Five broadcasts on the transition from Roman Britain to Saxon England
4-The Age of the Saints
E. G. Bowen
Professor of Geography and Anthropology at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
John Morris
Lecturer in History at University College, London
C. L. Matthews amateur archaeologist
The first half of the sixth century-a period of peace, following the British victory at Badon-is one of the darkest periods of the Dark Ages, and, in south-eastern Britain, there is neither written nor archaeological evidence to tell us what was happening.
For the north-west of Britain, however, Welsh records have preserved a number of Saints' lives, which combine with the accounts of the contemporary writer Gildas to give a vivid picture of the Celtic Christianity of the period, and of the monastic saints who went from South Wales to convert Southern Ireland, Cornwall, and Btittany to a life of piety, learning, and hard work.
The evidence on which this knowledge is based is literary rather than archaeological, hut Professor Bowen shows what geography and a knowledge of personal and place names have to contribute to it. Speakers also discuss the nature of the Celtic Christianity and its possible connection with the Eastern Mediterranean.