IMC 2014: Sessions
Session 637: Converting the Isles, IV: The Eucharist, the Key to the Kingdom?
Tuesday 8 July 2014, 11.15-12.45
| Sponsor: | Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge |
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| Organiser: | Julianne Pigott, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge |
| Moderator/Chair: | Ilona Tuomi, Department of Early & Medieval Irish, University College Cork / University of Helsinki |
| Paper 637-a | Eucharistic Blood in the Passion of Blathmac (Language: English) Index terms: Biblical Studies, Language and Literature - Celtic, Mentalities, Religious Life |
| Paper 637-b | Cumann Comnae: Constructing Christian Identity in the Bethada of the Book of Lismore (Language: English) Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Celtic, Mentalities, Theology |
| Paper 637-c | Comparing Eucharistic Miracles and Eucharistic Thinkers (Language: English) Index terms: Hagiography, Language and Literature - Latin, Liturgy, Theology |
| Abstract | Medieval Christian eschatological thought emphasised the pre-eminence of the celestial kingdom over temporal empire, with the faithful and their authors required to demonstrate orthodox belief and behaviour. As the axiomatic sacramental experience of Christianity, the Eucharist exercised the attentions of authors across genre demarcations. This session explores the distinctive and differentiated treatment of the Eucharistic sacrament in a selection of texts which traverse both linguistic barriers and the periodization of the medieval age. The first paper interrogates the Marian influenced depiction of the Passion in the 8th century poems of Blathmac and how this topos may be interpreted. The second considers the role of Eucharistic depictions, in Irish vernacular hagiographies of the 11th and 12th centuries, in developing local identities. The final paper compares two 13th century writers, Caesarius of Heisterbach and Thomas Aquinas, and their disparate sacramental theologies. |