HAGIOGRAPHY AND MARTYROLOGIES
hagiographical activity. Between about 850 and 950,
three vernacular Lives were written—of Brigit,
Patrick, and Adomnán—on behalf of Ireland’s princi-
pal churches, Kildare, Armagh, and Iona’s successor,
Kells. The earliest, Bethu Brigte(Life of Brigit),
assigned to its saint (who was the abbess of Kildare)
a unique status equal to that of a bishop. The Tripartite
Life composed for Patrick before 900 expanded greatly
the itinerary attributed to the saint in his earlier Lives,
especially with regard to Munster, where Armagh’s
influence had increased. Betha Adamnáin (Life of
Adomnán) commented on church-state relations in the
midlands about 950, from the point of view of the
Columban authorities in Kells.
A date in the late eleventh century is indicated for the
second vernacular Life of Brigit, the so-called Middle-
Irish Life, by the presence of extracts in the manu-
scripts containing a Liber Hymnorum(Book of Hymns),
which date to about 1100. While the Middle-Irish Life
of Patrick may belong in the same period, that of
Colum Cille has been dated to the late twelfth century.
Twelfth-Century Lives
Ireland witnessed a major ecclesiastical reorganiza-
tion in the early twelfth century. However, despite its
root-and-branch nature, during its first fifty or so years
this reorganization failed to stimulate hagiographical
activity. Neither Life nor calendar nor martyrology is
preserved in the great manuscripts of the period 1050
to 1150, notably Lebor na hUidreand the Book of
Glendalough.
Paradoxically, Irish hagiography was then being com-
piled abroad, at Lagny, near Paris, where a Life of Fursa
was prefaced with an account of his upbringing in
Ireland, based on oral witness, and at Clairvaux, where
Bernard drew on information from the saint’s compan-
ions to write a Life of Malachy. In England, a Life of
Brigit was written by Laurence of Durham in the 1140s,
and Geoffrey wrote a Life of Modwenna (Moninne) in
the early twelfth century at Burton-on-Trent.
In Ireland, the turning point came in the 1160s,
against the background of the Anglo-Norman invasion
and the ensuing collision of cultural traditions. These
events spawned numerous saints’ Lives in Latin, the
only language shared by Irish and Anglo-Normans.
The early-thirteenth-century Life of Abbán, which
used an English church (Abingdon) to make its point,
was clearly directed at an English audience.
Collections of Saints’ Lives
The earliest known collection of Irish saints’ Lives was
made at Regensburg (Germany) in the late twelfth
century for inclusion in the Great Austrian Legendary,
now preserved in various Austrian libraries (hence the
name). Later, as the revival in learning reached Ireland
from the Continent in the course of the fourteenth
century, collections of saints’ Lives commenced. The
Codex Salmanticensis, which was possibly compiled at
Clogher (Tyrone) in the early to mid-fourteenth century,
was followed by collections made for houses of Aus-
tin canons on Saints’ Island, Westmeath (Rawlinson
B 485), shortly before 1400; and Abbeyderg, Long-
ford (Rawlinson B 505), shortly after. Two Franciscan
collections were made during the fifteenth century, one
probably at Kilkenny (Marsh’s Library MS Z 3. 1. 5.),
the other (Trinity College MS 175) in south Leinster.
The late fourteenth century also witnessed the pro-
duction of some vernacular Lives, notably in south
Munster and Connacht. The Lives of Molaga and
Finnchú of northeast Cork, and Lasair of Kilronan
(Roscommon), probably date to this period. Collections
of vernacular Lives are extant from the mid-fifteenth
century. In the early sixteenth century, vernacular Lives
were composed in northwest Ulster, including Manus
O’Donnell’s well-known Life of Colum Cille.Hagiography in the Period 1580–1650
A new interest in Irish saints’ Lives began with the
publication at Antwerp in 1587 of De vita S. Patricii
Hyberniae(On the Life of St. Patrick of Ireland) by
Richard Stanyhurst. This new phase was distinctive in
many ways, most notably through the role played by
the mainly Jesuit and Franciscan Irish colleges on the
Continent. The Franciscan scheme for the publication
of Ireland’s ecclesiastical remains, which was based
in St. Antony’s College, Louvain, involved such out-
standing scholars as John Colgan, Míchéal Ó Cléirigh,
and the Jesuit Stephen White. The scheme ensured the
survival of numerous texts that would otherwise have
perished. On the other hand, the survival of the main
collections of Latin Lives was due to the endeavors of
such Anglo-Irish scholars as Archbishop James Ussher
and Sir James Ware. Despite the fact that much of this
activity was directed towards the compilation of new
histories of regional or national Christianity, and the
illumination of the great religious disputes of the day,
both groups occasionally exchanged materials.The Liturgical Tradition
Since celebration of the saint’s feast-day necessarily
dates to soon after the subject’s death, liturgical writ-
ings concerning feast-days are often regarded as the
more authentically historic of the two strands of
hagiography. Two types of written record were involved,