Isle of the Saints: Monastic Settlement and Christian Community in Early Ireland.

Isle of the Saints: Monastic Settlement and Christian Community in Early Ireland. In recent years we have been offered a number of books on EarlyChristian Ireland (lato sensu, post-400, up to the Anglo-Norman period),mainly by archaeologists, all of whom have perforce per��force?adv.By necessity; by force of circumstance.[Middle English par force, from Old French : par, by (from Latin per; see per) + force, force referred to theliterary as well as material evidence. Old Irish secular literature,which tells us surprisingly little about Christianity, remains theprovince of linguists and advanced textual critics, a quarry whereinarchaeologists can and do commit frightful, gullible errors. TheChristian literature (in Irish and Latin) is important in half-a-dozenways but for archaeologists and historians, seeking anything like afactual narrative, Lives of the Saints form their principal target.Presentation will range from straightforward reliable texts, mostlyLatin, with translations -- some of which one has to call'translations' -- up to a very few analytical discussions ofthis whole class of evidence, like Richard Sharpe's (1991)magisterial Medieval Irish saints' lives (fascinating but hardlybedside reading).Professor Bitel opens with a single question: why did the Christiansof early Ireland support a class of religious professionals devoted tothe veneration of dead holy men and women? The mere fact that nobodyseems previously to have asked this -- and it is akin to other querieslike 'Why did pre-1950s Tibet support about a quarter of itspopulation mainly to engage in prayer and book-copying' -shouldalert us to the, so welcome, presence of a fresh and critical mind;those who read any part of her book in draft form knew this in advance.Bitel defines her field as AD 800-1200, the span within which most ofthe saints' Lives were written and circulated (there are a fewearlier ones), and having set the scene in a compact Introduction,forges ahead into eight chapters and a brief Epilogue. There is a goodbibliography up to c. 1986 -- some important additions could be made --and a minimal but sensible choice of maps and figures.I find it very hard to categorise a work, one that I have muchenjoyed reading, and shall re-read often. Bitel's prose style is adelight; short, clear sentences, phrase after phrase containing originalideas, total absence of jargon or the turgid turgid/tur��gid/ (ter��jid) swollen and congested. tur��gidadj.Swollen or distended, as from a fluid; bloated; tumid.turgidswollen and congested. obscurities that frequentlymar those 'instant theses' rushed into print, and discreetin-text references that support her mass of specific and factualstatements. Her book appears to have grown from two standpoints,implicit rather than long-windedly expounded. The investigation is oneof social anthropology, aided by religious phenomenology phenomenology,modern school of philosophy founded by Edmund Husserl. Its influence extended throughout Europe and was particularly important to the early development of existentialism. (cf. p. xi forBitel's own brief statement as to this). The material is first andforemost what was written by contemporaries, near-contemporaries orsubsequent devotees about Bitel's 'religiousprofessionals'; the corpus of 800-1200 vitae, with some minoradditions.Historiographical debate as to what extent the content of the Lives,which were never primarily intended as plain narrative history, can beused as historical sources is unending. Yet we cannot possibly ignorethem and the only comparable recent analysis, Professor WendyDavies' (her Wales in the early middle ages The history of Wales in the early Middle Ages is sketchy, as there is very little written history from the period. Nonetheless, some information may be gleaned from archaeological evidence and what little written history does exist. , 1982, especially atpp. 198-218), has shown what can be done with even a cautious andminimalist enquiry. Bitel takes the view, I imagine, that overall --this is the key word -- the picture of Irish society, institutions,physical remains and material culture extractable from the Lives is atrue picture. She is absolutely right, even though post-processualistswould be rendered mad with rage at being invited to go along with this.Of course it has always been known that plagiarism Using ideas, plots, text and other intellectual property developed by someone else while claiming it is your original work. ('imitation' would be kinder) is rampant throughout theseChristian quasi-biographies. The 11th-century author of a life of StPetroc, like almost all his fellows, had in front of him that oldstandby, the David Copperfield of the 400s, Sulpicius Severus' lifeof St Martin. Of course we need not believe that Petroc ever built awooden hut (ipse habebat cellulam ex lignis contextam) just becauseMartin of Tours Mar��tin of Tours? , Saint a.d.316?-397?.French prelate considered the patron saint of France. did, centuries beforehand (ipse ex lignis contextamcellulam habebat). Writers knew, and in Latin must have thought in,Biblical passages. But when Bede wrote, accurately, that Cuthbert'sGreat Farne hermitage -- a model among hermitages -- held several domuswithin one mansio, he did so because he knew no other specific term likeOld Irish cell for such an establishment, regardless that Bede must havebeen thinking of John 14.2 (in domo patris mei mansiones multae sunt).Lisa Bitel over-rides this because she has the competence andconfidence to do so. Post-Roman archaeologists will applaud chapters 1& 2 (Monastic Settlement, The Monastic Enclosure) because Bitel nowbids fair to replace the evidential ev��i��den��tial?adj. LawOf, providing, or constituting evidence: evidential material.ev primacy of the air-visible,ground-visible enclosure (bank, ditch, vallum, termon or whatever) withconstructs of sacred space, 'inherently holy and protective'(p. 12), or what we can call a mental enclosure having physicalcharacteristics. She offers the logical outcome, in advance, to whichfield studies of these myriad religious remains have been rathercautiously moving. Chapters 3 to 8 take us into society, the Irishsociety that found itself for so long a period supporting -- in certainrespects, agreeing to domination by -- what amounted to a religiousworld within the everyday secular one. The monastic familia This article is about the Polish political party. For other uses, see Familia (disambiguation). Familia ("The Family," from the Romain familia , clientshipand labour, holy persons within the secular order, proto-medicalarrangements, 'The Politics of Hospitality' and exile andpilgrimage are all discussed, the Irish law-codes being whereappropriate adduced. Percipient readers will at more than one stage bereminded of Le Roy Ladurie's An archaeology of Montaillou: frombody language to myth (part 2 of his Montaillou, 1975). I rather suspectthat, for Insular protohistory pro��to��his��to��ry?n.The study of a culture just before the time of its earliest recorded history.pro , this -- not the nihilistic ni��hil��ism?n.1. Philosophya. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence.b. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.2. navel-gazingsof some contemporary theoreticians -- is the way forward.Bitel has left herself plenty of scope for future work. There arestill some weighty challenges. We tend to write (certainly, I have done)in the most general and woolly fashion about how all this began; no-onehas yet really managed to preciser the actual introduction of monasticChristianity in Ireland or in Britain (south Wales), first succeeding indefining 'monasticism' here. The outside world accepts, as theIrish themselves do, that Christianity took idiosyncratic id��i��o��syn��cra��sy?n. pl. id��i��o��syn��cra��sies1. A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.2. A physiological or temperamental peculiarity.3. forms withinearly Irish society. Why? Are there sociological answers? Bitel'schronicle of a developed, post-800, stage lays the questions on thetable in a pronounced form.The book was first published in 1990 at Cornell, and I do not knowwhy it failed to impinge upon Irish, British and wider readership. CorkUniversity Press Cork University Press is a publisher located in Cork, Ireland that was founded in 1925. They publish under their own imprint and two others: Attic (which specializes in women's studies) and Atrium. External linksCork University Press is to be congratulated on issuing a sound andattractive paperback at a most reasonable price. I should expect Isle ofthe saints to figure now in all university reading-lists, not just thoseof departments teaching some post-Roman option. Medieval historians havelacked this fresh, compelling aid to a difficult topic. A secondimpression with some up-dating (e.g. Thomas Charles-Edwards' (1993)Early Irish and Welsh kinship) would be helpful to new specialists, butthe text itself holds a decade's worth of pointers to advances.CHARLES THOMASReferencesCHARLES-EDWARDS, T. 1993. Early Irish and Welsh kinship. Oxford:Clarendon Press.DAVIES, W. 1982. Wales in the early middle ages. Leicester: LeicesterUniversity Press.LE ROY LADURIE, E. 1975. Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in aFrench village 1294-1324. English translation. London: Scolar Press.SHARPE, R. 1991. Medieval Irish saint's lives. Oxford: ClarendonPress.