HAGIOGRAPHY AND MARTYROLOGIES
calendar and martyrology; the former (selective) record
comprised the feasts of a single church or closely linked
group of churches, the latter (fuller) record included
saints commemorated throughout Christendom. The
earliest surviving record of this kind, the Depositio
Martyrumof 354 A.D., was a calendar of feasts cele-
brated in Roman churches. The earliest martyrology,
spuriously named Hieronymian after Jerome (d. c.
420), was compiled in the early seventh century, pos-
sibly at Luxeuil. Its earliest manuscript, the Martyrology
of St. Willibrord of Echternach, which dates to
shortlyafter 700, was perhaps written by an Irish
scribe. All later martyrologies are based on the nuda
nomina (bare names) of the Hieronymian lists, includ-
ing the so-called historical versions, which added bio-
graphical details. Bede (d. c.735) compiled the first
historical martyrology, and his work was augmented
in the ninth century, most notably by Ado of Vienne
and Usuard of Paris. One of the earliest copies of Bede,
the ninth-century St. Gall MS 451, reveals considerable
Irish influence. Historical and Hieronymian martyrol-
ogies continued to be copied throughout the Middle
Ages. The now standard Roman Martyrology was first
drawn up on the instructions of Gregory XIII (d. 1585).
The Irish Martyrological Tradition
The Irish tradition is taken to begin with the compila-
tion at Tallaght of two texts, one prose (Martyrology
of Tallaght), the other verse (Martyrology of Óengus).
The latter is a metrical version of the former, and both
are dateable to about 830. The prose text, an abbrevi-
ated version of the Hieronymian martyrology, contains
many features pointing to a Northumbrian provenance,
very probably in the monastery of Lindisfarne. On the
way from Northumbria to Tallaght, the martyrology
passed through Iona and Bangor, where it received its
first and second layers of Irish additions. However,
thegreater part of the Irish additions were made at
Tallaght. These include a number of clerics involved in
theCéli Démovement. Not long after its completion,
the prose martyrology appears to have been regarded
as a relic. When a new copy was made shortly after
1150, probably at Terryglass, for inclusion in the Book
of Leinster, further names were added from a copy of
the Martyrology of Ado. A copy of Ado had reached
Dublin in the early eleventh century but did not go into
circulation before 1150. Now preserved in a thirteenth-
century copy made at Christ Church, Dublin, Ado also
served as a source of the Martyrology of Gorman,
the Commentary on Óengus, and the Drummond
Martyrology, all of which date to around the beginning
of the Anglo-Norman invasion. The earliest, Gorman,
while drawing Irish saints mainly from the Martyrology
of Tallaght, otherwise made extensive use of a copy
of the Martyrology of Usuard. Other martyrologies
were compiled at this time at Lismullin near Tara
(Martyrology of Turin) and Lismore (Martyrology of
Cashel). The latter text, no longer extant, was devoted
exclusively to Irish saints. Preserved in the same late-
twelfth-century manuscript as the Martyrology of
Turin is an Irish version of the metrical Martyrology
of York.
The churches located in the English sphere of influ-
ence used copies of Usuard or Ado, usually of English
provenance, but often containing Irish feasts. A copy
of Usuard made at the Youghal Franciscan friary
shortly before 1500 is now preserved in Berlin (Staats-
bibliothek, MS Theol. Lat. Fol. 703).Following the
revival of learning in the second half of the fourteenth
century, several new copies were made inter Hibernos
(among the Irish) of the Martyrology of Óengus. The
latest native martyrology of note was that of Donegal,
which Míchéal Ó Cléirigh and at least one other col-
laborator prepared in the 1620s. It is almost exclusively
devoted to Irish saints.
Calendars
The early ninth-century Karlsruhe calendar (Landes-
bibliothek MS Cod. Aug. CLXVII) is the only surviv-
ing pre-Anglo-Norman text of this kind. Originating
in Ireland (Clonmacnoise or Glendalough), it was later
brought to Reichenau in Germany. Numerous (mostly
unedited) calendars survive from churches of the areas
under English influence, notably Dublin and Meath.
The earliest calendar of this type from a church inter
Hibernosforms part of a poem composed in the late
fourteenth century.
PÁDRAIGÓ RIAIN
References and Further Reading
Aigrain, R. L’hagiographie, ses sources, ses méthodes, son his-
toire.Paris: Bloud et Gay, 1953.
Bieler, L. “The Celtic Hagiographer.” Studia Patristica5 (1962):
243–265.
Bieler, L., ed. Four Latin Lives of St. Patrick. Dublin: Institute
for Advanced Studies, 1971.
———.The Patrician Texts in the Book of Armagh. Dublin:
Institute for Advanced Studies, 1979.
Binchy, D. A. “Patrick and his Biographers: Ancient and Modern.”
Studia Hibernica2 (1962): 7–173.
Charles-Edwards, T. M. Early Christian Ireland. Cambridge:
University Press, 2000.
Dubois, J. Les martyrologes du moyen âge latin (Latin Marty-
rologies of the Middle Ages). Turnhout: Brepols, 1978.
Hennig, J. “Studies in the Latin Texts of the Martyrology of
Tallaght, ofFélire Oengusso, and of Félire Húi Gormain.”
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy69C, no. 4 (1970):
45–112.