Christians of all persuasions have always loved the saints of the Celtic Church and the traditions of sanctity, learning and stewardwhip for which they stood; and the Celtic, or as it is also called, the British Church has always represented and ideal for those who have known of it, and not simply as a Golden Age of innocence and purity which, in the words of Nora Chadwick, has "never been surpassed and perhaps been equalled only by the ascetics of the eastern deserts," but also, and more importantly, as an alternative seed, "a light from the west," perhaps obscure and even alien, but nevertheless powerful and true with the kind of reality we seem to need today.