Sacred Landscapes and the Cult of Saints in the Anglo-Norman World, 1066-1220 Volume 1 of 2
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In the Footsteps of the Holy: Sacred Landscapes and the Cult of Saints in the Anglo-Norman World, 1066-1220 Volume 1 of 2: The Text Ross T. McIntire PhD University of York Centre for Medieval Studies September 2019 Abstract: The study of sacred space and the cult of saints in the Anglo-Norman world has been primarily focused around the shrines and the great cathedrals and abbey churches that were built to contain them. Considerably less attention has been paid to the phenomenon of sacred places in the broader landscape as they relate to the promotion and veneration of a saint and his or her cult. This thesis argues that secondary cult sites and sacred landscapes were a crucial component of the cults of several major institutions, and that they can be identified and understood using a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach (including archaeology) that captures the full extent of the experience of the medieval pilgrim and the institutional agendas that shaped the sites he or she would visit. This project employs a specialized methodology and draws a set of conceptual models from the better-surviving and studied examples of sacred landscapes in Ireland. Three case studies (St Davids, the cult of St Cuthbert, and Glastonbury) have been selected for Anglo-Norman England and Wales, primarily centered around the efforts of the host foundations to establish institutional and historical continuity between their present communities and the distant past of their patrons in a time of fundamental transition from pre-Conquest ‘native’ ecclesiastical communities to those governed by reformed orders originating from the continent. This period of institutional transition can be broadly located between the year of the Conquest in 1066 to the rise of the cult of Thomas Becket in the early thirteenth century. The goal of the project is to contribute to a richer understanding of how the cult of saints was experienced and promoted, primarily through the lens of the saints’ institutional guardians and their agendas, and to deepen our appreciation of how medieval people interacted with the divine in the mundane world. 2 VOLUME 1: TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract: ................................................................................................................................................................................. 2 VOLUME 1: TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................... 3 VOLUME 2: TABLE OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ 6 Author’s Declaration: .................................................................................................................................................... 10 ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................................................................................... 11 I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 13 Key Terms ........................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Structure of the Project ................................................................................................................................................ 16 II: INTELLECTUAL CONTEXT AND LITERATURE REVIEW: LOCATING OLD SAINTS IN ANGLO- NORMAN ENGLAND The Cult of Saints ............................................................................................................................................................. 19 Anglo-Norman Hagiography: Changing Attitudes........................................................................................... 21 Decoding the Hagiographical ‘Genre’: Fictionality, Inventiones, and Miracula ................................. 24 The State of the Field: The Shrine and the Cult ................................................................................................ 31 “The Spatial Turn”: ‘Place’ and ‘Space’ in the Study of Sacred Landscapes......................................... 33 Pilgrimage ........................................................................................................................................................................... 40 Beyond the Medieval: The Role of Prehistory and Non-Western Ideas of Sacred Space ............. 43 The State of Scholarship: Sacred Spaces and the Cult of Saints ................................................................ 50 III: METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES The Oratory of St Æbbe, Coldingham ............................................................................................................... 59 Defining a ‘Sacred Landscape’ ................................................................................................................................... 62 Case Studies: Criteria for Inclusion ........................................................................................................................ 65 Advantages and Challenges to an Interdisciplinary Study of Sacred Landscapes ........................... 66 History and Hagiography ....................................................................................................................................... 68 The Contribution of Archaeology ....................................................................................................................... 69 Antiquarian Records and Maps ........................................................................................................................... 71 Personal Observation ............................................................................................................................................... 73 Analysis of Digital Data............................................................................................................................................ 74 IV: THE SACRED LANDSCAPES OF IRELAND Introduction and Methodology: Using the Irish Case Studies ................................................................... 76 ‘The Irish Model’: Dindshenchas, Praesentia, and the Organization of Sacred Space ..................... 81 Modelling Ireland’s Sacred Landscapes ............................................................................................................... 85 Glendalough: St Kevin in the Valley .................................................................................................................. 86 St Patrick’s Purgatory, Lough Derg: A Twelfth-Century Legend ......................................................... 94 Inishmurray: Pilgrimage and the Western Isles ......................................................................................... 97 Monaincha, Co. Tipperary ................................................................................................................................... 100 Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry ................................................................................................................................ 103 3 Derry and Betha Colum Cille – A Landscape of Columban Foundation ......................................... 110 Glencolumbkille: Reuse of a Prehistoric and Early Christian Landscape .................................... 113 Conclusions: Irish sacred landscapes and their broader significance ................................................ 116 V: ‘DEWISLAND’: DIFFUSED SANCTITY AROUND ST DAVIDS CATHEDRAL Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................... 118 Saints in Their Landscapes: The Welsh Pilgrimage Tradition................................................................ 119 Where is Dewisland? Geographic Uncertainties and the History of the Cult of St David ........... 126 The Agenda of Giraldus Cambrensis ................................................................................................................... 131 Dewisland: Archaeological Evidence and Dating .......................................................................................... 134 St Patrick’s Chapel, Porth Mawr ....................................................................................................................... 135 St Justinian’s Chapel, Porth Stinian ................................................................................................................ 139 St Non’s Chapel and Well ..................................................................................................................................... 141 Capel y Pistyll, Porth Clais................................................................................................................................... 144 Ynys Dewi (Ramsey Island) ................................................................................................................................. 146 Other Sites of Interest on the Peninsula ...................................................................................................... 147 St Davids Cathedral Close.................................................................................................................................... 147 Conclusion: Dewisland, in Review .......................................................................................................................