Jill J. Anderson

A History of Women Religious in the Early Irish Church: The Hngiographica 1 Evidence by JiIl J. Anderson A Thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Toronto Jill J. Anderson 1995 National Library 8ibliothaue nationale I*l of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OttawaON KtAON4 OnawaON K1AON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pernettant i la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prster, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or elecbonic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts fkom it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent &re imprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT A History of Women Religious in the Early Irish Church: The Hagiographical Evidence Jill Jacqueline Anderson A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Graduate Department of the Centre for Religious Studies in the University of Toronto, 1995. This study explores the lives of religious women of the early Celtic Church in Ireland through the eyes of the hagiographers. Few Lives of Irish women saints remain. thus much use has been made of the numerous references to women found in the Lires of men. Other genres of Irish texts have also been consulted. While the Irish hagiographical genre cannot, except rarely. be reprded as an accurate historical record of individuals, it does, at the very least, reflect a view of the world familiar either to the writer or to their sources. It is thus through an analysis of the attitudes and assumptions of these early writers that some idea of the daily lives of holy women emerges. Although much time has been spent during this exploration upon a reconstruction of daily routine through a collation of the data available as an alluvial depository source. considerable time has also been spent examining the use of metaphor in the above genre. This has been particularly helpful in the attempt made here to shed some new light upon the spiritual life of religious women. This latter methodological approach has also been of particular benefit in determining the limits of the power and status enjoyed by these women within Irish society. In the final analysis, it is evident from the picture which emerges that these women played an important and often very active role in the life of the Church. CONTENTS Introduction Chapter I: Daily Life Chapter 11: Women and Education in the Monastic Setting Chapter 111: Status Chapter IV: Women's Spirituality and the Cult of the Eucharist Chapter V: The Ministerial Role of Women in the Early Irish Church Conclusion Bibliography I~ztrodrictiuiz While much attention has been given in recent years to the rediscovery of Celtic Christendom in all its variety. little attention has as yet been focused upon the women who were an important factor in the dissemination of Christianity in the Celtic world of the embryonic Church. This thesis has arisen as an effort to rectify this lack in some small way. Because of the variety of expression found among Christians, even ~lthindifferent Celtic groups, I have chosen to concentrate on one particular Celtic country, and while my decision to concentrate upon the women of Ireland in particular was an arbitary one. even within a closely defined group such as this diversity proves itself to often be the rule rather than the exception. However. despite the existing diversity, some attempt has been made to form a composite picture of the life of a female religious of the Church in Ireland within that period beginning with the fifth and ending with the twelfth century. It has also been my intent in this thesis to focus upon these religious women as women. and not as goddess figures surviving from paganism.' It should be remembered that these were real women living real lives? who held an important position within the society in which they lived. and who demanded and received both respect and devotion. They were at times feared, but also loved. Their lives, in many ways, were little different to those of the religious men of their time, and the power that was theirs often similar to that of the The latter is probably the more popular approach. It is evident. for example. in thc work of Pidraig 6 Riain. who claims that the story of Brigit's elevation to the rank of bishop stems from Christian attempts to come to terms with the high status enjoyed by the pagan goddess whose name she bears. Indeed 6 Riain makes further claim that Brigit never existed as a real person, and that she. instead. is a character taken by tradition directly from mythology (Padraig O'Riain. "Sainte Brigitte: paradigme de I'abbesse celtique?". in P. Rouche & J. Heuclin (eds.). La femme au moyen- lige. Meuberge: 1990. 30-31). men they came in contact with. When I speak of women of the Church, or religious women, I include all those women who chose to live a life withdrawn from the everyday affairs of the world around them, a withdrawal which most frequently appears to have led them to live within a monastic setting. While often throughout the thesis the title 'virgin' is used to describe these women who had chosen the life of poverty and chastity in imitation of Chirst,' at the same time there is a recognition that men were, at times, described as 'virginal.' ("Penitential" lb, Walker Opera. 177: Stokes. The Mnryrologv of Gomnrl Jan. 5: Moliq 4: 11). While the data in respect to these holy women has been drawn from a number of different sources, I have drawn the bulk of the evidence for the thesis from that body of material recorded by the hagiographers. In this. the edited collections of Lhvs by scholars such as C. Plummrr. W. Heist and W. Stokes, have proved more than useful. Individual editions with translations such as those of Donncha 0 hAodha. W. Stokes. L. Gwynn and K-Meyer, have also proved invaluable. The manuscripts that the above collections have drawn from are largely of the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. They are themselves copies of pre-existing manuscripts, at times known copies of copies, the originals of which were probably compiled from already existing material. In respect to the Lives of the women in particular, The title has its roots. of course. in the very early Church. See C. Tibiletti, "Virgin-virginity- velatio," EOEC 871 -72. 3 I have used a variety of editions, not least of which are those of the Bollandists. which at times reach back to seventh and eighth century sources. Although we may accuse the hagiographers of raking little interest in certain roles filled by women in society, and we may at times suspect resistance to the idea of women as molders of men, as witnessed in the tension between Ita and Erc in the Lives and the consequent weakening of Ita's role, their resistance is still a far cry from that found to the same ideas in modern scholarship. This may be pan of the reason why so little research has been done on these women when compared with that which has taken place over the years in respect to the deeds of holy men. The Latin translations throughout the following work are my own unless stated otherwise. Quotes from The Idz Peirire~rrinls are however those of the editor of that text as are Latin passases from the Beth Bee. All Irish translations have been taken from the texts cited unless stated ~the~se.Emendations may at times have been made. but these are always noted. The first attempt to describe in any detail the monastic Iife as it existed in early Ireland was made by John Ryan in his monumental work Irirlr Mo~losrickin.But Ryan, despite the enormous task he had set himself, appears to have had little interest in the doings of women. Indeed, he devoted no more than a few pages, and these immediately following upon a section titled "Less Important Foundations", to a description of their accomplishments. This trend continued in the scholarship of the following decades. However, in recent years, along with the rising interest in women's studies in zeneral, more 4 serious attempts have been made to describe the role of these women in the Church. Of particular interest in this regard is the work of Margaret MacCurtain, my only regret being that she has not proceeded further with this line of research. Other scholars who have contributed to our knowledge in this area include such authors as Dorothy Bray, Alice Cunayne, Pddraig 6 Riain and Lisa Bitel. But despite the work of these recent pioneers. a truly comprehensive picture of the lives of these women and the function they filled within the Church has not been forthcoming. and thus this work attempts to fill this need. Only a few women's Lives have survived the centuries. and every effort has been made to extract as much information from these as possible. Recourse has of course also been made to the Li~resof men and these have yielded a surprising amount of material about women.

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