Aran may have little soil, but what it has is holy. Towards the end of the 5th century the pioneers of the great monastic movement sought out a retreat from the world here, and the fame of their sanctity and learning brought flocks of disciples. The future founders of Clonmacnoise, Kilmacduach, Iona and other great monasteries studied at St. Enda’s foundation in Ara na Naomh, Aran of the Saints. None of the extant churches goes back to this age of sanctity but there are several tiny oratories from perhaps the 8th century, while some of the later, largely Romanesque and medieval churches have a portion from that period. The monastic school of Aran flourished for several centuries and was certainly during that period a great place of pilgrimage ranking behind Jerusalem and Rome in the eyes of the Irish monks. Changes rung in the 12th century dis empowered Celtic abbots and transferred this power to bishops and clergy moving the structure of the church in Ireland away from monastic lines. The Reformation dealt the final blow to the Celtic Church with the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s by Henry 8th,, though the spirituality that underlay it remains very much alive on the islands.