The Cult of Relics in Early Medieval Ireland

The Cult of Relics in Early Medieval Ireland PDF Author: Niamh Wycherley
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN: 9782503551845
Category : Christian saints
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
As the cult of saints became increasingly important to the Christian religion during the latter centuries of the Roman Empire, so too the veneration of relics became a central element of Christian piety. The relics of holy men and women--the very tangibility of which ensured their lasting appeal--could be used to heal the sick, improve the weather, ensure victory in battle, and represent power and authority. Even today, in an era of declining church attendance, famous relics such as the head of St Catherine of Siena or the tongue of St Anthony of Padua continue to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims; the need to preserve and venerate objects associated with the important and the famous is a well-established human trait. This book is the first to explore the historical roots of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland, deepening our understanding of how the pagan Irish adapted to the new religion. Examining the cult of relics from the earliest Irish sources up to the ninth century, it provides insights into the role of relics and the culture and people to whom they were so significant. The volume investigates how the Christian phenomenon of relic veneration developed in early Ireland and it evaluates the continuity between Irish practice and that on the continent. By offering a new model of how the cult of relics evolved and by exploring the extent to which it helped forge early Irish Christianity, the arguments presented here have the potential to reshape views of the entire period.

The Cult of Relics in Early Medieval Ireland

The Cult of Relics in Early Medieval Ireland PDF Author: Niamh Wycherley
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN: 9782503551845
Category : Christian saints
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
As the cult of saints became increasingly important to the Christian religion during the latter centuries of the Roman Empire, so too the veneration of relics became a central element of Christian piety. The relics of holy men and women--the very tangibility of which ensured their lasting appeal--could be used to heal the sick, improve the weather, ensure victory in battle, and represent power and authority. Even today, in an era of declining church attendance, famous relics such as the head of St Catherine of Siena or the tongue of St Anthony of Padua continue to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims; the need to preserve and venerate objects associated with the important and the famous is a well-established human trait. This book is the first to explore the historical roots of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland, deepening our understanding of how the pagan Irish adapted to the new religion. Examining the cult of relics from the earliest Irish sources up to the ninth century, it provides insights into the role of relics and the culture and people to whom they were so significant. The volume investigates how the Christian phenomenon of relic veneration developed in early Ireland and it evaluates the continuity between Irish practice and that on the continent. By offering a new model of how the cult of relics evolved and by exploring the extent to which it helped forge early Irish Christianity, the arguments presented here have the potential to reshape views of the entire period.

Irish Shrines & Reliquaries of the Middle Ages

Irish Shrines & Reliquaries of the Middle Ages PDF Author: Raghnall Ó Floinn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
In today's world it is difficult to imagine the power that relics, shrines and sacred images exerted over the medieval mind. The use of relics in Ireland dates to the introduction of Christianity, the earliest recorded being those of the early martyrs and saints. Some relics consisted of parts of the remains of certain 'holy' individuals, while others were objects used by or associated with these people during their lifetime. They were usually kept in specially made reliquaries or shrines, most of which could be carried about. Apart from their symbolic or devotional function, relics were used to effect miraculous cures, to swear oaths, as battle talismans, or were carried on circuit by clerics to promulgate the laws of a particular religious foundation. In this book Raghnall O'Floinn examines the remarkable collection of reliquaries and shrines in the National Museum of Ireland, many of which have survived centuries of destruction and damage, warfare and neglect. He traces the history of relics in Ireland, the traditions associated with them and their social and historical importance.

Making the Medieval Relevant

Making the Medieval Relevant PDF Author: Chris Jones
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110546485
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
When scholars discuss the medieval past, the temptation is to become immersed there, to deepen our appreciation of the nuances of the medieval sources through debate about their meaning. But the past informs the present in a myriad of ways and medievalists can, and should, use their research to address the concerns and interests of contemporary society. This volume presents a number of carefully commissioned essays that demonstrate the fertility and originality of recent work in Medieval Studies. Above all, they have been selected for relevance. Most contributors are in the earlier stages of their careers and their approaches clearly reflect how interdisciplinary methodologies applied to Medieval Studies have potential repercussions and value far beyond the boundaries of the Middles Ages. These chapters are powerful demonstrations of the value of medieval research to our own times, both in terms of providing answers to some of the specific questions facing humanity today and in terms of much broader considerations. Taken together, the research presented here also provides readers with confidence in the fact that Medieval Studies cannot be neglected without a great loss to the understanding of what it means to be human.

The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland

The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland PDF Author: Nancy Edwards
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135951497
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
In the first major work on the subject for over 30 years, Nancy Edwards provides a critical survey of the archaeological evidence in Ireland (c. 400-1200), introducing material from many recently discovered sites as well as reassessing the importance of earlier excavations. Beginning with an assessment of Roman influence, Dr Edwards then discusses the themse of settlement, food and farming, craft and technology, the church and art, concluding with an appraisal of the Viking impact. The archaeological evidence for the period is also particularly rich and wide-ranging and our knowledge is expanding repidly in the light of modern techniques of survey and excavation.

Sacral Geographies

Sacral Geographies PDF Author: Karen Eileen Overbey
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN: 9782503527673
Category : Art, Medieval
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Sacral Geographies explores the spatiality of reliquaries in early Ireland, and the intersections of devotional loca sancta with the territories of secular kingship, with the hierarchies of medieval monastic enclosures, and with modern, institutional spaces of knowledge. --Book Jacket.

Churches in Early Medieval Ireland

Churches in Early Medieval Ireland PDF Author: Tomás Ó Carragáin
Publisher: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
ISBN:
Category : Architecture and society
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
This is the first book devoted to churches in Ireland dating from the arrival of Christianity in the fifth century to the early stages of the Romanesque around 1100, including those built to house treasures of the golden age of Irish art, such as the Book of Kells and the Ardagh chalice. � Carrag�in's comprehensive survey of the surviving examples forms the basis for a far-reaching analysis of why these buildings looked as they did, and what they meant in the context of early Irish society. � Carrag�in also identifies a clear political and ideological context for the first Romanesque churches in Ireland and shows that, to a considerable extent, the Irish Romanesque represents the perpetuation of a long-established architectural tradition.

Medieval Irish Architecture and the Concept of Romanesque

Medieval Irish Architecture and the Concept of Romanesque PDF Author: Tadhg O’Keeffe
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003850677
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
This book presents a fresh perspective on eleventh- and twelfth-century Irish architecture, and a critical assessment of the value of describing it, and indeed contemporary European architecture in general, as “Romanesque”. Medieval Irish Architecture and the Concept of Romanesque is a new and original study of medieval architectural culture in Ireland. The book’s central premise is that the concept of a “Romanesque” style in eleventh- and twelfth-century architecture across Western Europe, including Ireland, is problematic, and that the analysis of building traditions of that period is not well served by the assumption that there was a common style. Detailed discussion of important buildings in Ireland, a place marginalised within the “Romanesque” model, reveals the Irish evidence to be intrinsically interesting to students of medieval European architecture, for it is evidence which illuminates how architectural traditions of the Middle Ages were shaped by balancing native and imported needs and aesthetics, often without reference to Romanitas. This book is for specialists and students in the fields of Romanesque, medieval archaeology, medieval architectural history, and medieval Irish studies.

Life in Early Medieval Wales

Life in Early Medieval Wales PDF Author: Nancy Edwards
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192888382
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
Research for and the writing of this book was funded by the award of a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship. The period c. AD300—1050, spanning the collapse of Roman rule to the coming of the Normans, was formative in the development of Wales. Life in Early Medieval Wales considers how people lived in late Roman and early medieval Wales, and how their lives and communities changed over the course of this period. It uses a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on the growing body of archaeological evidence set alongside the early medieval written sources together with place-names and personal names. It begins by analysing earlier research and the range of sources, the significance of the environment and climate change, and ways of calculating time. Discussion of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries focuses on the disintegration of the Roman market economy, fragmentation of power, and the emergence of new kingdoms and elites alongside evidence for changing identities, as well as important threads of continuity, notably Latin literacy, Christianity, and the continuation of small-scale farming communities. Early medieval Wales was an entirely rural society. Analysis of the settlement archaeology includes key sites such as hillforts, including Dinas Powys, the royal crannog at Llangorse, and the Viking Age and earlier estate centre at Llanbedrgoch alongside the development, from the seventh century onwards, of new farming and other rural settlements. Consideration is given to changes in the mixed farming economy reflecting climate deterioration and a need for food security, as well as craft working and the roles of exchange, display, and trade reflecting changing outside contacts. At the same time cemeteries and inscribed stones, stone sculpture and early church sites chart the course of conversion to Christianity, the rise of monasticism, and the increasing power of the Church. Finally, discussion of power and authority analyses emerging evidence for sites of assembly, the rise of Mercia, and increasing English infiltration, together with the significance of Offa's and Wat's Dykes, and the Viking impact. Throughout the evidence is placed within a wider context enabling comparison with other parts of Britain and Ireland and, where appropriate, with other parts of Europe to see broader trends, including the impacts of climate, economic, and religious change.

Early Medieval Stone Monuments

Early Medieval Stone Monuments PDF Author: Howard Williams
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1783270748
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
New insights into inscribed and stone monuments from across Europe in the early middle ages.

Holy Bones, Holy Dust

Holy Bones, Holy Dust PDF Author: Charles Freeman
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300166591
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Relics were everywhere in medieval society. Saintly morsels such as bones, hair, teeth, blood, milk, and clothes, and items like the Crown of Thorns, coveted by Louis IX of France, were thought to bring the believer closer to the saint, who might intercede with God on his or her behalf. In the first comprehensive history in English of the rise of relic cults, Charles Freeman takes readers on a vivid, fast-paced journey from Constantinople to the northern Isles of Scotland over the course of a millennium.In "Holy Bones, Holy Dust," Freeman illustrates that the pervasiveness and variety of relics answered very specific needs of ordinary people across a darkened Europe under threat of political upheavals, disease, and hellfire. But relics were not only venerated--they were traded, collected, lost, stolen, duplicated, and destroyed. They were bargaining chips, good business and good propaganda, politically appropriated across Europe, and even used to wield military power. Freeman examines an expansive array of relics, showing how the mania for these objects deepens our understanding of the medieval world and why these relics continue to capture our imagination.