CULDEES. - Religious communities peculiar to Celtic monasticism. Their origins are little known. As a distinct institution, the C. belonged to the reform movement of the 8th century. "The most satisfactory hypothesis is that the C. were religious communities that gathered around reforming leaders... and that the method they followed was that of combining the austerity of the life of recluses or anchorites with a well-organized common life and with the close and rigorous supervision of a spiritual superior" (Kenney).
Their name, considered by some as a corruption of the Latin cultores Dei, derives from Celtic (Irish Cili Dé, Scottish Kili Dei) and means "servants of God." Adapted into Colideus, Culledens, Kelledens (English Culdee), the term is ancient, but as a specific term for a category of monks it is encountered only in the 8th century.
The best-known apostle of this reform is Maelruan (Máel-Ruain, d. 792), founder of the monastery of Tamlachta (now Tallaght, near Dublin), the main center of the movement. Among his illustrious disciples should be remembered Máel-Dithruib and, above all, Oengus (or Aengus) called "the C." From Tamlachta come the three famous documents: the Martyrology of Oengus, the Martyrology of Tallaght and the Stowe Missal.
A monastic rule is attributed to St. Maelruan, edited and translated into English by W. Reeves. It is worth noting that all the known Irish rules, although they bear the name of famous ancient saints, belong, in the redaction that has come down to us, to this period of the 8th-9th century.
At Tallaght the C. made up the entire monastic community, while elsewhere, as at Ros-eré, they formed a distinct community situated in the vicinity of the old monastic church; elsewhere still, as at Armagh, they constituted a particular group, almost a community of "strict observance" within the old, larger and decadent organization.
Their customs are known to us in part from the three Rules or ascetic directories that have come down to us in Irish: 1) the aforementioned Rule of St. Maelruan; 2) the Notes on the Customs of Tallaght, collected partly around the year 840, partly later; 3) the seventh section of the Teachings of St. Mochuta (d. 636), in verse (redaction of the 9th century).
Their program was: "to watch, to pray, to read, to work." Out of a spirit of mortification they excluded music. They had a double Lent; the great one, before Easter, and the summer one, after Pentecost. They practiced weekly confession; the confessor was called "the friend of the soul."
From Ireland the institute of the C. passed into Great Britain and Scotland (main center at St. Andrews), changing according to the countries. The Danish invasions caused the decline of the institution, which nevertheless survived until the Protestant Reformation.
It was then claimed to see in the C. an expression of all Celtic monasticism, of the primitive faith "uncorrupted by Rome." Nor have there been lacking those who, for nationalist reasons, have maintained their Scottish rather than Irish origin.
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Igino Cecchetti