Skip to main content

IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 805: Converting the Isles, IV: Medieval Irish Hagiography as a Source

Tuesday 2 July 2013, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Leverhulme Trust Network 'Converting the Isles'
Organiser:Brittany Schorn, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Paper 805-aHagiographical Perceptions and Narratives of Conversion in Ireland during the Central Medieval Period
(Language: English)
Sarah Waidler, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Celtic
Paper 805-bRepresentations of Male and Female Conversion in the Earliest Irish Saints' Lives
(Language: English)
Helen Oxenham, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Celtic
Paper 805-cThe Contrasting Agency of the Female Saint in Conversion Vignettes: Íte in Apposition to Monenna
(Language: English)
Julianne Pigott, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Celtic
Abstract

This session will focus specifically on medieval Irish hagiography as a source. Sarah Waidler will examine how later hagiographers portrayed the conversion process of specific peoples in relation to the wider aims of their texts, looking at the lives of Declán of Ardmore and Senán of Inis Cathaig. Helen Oxenham will explore representations of conversions in the earliest Irish saints' Lives, with a particular focus on the different ways in which men and women are represented as having been converted and converted others. Julianne Pigott will use Vita Sanctae Íte and Conchubranus' Vita Sanctae Monennae to consider how characterisations of female sanctity, associated with conversion narratives, were designed to inform the audience's reading of socially appropriate manifestations of female power and authority.