I was just looking at one of my favorite articles on St Oswald this morning. Tolley’s “Oswald’s Tree” is a unique article that sets Oswald’s actions and the development of his veneration within the semi-pagan times that he lived. So few people consider the pre-Christian context and what that means for conversion. Today, the word [...]
Archive for the ‘Saints’ Category
23 Mar
O’Loughlin’s Celtic Theology
Thomas O’Loughlin’s Celtic Theology: Humanity, World, and God in Early Irish Writings, Continuum, 2000.
Going through my backlog of drafts and I just realized that I never came back and finished this book review. Better late than never!
This really is quite a valuable book that dispels some common myths and gives you a real sense for [...]
18 Nov
Claiming St Hild
One of the most perplexing ‘mistakes’ in the Liber Eliensis is the claim that St Hild’s sister Hereswitha was the mother of St Æthelthryth. Bede makes it very clear that this is not the case and we know that the author of the Liber Eliensis leaned heavily on Bede. The heavenly pedigree leans on other [...]
16 May
The Sea Horse and the Whale Rider
Happy St Brendan’s Day!
While Brendan has been happily resting on the Isle of Birds during Eastertide (which ended last Sunday with Pentecost), I found an interesting little story of Brendan in, of all places, Rhygyfarch’s Life of St David. This little story seems like just the thing to get us in the mood for some [...]
20 Apr
Verse Hagiography
I’ve been thinking about devotional materials a lot lately. The history of devotional practices doesn’t seem to be very well explored for the early medieval period. There is devotional material to study but it is largely overlooked.
Verse hagiography is considered for devotional purposes, while prose hagiography is for historical or liturgical purposes. Sometimes these works [...]
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