| Monastery, erected in 1826-32. After the migration of the Irish monks, who Henry II had called to Vienna in 1150, the monastery was passed on to the Melker Benedictines. Irish and Scottish missionaries (Iro-Scottish, Hiberno-Scottish) were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England and the Frankish Empire during the 6th and 7th centuries. The Latin term Scotti refers to the Gaelic-speaking people of Ireland and the Irish who settled in western Scotland. In early medieval times Ireland was known, not only as Éire, but also as Scotia a name that the Romans used to refer to Ireland. The Romans also gave Ireland the name "Hibernia". Thus, the "Scots" missionaries who were so influential in the early Church history of Germany included men from both Ireland and Scotland in the modern sense, but were predominantly Irish.
Schottenklöster (meaning Scottish monasteries in German, singular: Schottenkloster) is the name applied to the monastic foundations of Irish and Scottish missionaries in Continental Europe, particularly to the Scottish Benedictine monasteries in Germany, which in the beginning of the 13th century were combined into one congregation whose abbot-general was the Abbot of the Scots monastery at Regensburg.
In the sixth century migrations into what is now Scotland were Ulster clans such as the Airgíalla and the Uí Néill. Among them was Colm Cille of Gartan who, with twelve companions, founded Iona in the early 7th century. Adomnán of Donegal wrote his biography in the early 8th century. As late as the 11th and early 12th century the name Scot or Scotus identified the missionary or traveller as a Gael and thus monks of Irish as well as Scottish origin were commonly both referred to under the same, at the time shared, nomenclature. |