Soon after Christianity arrived in Ireland, many Middle Eastern monks and anchorites, fleeing the barbarian hordes, headed to Ireland. These learned ascetics, from Armenia, Syria, and the Egyptian desert, brought with them a great number of books on
religion and about general knowledge.

Soon after Christianity arrived in Ireland, many Middle Eastern monks and anchorites, fleeing the barbarian hordes, headed to Ireland. These learned ascetics, from Armenia, Syria, and the Egyptian desert, brought with them a great number of books on
religion and about general knowledge.