number of Schottenklöster, intended for Scottish and Irish monks exclusively, sprang up in Germany. About 1072, three Scottish monks, Marianus, Iohannus, and Candidus, took up their abode at the little Church of Weih-St-Peter at Ratisbon. Their number soon increased and a larger monastery was built for them (about 1090) by Burgrave Otto of Ratisbon and his brother Henry. This became the famous Scottish Monastery of St. Jacob at Ratisbon, the mother-house of a series of other Schottenklöster. It founded the Abbeys of St. Jacob at Würzburg (about 1134), St. Aegidius at Nuremberg (1140), St. Jacob at Constance (1142), Our Blessed Lady at Vienna (1158), St. Nicolas at Memmingen (1168), Holy Cross at Eichstätt (1194), and the Priory of Kelheim (1231). These, together with the Abbey of St. Jacob at Erfurt (1036), and the Priory of Weih-St-Peter at Ratisbon formed the famous congregation of the German Schottenklöster which was erected by Innocent III in 1215, with the Abbot of St. Jacob at Ratisbon as abbot-general.
Read more about this topic: Irish Monks