As I understand it, it wasn't the same kind of monastery as the Roman church later took under their wing. It was more like a home for single men who had devoted their lives to spreading the gospel.

Never mind, I just read the article on the Celtic Church at Wikipedia which suggests I'd read something else that they are now disputing. Maybe I'll run across the source again, but for now it seems it was all part of the early medieval development of the Roman church, or at least that is the accepted view at the moment.