The Irish temperament--individualistic, poetic, and deeply loyal to family--produced great and learned saints and a unique monastic literature before the Norman Invasion. the isolation of the island allowed the development of traditions different from those of either Britain or the continent. These graceful translations of Irish monastic rules and spiritual maxims, along with samples of Irish litanies and poetry from the early Celtic monastic world, convey the spirituality of the Isle of Saints from the sixth to eighth centuries.