H

HAGIOGRAPHY

AND MARTYROLOGIES

A Chronology of Irish Hagiography

Hagiography (sacred writing, Lives of saints) is divided
into two categories, one literary, the other liturgical. The
former is mainly represented by the Lives of the saints,
the latter by the records of their feasts in calendars and
martyrologies. The chronology of the production of both
categories in Ireland is erratic in character. Two marty-
rologies date to the early ninth century; four or five, to
the late twelfth; numerous copies, to the early fifteenth;
and one final record of the feasts of the Irish saints, to
the 1620s. Similarly, the four Latin Lives of the period
650 to 700—two of Patrick, one each of Brigit and
Colum Cille—were followed during the period up to
the beginning of the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169
by scarcely more than six such compositions— including
Brigit’s Vita Prima(First Life), and three vernacular
biographies of Brigit, Patrick, and Adomnán. During the
fifty or so years that followed, the bulk of the surviving
record of the Irish saints, liturgical and literary, was
composed. Then, during the fourteenth century, collec-
tions began to be made of Latin and vernacular Lives.
A final phase, mostly devoted to copying, collecting,
and publishing earlier works, began about 1580 and
continued until about 1650.
Possibly cutting across the chronological pattern out-
lined above are the so-called O’Donohue Lives, of mainly
midland saints, preserved in the fourteenth-century
Codex Salmanticensis. Dates as early as the eighth cen-
tury have been proposed for the Lives of this collection,
which would imply the existence in Ireland of collections
of Lives of local saints long before anywhere else. Judg-
ment on the age of these Lives must, therefore, be
reserved until much more work has been done on them.

Early Latin Lives

Periods of cultural tension often coincided with surges

in hagiographical activity. Late seventh-century rivalry

between the three great Irish churches, Armagh, Kildare,

and Iona, was one of the factors that led to the com-

position of Lives for Patrick, Brigit and Colum Cille

(Columba). Cogitosus’s Life of Brigit ascribed to

Kildare “supremacy over all the monasteries of the

Irish... from sea to sea.” Patrick’s two seventh-century

Lives, by Muirchú and Tírechán, attributed to the

saint triumphal journeys to the midlands and west of

Ireland, which aggrandized both Armagh and the hered-

itary ecclesiastical families to which these authors

belonged. Neither author was interested in southern

Irish churches. Only Tírechán made a token gesture

towards Munster. The Life of Colum Cille (d. 597),

composed by his successor on Iona, Adomnán (d. 704),

has been described as the most sophisticated of the

seventh-century Lives. Its concern with Iona’s influ-

ence is evident in the visits to many other churches

ascribed to Colum Cille, including Clonmacnoise and

Terryglass, where the saint was subsequently local-

ized. This Life was also designed to instruct, as when

the then ongoing Paschal Controversy caused Adomnán

to delay the date of the saint’s death to avoid a clash

with the “Easter festival of joy.”

Brigit’s Vita Primais considered by some to predate

that of Cogitosus. However, such incidental details as

mention of anchorites and serui Dei, “servants of

God,” both reflective of the Céli Démovement of the

late eighth century, point to a later date.

Early Vernacular Lives

The decline of the Céli Démovement in the early

ninth century coincided not only with a period of

intense Viking depredations but also an upsurge in