Insular Christianity description:
"In the British Isles there were a distinct number of practices and traditions that made Jesus' Brythonic and Gaelic followers different to their continental contemporaries. These include a distinctive system for determining the dating of Easter; a style of monastic tonsure; a unique system of penance; and the popularity of going into "exile for Christ". The monasteries that were founded in the most wild and secluded places of the British Isles produced some of the greatest works of art ever to honour God's name and their saints went on to spread the Gospel from the Alpine slopes of St Gallen and Salzburg to the frigid isolation of the Faroe Islands and Iceland. After the Synod of Whitby or Streanœhealh in 664 these traditions began to decline as Britannia's, Hibernia's and Caledonia's Christians practiced the rites of Rome more than their own traditions. Yet their spiritualism and artwork always left a distinctive mark on the inhabitants of the British Isles."