Saint Patrick (born 385) dies. He provides the spirit for Irish monasticism. Patrick, kidnapped by pirates at a young age and sold into slavery in Ireland, converts to Christianity. The Irish spirit has nothing of Benedictine moderation. Favored by the rigors of the North, it competes with the extravagances of Eastern asceticism. Prayer, manual labor, and study are complemented by fasting and ascetic practices such as the crosfigill (prayer prolonged for days or even years with the arms crossed), bathing in a frozen pond or stream while reciting psalms, and deprivation of food (meat was banned).
